Organisational Competence and Diversity, Equity and Inclusion

In this short blogpost, I want to share my views on the incompetence of organisations, industries, and sectors when it comes to diversity, equity and inclusion.

Let’s start with a couple of useful definitions of competence.

The Health and Safety Executive define competence as

“Competence can be described as the combination of training, skills, experience and knowledge that a person has and their ability to apply them to perform a task safely. Other factors, such as attitude and physical ability, can also affect someone’s competence.

While the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development states

“Competencies are a key performance indicator from the organisation to an individual of their expected areas and levels of performance. They provide that individual with an indication or map of the behaviours and actions that will be valued, recognised and in some organisations rewarded. Competencies can represent the language of performance management in an organisation.”

As employees, we must be competent and demonstrate competence in our roles. Our job descriptions and person specifications clearly define expectations, and our contract of employment will reinforce and highlight the consequences of failure.

What about the employers’ competence in how we are treated as employees in their workplace? Well, there will be policies, processes, and guidelines. There is even legislation that should, at the very least, be complied with, but the reality is numerous cases show that employers are not fulfilling their duty of care for their ‘family’ members.

• So that brings me to the question of competence, particularly as it relates to diversity, equity, and inclusion.

• How do organisations, industries and sectors demonstrate their competence to manage, lead, develop and support diversity? If their competence is being monitored and evaluated, who conducted the evaluation? Internal or external? What evidence, information and data is included or excluded?
• Is the focus on DEI-related activities alone, or does it include the impact on individuals and groups with diverse identities?
• Are the number of accreditations and sponsorship of DEI initiatives used as an indicator of success and competence?

There are far-reaching implications for not addressing workplace inequity and inequality. A case very much in my consciousness is what is taking place in my hometown, Birmingham, where the council has declared bankruptcy. The contributing factor to their financial woes is the lack of gender pay parity going back decades.

In a recent LinkedIn post from Frank Doughlas, CEO at Caerus Executive, concerning an article in building.co.uk titled “Construction groups launch coalition to tackle diversity issue” which, when you read the article is focused on gender diversity and nothing else.

Frank comments, “What about Black and Asian employment in the construction industry? Why just focus on one identity? I’m sure the industry can walk and chew gum, at the same time

I am questioning organisations, sectors, and industries that boast about their diversity, equity, and inclusion accomplishments. Even if they have equal opportunity statements on their websites and job advertisements, I want to know:

What are they doing to address gender pay gap inequity? Are they simply reporting on it and making excuses, or are they taking actual steps to combat this insidious inequality?

Where do they stand on reporting the ethnicity and disability pay gap? If they haven’t started yet, why not? Should they hold off on recruiting new employees from these populations until they address the internal culture that might be unsafe and unsuitable for them to thrive in?

How competent are organisations, industries and sectors when it comes to diversity, equity and inclusion? Where’s the evidence of their competence

I end with an extract from Nancy Leong’s book “Identity Capitalists – The Powerful Insiders Who Exploit Diversity To Maintain Inequality”

“But one result of the emphasis on diversity – or at least, the appearance of diversity – is an enhanced incentive for identity capitalism. Ingroup individuals and institutions want the social and legal credit associated with diversity. So they engage in practices that seem to display diversity to get the credit, but without undertaking the work that makes the credit deserved.”