06/08/2020

The Crises of 2020

A renewed focus on diversity and inclusion

Until the current wave of protest and outrage over the killing of George Floyd by Minneapolis police officers, some in the association community were raising concern that diversity and inclusion efforts might be getting sidelined because of COVID-19. But the renewed attention to racial injustice is showing that “now more than ever, there is a need for diversity and inclusion initiatives,” said Linda Devonish-Mills, CAE, director of D+I at the Institute of Management Accountants.

As with COVID-19, the civil unrest is raising stress and anxiety to levels that organizations can’t ignore. Devonish-Mills said senior association leaders need to be transparent and make themselves accessible to staff and members so they can express their feelings openly. “Make them feel like you care about what they are experiencing,” she said.

A desire to promote social justice is usually what spurs diversity and inclusion efforts, but research has shown that D+I is also good business practice. Companies with more culturally and ethnically diverse executive teams were 33 percent more likely to see better-than-average profits, according to a 2018 McKinsey report. At the board of directors level, more ethnically and culturally diverse companies were 43 percent more likely to see above-average profits.

Please select this link to read the complete article from Associations Now.