[{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org\/","@type":"BlogPosting","@id":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/2020\/10\/19\/how-hr-tech-can-improve-workplace-diversity-and-inclusion\/#BlogPosting","mainEntityOfPage":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/2020\/10\/19\/how-hr-tech-can-improve-workplace-diversity-and-inclusion\/","headline":"HXM: How HR tech can improve workplace diversity and inclusion","name":"HXM: How HR tech can improve workplace diversity and inclusion","description":"Learn how HR tech can improve workplace diversity and inclusion when paired with a strong corporate strategy based on equality.","datePublished":"2020-10-19","dateModified":"2022-12-21","author":{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/contributor\/laurie-ruettimann\/#Person","name":"Laurie Ruettimann","url":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/contributor\/laurie-ruettimann\/","identifier":460,"image":{"@type":"ImageObject","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/29057434eb12993625044c37714336f1f5e443ad81a89fa02d764ed13ec90c14?s=96&d=mm&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/29057434eb12993625044c37714336f1f5e443ad81a89fa02d764ed13ec90c14?s=96&d=mm&r=g","height":96,"width":96}},"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"The Future of Commerce","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","@id":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/logo-foc-schema-app-1.png","url":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/logo-foc-schema-app-1.png","width":172,"height":60}},"image":{"@type":"ImageObject","@id":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/How-HR-tech-can-improve-workplace-diversity.jpg","url":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/How-HR-tech-can-improve-workplace-diversity.jpg","height":375,"width":1200},"url":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/2020\/10\/19\/how-hr-tech-can-improve-workplace-diversity-and-inclusion\/","about":[{"@type":"Thing","@id":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/customer-experience\/","name":"Customer Experience","sameAs":["https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Customer_experience","http:\/\/www.wikidata.org\/entity\/Q984142"]},{"@type":"Thing","@id":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/purpose\/diversity\/","name":"Diversity and Inclusion","sameAs":["https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Diversity,_equity,_and_inclusion"]},{"@type":"Thing","@id":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/customer-experience\/employee-engagement\/","name":"Employee Engagement","sameAs":["https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Employee_engagement","http:\/\/www.wikidata.org\/entity\/Q14937678"]},"HXM: Human Experience Management","Inclusion & Diversity",{"@type":"Thing","@id":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/commerce\/intelligent-enterprise\/","name":"Intelligent Enterprise","sameAs":["https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Intelligent_enterprise","http:\/\/www.wikidata.org\/entity\/Q6044119"]}],"wordCount":1323,"articleBody":"The murder of George Floyd earlier in 2020 prompted many organizations to declare the importance of black lives to their operations. CEOs and their executive peers pledged a renewed commitment to diversity, inclusion, equity, and belonging. And many seasoned HR professionals asked themselves \u2013 again \u2013 how to hold their corporate leaders and employers accountable to these commitments.I know that eliminating systemic racism is not simple or easy. But HR professionals can have a greater impact than most, because we have the power to shape our work environments, and therefore the employee experience.When we apply both the right diversity strategies and modern human experience management (HXM) solutions to the challenge, we can catalyze change.HR tech can improve workplace diversity and inclusion, but it must be part of an overall corporate strategyBut let me be clear: Designing a diversity strategy simply as a compassionate or benevolent exercise is not enough. \u201cYour strategy has to address how diversity makes your organization better,\u201d advises Katie Augsburger, an employee experience strategist and founding partner of Future Work Design.\u201cAsk yourself, \u2018what is at stake for us if we don\u2019t get this right?\u2019 When you bake diversity into your strategy this way, it becomes a lever that differentiates your company, making it stronger and more successful. That will help you keep the momentum even when the news cycle changes.\u201dMaintaining interest in this complex problem is challenging.\u201cI\u2019ve heard some CEOs say, \u2018We\u2019ve talked about race enough.’I\u2019m sorry to disappoint you, but you can\u2019t solve all systemic racism problems in a 60-minute Zoom call,” says Minda Harts, Founder and CEO of The Memo, LLC, and Adjunct Assistant Professor at NYU.“It has to be baked into your strategy. And we have to dismantle some of the previous systems to make sure diversity is part of every business case going forward. When it\u2019s there, it\u2019s embedded in everything we do \u2013 and the metrics bear that out.\u201dHR tech can improve workplace diversity and inclusion by helping professionals hold people accountable to the company\u2019s diversity goals. I\u2019ve heard of companies using sentiment analysis solutions, for example, to capture employee feedback from communications efforts like town halls.\u201cHXM tools can help you track employee perspectives and moods before and after the event, which helps you understand how your message is resonating as a whole,\u201d explains Lars Schmidt, founder of Amplify and cofounder of HR Open Source. \u201cBut you can also segment the feedback and see how it is received by underrepresented groups. The response may not be the same.\u201dThis was one of the subjects recently discussed as part of our LinkedIn Live series, The Rise of HXM. This week we discussed HXM, and what putting people at the center of business really means, as it relates to diversity and inclusion.You can watch this week\u2019s whole replay here.What\u2019s the difference between diversity and inclusion? The world and our communities are diverse. Diversity at work refers to removing the barriers that implicitly or explicitly prevent companies from resembling our communities.