Management Magazine
No Result
View All Result
  • ABOUT
  • KIMSOM
  • TRAINING
  • MEMBERSHIP
  • Login
  • Register
  • Home
  • News
  • Special Features
  • Leadership
    • Perspective
    • Smart Leadership
    • Strategy
    • Tactics
  • Business
    • Money Matters
    • Smart Solutions
    • Investing
    • Personal Finance
    • Wealth Creation
  • Management
    • The Big Idea
    • Office Diary
    • Hands on Management
    • Future of Work
  • Lifestyle & Travel
    • Wellness
    • Travel
    • Tech
    • Lifestyle
    • Entertainment
magazines
SUBSCRIBE
  • Home
  • News
  • Special Features
  • Leadership
    • Perspective
    • Smart Leadership
    • Strategy
    • Tactics
  • Business
    • Money Matters
    • Smart Solutions
    • Investing
    • Personal Finance
    • Wealth Creation
  • Management
    • The Big Idea
    • Office Diary
    • Hands on Management
    • Future of Work
  • Lifestyle & Travel
    • Wellness
    • Travel
    • Tech
    • Lifestyle
    • Entertainment
No Result
View All Result
Management Magazine
No Result
View All Result
Home Editor's Picks

How Organisations Can Deploy Emerging Technologies to Ensure Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion

Denis Kiptoo by kimmag
November 5, 2021
Reading Time: 9 mins read
0
Management Magazine - How Organizations can deploy emerging technologies to ensure DE&I

In our current context, the gendered economic, health and social impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic are threatening to reverse the gains made to advance gender equality over the years.

RELATED POSTS

Leveraging AI for business efficiency

Business leadership in times of political crisis

The place of competition agencies in the transition to a circular economy

While organizational leaders acknowledge creating an organizational culture that embraces diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) – which is essential to the success of both their organizational goals and the wellbeing of their staff – many of them are concerned about failing. They worry about being crucified in public or on social media, are overwhelmed by the need to make immediate progress on culture and inclusivity, and are stifled by not having room for mistakes. They also realize that actions such as setting an inclusive culture through ongoing training, creating transparency in wage bands, removing bias from job descriptions and the recruiting process, hiring a Diversity and Inclusion (D&I) lead have slow results.

Defining Opportunity for your DE&I Strategy

Let’s learn from the experience of Sgt. Pyotr Mikhaylov. Between 1697 and 1698, he traveled from Russia to Europe as part of the so-called Grand Embassy where he familiarized himself with conditions in the advanced countries of the West. He spent four months studying shipbuilding and working as a ship’s carpenter in the yard of the Dutch East India Company at Saardam; after that he went to Great Britain, where he continued his study of shipbuilding, working in the Royal Navy’s dockyard at Deptford; he also visited factories, arsenals, schools, museums and even attended a session of the British Parliament.

On his return to Russia, Peter devoted himself to creating an environment where large capital investments could be made to create metallurgical and manufacturing industries. He encouraged his countrymen to study the methods of other countries and invited experts from these countries to Russia and then rewarded the efforts of the emerging capitalists by providing them with a ready customer for their products – the army and the navy. During Peter the Great’s reign over Russia, a great number of manufacturing establishments were founded, the metallurgical made such great advances that by the middle of the 18th century Russia led Europe in this field, and the foreign-trade turnover was increased sevenfold.

Investing in Technology

Organizations around the world need to turn to modern technology to find solutions to their DEI challenges. Talent acquisition technologies, which account for 43 percent of DEI technologies, are being used to reduce the threat of unconscious bias and to improve applicant screening in an increasing number of organizations. Virtual Training is becoming the ‘New Normal’ for employee development with advanced options such as virtual reality training proving to be highly effective solutions that provide employees with life-like experiences. Virtual inclusion platforms centered around employee experiences and focused on employee engagement are being used to enhance connectivity within organizations and provide the assurance to staff that management is invested in their wellbeing.

The most successful DE&I initiatives are sustainable, meaning the strategy is supported by the entire organization, is measurable over time and is embedded into existing processes

Employee benefits technology such as intelligent automation is proving useful in revealing gaps within organizations without the risk of human error or bias, and employee recognition platforms are proving useful at transforming organizational culture and improving employee morale.

