12 Ways to Show Your Commitment to DEI Beyond Your Hiring Practices

In recent years, many companies have made public commitments to diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) in the workplace. They’ve taken stock of their workforce, revamped their recruiting and hiring practices and worked to ensure their employees represent a wide range of backgrounds and life experiences.

While making diverse hires is a good first step, that alone is not enough to show your workforce and the public that diversity, equity and inclusion are embedded in your company’s values. Follow the advice of these Rolling Stone Culture Council members to ensure you are putting DEI into practice in every facet of your company culture and operations.

Focus on Holistic Diversity

I always compare building a team to building a puzzle. All pieces are essential for it to be complete. The more unique the pieces, the more challenging the puzzle, but the more dazzling it is when finished. You need to ensure your puzzle has diversity of education, of experiences — in work and in life — and of perspectives, each complementing the other and helping bring the full picture into focus. – Heidi Pellerano, CONCACAF

Celebrate Your Team Members’ Diverse Attributes

Diversity, equity and inclusion goes beyond hiring people of color or women of color. DEI is about allowing people to show up as exactly who they are and building an environment in which people feel valued for their unique contributions. It’s about being human. To ensure DEI is part of a company’s culture, its leaders can implement practices that involve celebrating its team members’ attributes. – Melissa Jun Rowley, Warrior Love Productions

Put Words Into Authentic Action

Speak the words “diversity, equity and inclusion” in meetings, during interviews and at company events. Show people you care with behaviors that substantiate the words. Engage people at a professional level and a personal level, and let them see you care. If you are authentic, they will know it. Don’t fake it — they will know that also. – Wayne Bell, Really Big Coloring Books® Inc | ColoringBook.com

Use Images of Real People in Your Organization

I really encourage companies to use real people, real employees and real images in all their DEI initiatives and marketing. Diversity encompasses so much, and you want to truly reflect that people and history and experiences are richly and amazingly different, exciting and diverse. But be sure to use real images and not stock photos. Paint your company picture in a legitimate way. – Scott Cowperthwaite, AfterFiveMedia

Consider Who Is Being Served

Diversity is just as important internally as externally. A key metric is the impact on diverse stakeholders. Who is being served? Has an intention been set to include those who have been marginalized? In our clinical trials, we especially recruit women, those of various ethnicities and rural populations — all groups greatly underrepresented in traditional trials — to bring diversity and equity to research. – Jeff Chen, Radicle Science

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Recognize Diverse Cultural Holidays and Events

Know where your team is from and keep a calendar of important holidays and events in their culture. Involve them in the process of planning such celebrations, if and where appropriate. People engage more when they feel seen, heard and understood, and a deeper level of connection can be formed. – Ginni Saraswati, Ginni Media

Provide Genuine Support

Talk to your employees and put practices in place to help them thrive. Hiring diverse candidates will only do so much if they don’t feel genuinely supported in the workplace. Show that your organization is serious about inclusion through actionable items such as time off for cultural holidays or even just making it a policy to ask for pronouns. – Evan Nison, NisonCo

Reflect DEI in Your Marketing

Successful DEI means that diverse hiring in the office is also reflected through marketing. It can be achieved by allowing your team to implement the images, voices and content that represent them. This inclusion helps immerse your brand in different cultures and reflects your team’s diverse experiences beyond tokenism. – Cynthia Johnson, Bell + Ivy

Connect With Every Person in the Company

It’s so important for business owners and managers to rub elbows with everyone in the company. Share meals. Switch job roles for a day. Get your hands dirty and actually spend one-on-one time together. The hiring process is the first step; the real show of inclusion comes with making people feel valued and heard. – Maureen Smithey, CastleWare Baby

Take Note of Everyone’s Potential

Diversity is not part of diverse hiring only, as it risks belonging only to a “box-ticking” initiative. Diversity also includes having the vision to notice everyone’s potential, no matter who they are, after the initial hire. This could mean restructuring a team to incorporate people with out-of-the-box abilities. – Jacob Mathison, Mathison Projects Inc.

Take a Top-Down Approach

I recommend a top-down approach, starting from senior leadership and, if applicable, board and founder positions should be equally diverse. Companies should take a look at their leadership and create opportunities for underrepresented groups to advance and become leaders, as well as promote a culture that values the different perspectives and contributions of all employees. – Jason Saltzman, Relief

Ensure DEI Isn’t a One-and-Done Effort

One commonly overlooked fact about diversity hiring and inclusion is that it’s an ongoing job. Implicit bias isn’t erased simply by filling desks with a diverse staff. Checks and balances to secure fair evaluations, promotions and training must be implemented along with consistent diversity education to ensure that your diverse hiring plan is long-lasting. – Andy Hale, Hale & Monico