What does commitment to diversity look like in an organization?

“It’s really important that [executives] acknowledge that this is important to the company as a while and [convey] what our action plan is,” said Jackie Leung, director of talent acquisition at digital marketing agency Wpromote, in discussing what commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion (DE&I) looks like in organizations during a Live with Search Engine Land on diversity recruitment and retainment in marketing.

Leung said employee resource groups can play a big role in supporting DE&I efforts as well.

What are ERGs? Employee resource groups (ERGs) are voluntarily run and led by employees. “Any employee can run it, it doesn’t necessarily have to be that htey are from a certain department.

How to get started with ERGs. The first thing is to start the conversation, said Leung. “There is a lot of interest in discussing, for example, how do we get more diversity at a company, and just having conversations with employees about their experiences, what they’re looking for, what they’re interested in and potentially if they are open to leading. Then guiding them through that process.”

Leung said Wpromote has a number of ERGs, including a group called Pride for the LGBTQ+ community, Rise for women empowerment and a group being formed of Black Wpromoters.

Ensure proper guidelines. Leung added that organizations should do their research “in terms of actual guidelines, making sure that as the groups form there is an overall mission and goal that they’re working towards.” There should be an understanding of what the goal means for the company. “So there’s a lot of intricate pieces to it, but I really think getting started having these conversations and opening it up company-wide.”

Be intentional. CJ Bland,CEO of the Minority Professional Network, emphasized the need for companies to have clear orchestration around these efforts. “If companies are not intentional, very often programs may get started but we don’t have any types of metrics around what type of progress we’re making.”

There needs to be vision at the C-suite level, including “metrics, targets and even scorecards to be able to hold individuals accountable for meeting goals,” said Bland.

Related reading: Actionable ways to drive diversity, equity and inclusion in your marketing organization.

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