Investing in Systemic Change

Organizations also need to invest in systemic change. This is by focusing on the leverage points that drive transformation and implementing iterative solutions to catalyze change. Several organizations are adopting the ‘Rooney Rule’ [adopted from the NFL] which requires at least two to three candidates from underrepresented groups in the final candidate pool for every manager or executive hire to ensure that all levels of their workforce reflect the demography of their operating environment.

Buy JNews
ADVERTISEMENT

Other organizations are following Hollywood’s lead and implementing an ‘inclusion rider’ – a stipulation in the contracts of business leaders that requires that women, young people, people with disabilities, and marginalized communities be represented on business teams in proportion to their representation in the overall workforce of the operating environment. Yet others are deploying an ‘Inclusion Index’ – converting survey results into a measure that looks at demographics across levels, functions, compensation, and satisfaction levels across several areas – and tracking this periodically, typically every six months, to hold people accountable for meaningful change.

While all these are great ideas, they do not represent the start and end of all solutions in this field. Therefore, organizations are highly encouraged to bring onboard process facilitators to enable them to co-create innovative approaches that enable them to address the challenge within the constraints of their context.

Rewarding Effort

Rather than punish team members who make bold attempts and fall short, we should focus on calling out those who do nothing at all. We should create an environment that allows teams to develop solutions and test them. We should allow them to try and fail, to iterate and learn.

Taking Bolder Action with Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Efforts

This period – the Covid-19 and Post-Covid-19 context – presents an opportunity and a chance for organizations to be innovative and adopt new technologies that will enable them to promote DEI in their organizations. Organizational leaders need to reframe the situation by asking these questions: What else can I do to enable my team to try out radical ideas that bring inclusivity sooner? What technology options exist that they can leverage to revolutionize results? How can I applaud them publicly?

Tags: Smart Solutions
ShareTweetShare
Denis Kiptoo

kimmag

Related Posts

Leveraging AI for business efficiency
Editor's Picks

Leveraging AI for business efficiency

September 8, 2023
Uncategorized

Business leadership in times of political crisis

September 5, 2023
Special Report

The place of competition agencies in the transition to a circular economy

September 5, 2023
Opinion

Why affirmative action in Kenya may be a mistake

March 20, 2023
Tactics

Self-awareness Key in Career Growth

March 20, 2023
Uncategorized

Goldmines everywhere!

December 5, 2022
Next Post
Management Magazine - Digital Transformation

Digital Transformation in the C-Suite

Management Magazine - How Leaders can tap into innovation and technology

Foundations for Growth: How Leaders Can Tap into Innovation and Technology

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Recommended Stories

Quality education is all a country needs

November 13, 2018

From the top down

October 1, 2018

Real estate in rural Kenya

August 1, 2019

Popular Stories

  • Management Magazine - Entertainment - Book Review

    Book Review: Go Tell the Bees That I Am Gone (Outlander Series #9)

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • Tax measures as impetus to education sector

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • How technology has improved healthcare

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • How the old education system created failures

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • I am living my childhood dream

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
Management Magazine

Management is a monthly magazine targeting middle and senior level managers from all sectors of the economy.

Recent Posts

  • How Gig Economy is Empowering a New Generation of Workers
  • The Synergy of Emotional Intelligence and Sustainability
  • Handling employee exit

KENYA INSTITUTE OF MANAGEMENT

  • ABOUT
  • KIMSOM
  • TRAINING
  • MEMBERSHIP

Get a year of access for Premium Content


SUBSCRIBE

© 2021 Management Magazine - A Publication of Kenya Institute of Management.

No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • News
  • Special Features
  • Leadership
    • Perspective
    • Smart Leadership
    • Strategy
    • Tactics
  • Business
    • Money Matters
    • Smart Solutions
    • Investing
    • Personal Finance
    • Wealth Creation
  • Management
    • The Big Idea
    • Office Diary
    • Hands on Management
    • Future of Work
  • Lifestyle & Travel
    • Wellness
    • Travel
    • Tech
    • Lifestyle
    • Entertainment

© 2021 Management Magazine - A Publication of Kenya Institute of Management.

Welcome Back!

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password? Sign Up

Create New Account!

Fill the forms bellow to register

All fields are required. Log In

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In
Are you sure want to unlock this post?
Unlock left : 0
Are you sure want to cancel subscription?