\u201cWhen we have a diverse workforce that\u2019s treated equitably, the successes people have aren\u2019t predicated by how they look, how they identify, or what skin they\u2019re in,\u201d says Augsberger.\u201cYou can\u2019t have true inclusion without equity and diversity. Inclusion is a sense of belonging at work.\u201dHow HR tech can be a game-changer for advancing diversity and inclusion initiatives Not everyone will feel comfortable or secure sharing their perspective. HXM tools can help solve this by:Allowing leaders to pose questions to employees via surveysEmpowering employees to answer honestly without fear of retribution\u201cLet\u2019s say I\u2019m working at a company where the executives tend to be all white men and they say \u2018diversity matters,\u2019\u201d says Harts.\u201cIf I\u2019m the only black woman on the team, I may think, \u2018does it really?\u2019My experience may be different from that of other employees. Both perspectives are important, but we won\u2019t get to that if we don\u2019t have tools to collect and analyze that feedback.\u201dHR leaders recognize that unconscious bias is a major obstacle in achieving improvements in diversity and inclusion.\u201cModern attraction and assessment technology can play a critical role here, by diversifying the data points collected per candidate, so that the human recruiter has more information to make a judgment,\u201d says Hung Lee, co-founder and CEO of Workshape.io. \u201cHow far we go with this \u2013 and how fair it may actually be \u2013 is something we’re all experimenting with right now. However, we can see strong early evidence that reducing our dependence on the traditional artifacts of recruiting \u2013 such as the resume review, the phone screen, the in-person interview \u2013 has an impact on the diversity of candidates at different stages of the pipeline.”Artificial intelligence can also help HR teams raise awareness of inequities that go beyond discrimination.Despite the potential, however, it\u2019s still early days in terms of widespread AI usage. As the AI and HXM technology stack matures, we\u2019ll see AI increasingly used to make more data-led, bias-free decisions that further diversity, equity, and inclusion, whether it\u2019s measuring disparities in pay and promotion rates, determining the diversity of a leadership pipeline or matching skills with new opportunities for up-skilling or redeployment.Data should be a catalyst for honest conversation and actionToday I\u2019m seeing companies use HXM technology to help people become accountable for diversity and inclusion initiatives.\u201cStudies tell us that 1 in 25 women of color are advanced into the executive suite, compared with 1 in 5 white women,\u201d says Harts. \u201cData can identify the managers of these workers and which employees they meet with consistently. Is it everyone or only certain groups? By identifying how many one-on-one meetings a manager holds with each employee, we can see whether diversity initiatives are working for everyone. Using reporting, we can identify problem areas and hold people accountable so they can do better.\u201dData is certainly helpful for understanding the critical diversity and inclusion metrics.But after months of COVID-19, racial unrest, economic stress, and political unrest, we can\u2019t just check our spreadsheets. Managers must check in with people and hold actual conversations to understand the nuances of each employee\u2019s experience, and they must be empowered to take action that drives change.Don\u2019t worry about doing everything perfectly. Just get in there and start communicating.\u201cYou\u2019re probably going to create some weird conversations, but that\u2019s ok,\u201d says Augsberger. \u201cThe goal is to talk to employees so you can understand what they need. Ask them which barriers are keeping them from achieving success in the organization, and then be willing to hear their feedback. You don\u2019t have to get it 100% right. You just have to keep trying.\u201dSupport your diversity initiatives with tools and programmatic changeTechnology can support your company\u2019s intent and programs, even enhancing or streamlining them. But it doesn\u2019t absolve you from doing the actual work of reexamining your systems, processes, and outcomes relative to your diversity goals.For example, HR should assess its own efforts to improve diversity. Consider the team developing employee experience questions and analyzing data – is it diverse or fairly homogeneous? Because team members bring their own experiences to work, a less diverse team may develop questions and assess data using biases that do not reflect all employees. That will compromise your results.To drive meaningful change, companies may need to rethink their diversity programs \u2013 or even recreate them. \u201cUnless we reengineer the systems, the outcomes will be the same,\u201d says Schmidt. \u201cThis is a pivotal moment. I hope people take the time to read, understand, and broaden their scope and then stand up for what\u2019s right.\u201dThink you have what it takes to recruit talent & engage employees to remain competitive?Discover the future of the employee experience HERE.\u00a0"},{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org\/","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"2020","item":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/2020\/#breadcrumbitem"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"10","item":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/2020\/\/10\/#breadcrumbitem"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"19","item":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/2020\/\/10\/\/19\/#breadcrumbitem"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":4,"name":"HXM: How HR tech can improve workplace diversity and inclusion","item":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/2020\/10\/19\/how-hr-tech-can-improve-workplace-diversity-and-inclusion\/#breadcrumbitem"}]}]