Frequently Asked Questions
Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion
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What is DEI?
Diversity: The practice or quality of including or involving people from a range of different social and ethnic backgrounds and of different genders, sexual orientations, etc.
Equity: The fair treatment of all people regardless of their race, gender, age, or other characteristics. Equity is different from equality, which assumes everyone should be treated the same. Equity considers a person’s unique circumstances and adjusts treatment accordingly.
Inclusion: The thoughts, ideas and perspectives of all individuals matter and contribute to an organization’s success.
Why is DEI important for my organization?
It’s no secret that the way to take care of your business is to take care of your employees. The goal of any DEI program is to create a sense of belonging for all employees. Belonging is when an organization engages the full potential of all employees, innovation thrives, and employees feel accepted and empowered to make meaningful contributions. By increasing belonging in your organization there are better opportunities for creativity and problem solving, smarter decisions are made, reduce rates of employee turnover, increasing productivity and profits and improving brand reputation.
Can you tell me about your process?
Here at Kyanite Consulting, we believe data is the best way to determine results. Your situation will be assessed based on your needs. From there a custom solution will be developed and agreed upon. Assessments will be conducted as needed as we help you to develop a solid DEI strategy, goals and KPIs.
What is unconscious bias?
Behavior or opinions that result from subtle cognitive processes that we are unaware of, which result in deviations from regular thought processes or reason. Everyone has some form of unconscious bias. The key is to understand what an individual’s unconscious biases are and what triggers them. This reduces the likelihood of microaggressions or outright discrimination from occurring.
What are microaggressions?
Microaggressions are interactions or behaviors that convey bias toward marginalized groups. Microaggressions can be directed at people based on race, religion, gender, sexual orientation, or disability. Often consisting of stereotyping, targeting those who look different, devaluing ethnic experiences of co-workers, talking down to people, and using different tones for different genders. They can be verbal, behavioral, or environmental bias toward a marginalized group. Microaggressions can make a workplace culture toxic and destroy organizational productivity and profitability.
What is inclusive leadership?
The capacity to manage and lead a heterogeneous group of people efficiently while being aware of one’s own biases and preferences. When leaders are aware of their own biases, they can be more inclusive in their decision-making processes. When inclusive leaders create safe spaces for their employees, those employees can be authentic in their work lives, making them more productive, innovative and profitable.
What is the difference between an ally and an advocate?
An ally is a person who cooperates with another for a specific purpose. An advocate is someone who supports another because of their belief in them. Allyship doesn’t require an investment in a person. Advocacy does. Organizations that are truly willing to support their employees are willing to advocate for them.
What is a diversity scorecard?
A diversity scorecard is a means of keeping track of diversity goals. It should include an initial benchmark to baseline where an organization’s diversity journey is at, where gaps lie in the organization’s efforts and provide a starting point for developing a DEI strategy. Once steps are in place to close DEI gaps, additional metrics should be added to the scorecard to assess how well the new effort is succeeding at resolving issues, determine if forward or backward progress is occurring and provide a means of having conversations with executive leadership about how DEI ties into the organization’s overall goals.
How do I define diversity goals?
That depends on several things. Where an organization is at in their DEI journey? Do they have metrics on marginalized groups in the organization? Has the organization received surveys from marginalized groups? Before you can define goals, an organization needs data. There needs to be an understanding of the gaps, bottlenecks, toxicity, and challenges in an organization’s culture. Once that diversity map is laid out, an organization can determine where they want to go and what they want to accomplish.
What is DEI as a Service (DaaS)
Not all organizations have the time, money, or expertise to hire on full-time DEI professionals, yet they want/need to accomplish specific DEI goals in their organization. Whether it’s to be compliant with legal requirements or to increase profitability, DEI as a service can help organizations achieve goals without the costs and time of bringing a new team up to speed.