4 Ways To Improve Your Company’s Inclusion, Diversity And Equity Strategy

Recently, Cox Enterprises—a global communications and automotive company headquartered in Atlanta, GA with nearly $20 billion in annual revenues and 50,000 employees—named Tiffanie McDonald vice president of inclusion and diversity. Since 2019, McDonald has been helping the company set actionable inclusion, diversity and equity (ID&E) goals, including improving people of color executive representation by 50% over the next five years, expanding inclusion capability through education and training, and establishing an ID&E policy for Cox employees.

With almost 20 years of human resources, labor and employment, and inclusion and diversity experience, McDonald also has worked in business operations leading risk management. Before joining Cox, she served as vice president of business controls and risk at USAA. Prior to that, she spearheaded the organization’s diversity and inclusion strategy, including reviewing employment practices, affirmative action and equal employment opportunity compliance. Before joining USAA, she led diversity and inclusion at Sysco Corporation. 

Here are McDonald’s top four tips for companies looking to improve their ID&E strategies.

1.    Perform an authentic assessment. You need to understand your needs and problem areas before you begin designing solutions. Then, be clear about what you’re trying to achieve as an organization. There is no one-size-fits-all solution. An assessment will help you understand where you have gaps and opportunities, so you can build your strategy and vision based upon your organization’s culture and long-term aspirations.

2.    Establish goals and accountability. Once your ID&E assessment is completed, use data and findings to set practical, achievable and reasonable goals—both quantitative and qualitative—and hold leaders accountable for progress.

3.    Be open-minded. Genuinely listen and stay open to new ideas and ways of doing things that may be different than the status quo or the way you’ve always done it. Being open-minded exposes individuals to new perspectives and more innovative solutions. Ensure you continuously pulse employees to understand their sentiment and be willing to adjust strategies where needed.

4.    Understand it’s a journey. This is an ongoing journey, not a destination. Take an agile approach to ID&E; iterate and improve over time. Define your key outcomes, dependencies and timing. You have to be able to walk before you run, so focus on building a strong foundation first that you can continue to build on and get better. I usually start with a three-year plan and then expand to a five-year plan given greater insights. As diverse needs change, so too will your plans and strategies.

ID&E is not a science, McDonald cautions. “It’s not linear. You're trying to change culture, behavior and systems, but there's no blueprint to inclusion. You’re dealing with the way people feel, how they perceive things and what they need to feel safe and bring their whole selves to work. That’s what it’s all about. When employees feel valued, respected and able to bring their whole self to work, they perform better. The employee experience is inextricably linked to the customer experience and business results.”

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