How To Prevent Diversity Greenwashing

As 1st of June strikes, you log onto the digital world, every single account you follow is now plastered with rainbow logos. For some, a celebration of the LGBTQ+ community, a reminder of how far we’ve come since the first protests, and a renewed energy to continue the fight for equality. For others, it’s a time to throw a rainbow over their logo and capitalise on the support of the LGBTQ+ community for their own profits. 

But why does this matter? Known as “rainbow-washing”, this is just one example of performative allyship. Diversity and inclusion have become key buzzwords in the corporate world, leading to a very real risk that companies are leveraging these terms for their own brand image and monetary gains, instead of focusing on making a real change. This is known as “diversity-washing”, not dissimilar to the trend we saw a few years earlier with “green-washing”. In the aftermath of George Floyd’s murder, there has been a particularly sharp rise in diversity-washing as public pressure on the responsibility of corporations continues to increase. One such example included Adidas infamously retweeting Nike’s Black Lives Matter campaign, with the 2 sports organisations being brought into the spotlight around not actually having concrete anti-racism policies in place, and no Black board members.

“Nobody’s asking for a CEO to take a knee. You take the knee after you change your policies.” – Y-Vonne Hutchinson

To ensure that D&I isn’t passed off as the latest fashion trend, we need to think about impact. B-Corp has brought about an excellent version of this when we look at the climate crisis: it assesses corporations not just based on their net environmental impact, but how businesses can be an active, positive force for good.  Similarly, D&I efforts need to be focused on both undoing the damage from years gone and focusing on driving inclusion from a structural perspective. Real change requires real action. 

Included framework outlines 5 key pillars for an inclusive organisation. In the paragraphs below, we have gathered some ideas on how you can leverage these 5 areas to limit diversity-washing:

• STRATEGY: Begin by having a clearly outlined D&I action plan, backed with a financial commitment. This strategy should be aligned with the wider organisational strategy to ensure it can be embedded into the heart of everything the business does. This way, D&I becomes less of a siloed, HR activity and more of a meaningful, purpose-driven effort. A good example of this is LifeArc, which Included worked with to reframe inclusion as part of their strategy. This strategy now impacts how inclusive their medical investment decisions are. 

• DATA: Measure your progress. It’s great to have a number of initiatives but these need to be linked to KPIs to show real impact. Think about both internal impact (e.g., levels of diversity, inclusion, and engagement within your organisation) as well as external impact (e.g., if you are in the pharmaceutical sector, can you measure the diversity of your clinical trials?)

• GOVERNANCE: The ultimate way to prevent all talk and no action is by holding people accountable. Do stakeholder groups know exactly what they are responsible and accountable for when it comes to D&I efforts? How are leadership teams being held accountable? Sanofi recently launched pharma’s first DE&I Board, supported by a 5 pillar ERG framework to monitor and accelerate progress on D&I impact

• LEADERSHIP: When it comes to behaviour and culture, sustainability is key. A keynote speech is a great start, but true behavioural change will take time. Leveraging techniques such as Richard Thaler’s nudge theory can help ensure that learnings are not lost along the way. 

• SYSTEMS: The last pillar focuses on inclusive policies, processes, and practices from both an internal and external lens. Internally for example, if you are actively supporting the LGBTQ+ community – are your parental leave and adoption policies suitable for same-sex couples? Does your medical care include cover for trans healthcare? Externally, this could be your marketing or product design processes. Included recently worked with a tech company which accidentally banned gay parenting websites. We then ran inclusive product design workshops with developers to ensure that their coding techniques were inclusive. 

Lastly – without falling into too much of a catch-22 situation – it is critical that D&I efforts themselves are diverse and inclusive. Across all of these initiatives, ensure that you are making space for underrepresented voices, actively listening to their concerns, and not placing the burden of change upon the shoulders of those who already bear the brunt of the consequences of inequality. 

About the author: Priya Radia is a contributing author to The Key to Inclusion: A Practical Guide to Diversity, Equity and Belonging for You, Your Team and Your Organization, edited by Stephen Frost and published by Kogan Page.