Been for a company for over 2years. The executive team is very much a boy's club. There are a few women in management roles but zero ethnicity diversity there. I raised my concern to HR in feb. And they are just now deciding to do something about it. They want me (white female) to put together a diversity committee. Any suggestions on how to go about it? How to attract volunteers to the committee? I want to make sure I get the right people involved in this, to push for changes.

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I would recommend for you to first identify a champion at the executive level that will support the committee. Networking and asking around for people that are interested in volunteering would be one of the best ways to fill roles in the committee. Also, leverage anyone who is currently in a D&I role to help start the committee (if there isn’t a resource available in this capacity that is a major issue). If your company has employee resource groups, there may be some people interested as well. Good luck!

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100% agree. If you don't have an advocate and sponsor in senior leadership, you're going to ha e a very hard time getting anywhere. If you can't get that kind of support, then they are likely not interested in changing things.

likehelpful

DEI has got its foot in the door at your company and that’s you!

Going in, just know that until executives, in their ELT meetings are facing difficult and painful conversations with someone in the room holding up a mirror - the company as a whole is just engaging in DEI lip-service, not real work. They cannot expect volunteer employees in a committee to always give the kinds of frank, truthful and brave feedback required for the company to change because the process of breaking blindness to privilege is a very painful one and (just as an example) they can’t expect their LGBTQIA+ employees to come out of the closet and other marginalized groups to speak painful truth to them when we who are marginalized are more likely fear losing income.

All that in mind - First goal is to get an executive on your side. You should form a committee, or rather, your company’s first ERG - because that’s what they’re asking. Form one for women to start and have meetings, bring in guest speakers experienced with erg discussions or read up on your own.

If you know any LGBTQIA+ folks, an erg centered around them would be a great thing to see if they want to start one. You may have someone approach you if you don’t know any LGBTQIA+, after starting the women’s group. I know we’re at your company if it’s of any size - we are everywhere and there’s lots of us but often, we don’t even know about each other at the same company or think we’re the only one or two there. This was the experience at my company of 10 years. I knew two other people in the acronym until about 8 months ago when our first ERG was formed. There’s at least 30 of us where I work and knowing that we have more than we ever imagined like us - it’s very empowering. It may also give execs a good shock if one thinks to wonder why so many at their company would be closeted until they started talking about DEI.

From there, i would concentrate on building political capital so you can gun for as many diverse DEI consultants to hold up the mirror to the execs so they realize how important and seriously they need to take the work. You’ll see for yourself how serious they are by how they respond.

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