Originally published at Forbes Business Council
When I start working with a new client to help them implement the ISO-30415 standard for diversity and inclusion, regardless of the country, my first question to the leadership team is, "Can anyone define DEI for me?" Naturally, they struggle with an answer.
If I ask 10 people at any company to define diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI), I’ll likely get 10 different answers. That’s a problem when aiming for deliberate equity, inclusion and belonging.
Luckily, as we progress beyond the first quarter of the century, we now have a new, standardized approach to inclusion from the International Organization for Standardization, commonly known as ISO, which has been a foundational force in setting industrial standards since the end of WWII.
Global Standards Shaping Products And Services
Whether you realize it or not, there are top consulting groups evaluating every type of good, product and service produced in our interconnected society. Over 25,000 standardized industrial guidelines shape how these goods are created and distributed. For example, this past week, France's certification authority, the Association Française de Normalisation (AFNOR), joined the U.S., U.K., and numerous other countries across five continents by launching a certification for a new DEI standard.
Among the standards adopted internationally, a set of quality and information technology standards has profoundly influenced DEI practices. Specifically, I see the "Plan-Do-Check-Review" cycle from the 1987 ISO 9001 standard, along with the formalized processes of information and cyber technologies in ISO 20000 and ISO 27001, as having set the stage.
AI And The Shift To People-Focused Processes
In this era of AI assistance, business processes are evolving to prioritize people-centered outcomes. While most product-related processes have already been streamlined with project management models like Six Sigma, now it’s time to extend these same methodologies to all processes involving people.
Originally launched as a project at the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) in 2011, the most experienced DEI consultants quickly recognized that this initiative extended beyond traditional HR boundaries. Now, with SHRM stepping back from equity-focused efforts, some experts view HR more as a risk management function than a driver of inclusion.
Over 10 years, a board led by Effenus Henderson, former Chief Diversity Officer at Weyerhaeuser, along with others, collaborated to publish ISO-30415 in 2021. The significance of this global codification is that they were now able to answer the two biggest questions in workforce resilience: Where do we start, and what do we do next?
Beyond the numerous statements on equity, inclusion and belonging, this standard has established the first global framework for implementing inclusion as a structured change management process. It provides valuable guidance to organizations in two key areas: Defining stakeholder needs and organizing a diverse portfolio of inclusion-focused services—similar to how a Chief Information Officer might manage and allocate technological resources to meet organizational goals.
The standard categorized the four service types that can be delivered to meet DEI.
1. Training: A broad spectrum of education methods to accommodate identifiable stakeholders.
2. Data Extraction: A broad spectrum of data collection activities, both voluntary and involuntary.
3. Internal Infrastructure: Any and all internal resources established to accommodate stakeholders.
4. External Infrastructure: Any and all external resources or partnerships to accommodate stakeholders.
Overall, DEI is moving away from ad hoc projects to a more systematic service management approach. With the ISO helping to create more of a global consensus, engaging with people and distributing resources is becoming as turn-key as technology engagement and distribution. There are four key operational areas where DEI initiatives can be implemented within an organization:
1. Governance: DEI services you deliver to management.
2. Human Resources: DEI services you deliver to your employees.
3. Product Delivery: DEI services you deliver to your tangible or intangible goods.
4. Supplier Diversity: DEI services you deliver to your supply chain and other organizational stakeholders.
These categories extrapolate into 32 domains of an organization’s operations. Aside from the governance category, each functional branch breaks out into both actions and measures.
Implementing These Standards
In order for leaders and practitioners to use this standard effectively, I recommend they evaluate their organization’s level of maturity across four or fewer categories. For example, it may make sense that a small or mid-sized company with limited purchasing won't have a procurement or supplier diversity program.
However, all organizations should have governance and product delivery processes. In efforts to industrialize DEI, age-old methods like Capability Maturity Model Integrations have been standardized to help understand continual process improvement, similar to how we approached advancements in information technology in the 2000s.
Per the standard, evaluating maturity is based on intentionality. In the real world, a tangible representation of intentionality is a policy.
In a previous article, I discussed the increasing costs of DEI-related insurance claims and the growing number of grievances filed with regulators. As organizations begin to use this ISO standard to assess their ability to identify and address issues before they escalate into grievances, this should demonstrate how people-first processes can help reduce risk profiles.
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