Kim Crowder, founder of Kim Crowder Consulting, joins Cheddar News to talk about why companies are adding more diversity and inclusion roles. 

Between Bells

The Rise of Diversity and Inclusion Officers in 2022

Welcome back to Between Bells Everyone. It seems like everywhere you look, companies are hiring candidates for diversity and inclusion roles. According to linkedin. It's one of the fastest growing roles in the last five years. This comes as more companies look to change and contribute to a more open, more diverse and inclusive workplace environment and society as a whole. Joining us now, Kim crowder, founder and Ceo of kim crowder consulting kim Welcome to the show. Walk us through what a diversity and inclusion officer does. Exactly. And of course, why it's necessary at so many companies. Yeah. You know, that's that's an interesting question because that changes. It shifts depending on the organization. Sometimes you'll find that diversity equity inclusion is under hr ideally we would say that that would not be the case, that the function would be on its own and have a direct seat in the C suite. So it really does depend. Here's ideally what we would like diversity equity and inclusion folks to focus on in the workplace is that they would be able to take a look at all of the numbers of the organization, both quantitative and qualitative. So what does that mean? That means looking at the data around things like retention, turnover rates, that sort of thing. But also be able to hear from team members. So they understand their exact experiences in the workplace and then start to build out functions and processes so that there's more inclusion and that there's a power shift for those who have been historically ignored why such a rise in these roles, kim. You know, you and I both know that this conversation really began to take flight at a higher level when George Floyd was murdered, right? And organizations came in and said we're ready to do something about it. I think what we're seeing now where we're about two years out of that is the organizations that really want to do this work are still talking about it. The biggest thing is is how are they going about creating space for that work to be done? Is there actual room for change? And that organizations are okay with switching up their cultures, switching up the way that they do things in their processes according to Glassdoor. And this was a little surprising to me. And I'm curious to know what you think the United Kingdom is seeing the largest growth when it comes to hiring this position. Were you surprised by that? Why the UK, you know, I think what we're seeing is that there may be a possibility that the U. K. Did not have those positions in place in the first place in the US. We've been having this conversation for years. I know people who have been in the industry for over 20 years in diversity equity and inclusion in the UK. That wasn't the case. And so those numbers may represent a surge because the UK is is sort of coming along in bringing those types of roles into the organization now where they focus could be different. For instance race is a big conversation here in the US. But what we found in europe is that oftentimes gender is the biggest conversation there, interesting. I did not know that. It's great contacts. When should a company consider hiring someone for diversity and inclusion? What what should they be looking for in that applicant? That's a yesterday. That's a yesterday thing. They should always be looking to hire for that role. Company should be immediately looking to hire for that role. What they should be looking for. What we say is for organizations who have not hired for this role, who don't really have a base point within their workplace, is to work with a partner who already does this work. For instance, my organization, we do diversity equity, inclusion consulting, getting the workplace ready to bring someone on and also don't look to bring just one person in hire a department, let that be department because no one person should be in charge of this. And they also need to make sure that that roll is included in the C suite, that they directly have a seat in that C suite. And that the CEO and CIO are very much so engaged with them in part with HR kim What are some of the things employees of color or employees of different identities? What are they up against in the workplace that many employers maybe don't recognize and need to. Yeah, that's a really great question. There's a lot of things. We know that the racial and gender pay gaps are very real. And then when you start to add things in like disability age, all of that, all of those things can be a direct impact. Also things like, you know, where are they working from? Cannes? Is the organization leaving space for folks to be remote. That specifically can benefit if the if the organization is providing support those folks who have disability. Right? And so the question around, um, you know, what are they facing? It depends on the workplace. It could be microaggressions inability to move forward in the organization. Oftentimes we're looking at sea suites that are mostly white men and then if there's women a lot of times it's white women. And so It is a myriad of things. But what it really depends on is what that looks like in a particular organization, which is how we work with our partners to find out exactly how does this look in your organization and now let's move forward based on that. What are some diversity and inclusion trends that you're watching this year for 2022 Kim. That's a great question. I think this conversation around intersectionality, one of the things you just heard me say was when we look at things like race plus gender plus, L. G. B. T. Q. I A plus plus being disabled, right? As you start to layer on identities that have been historically ignored. I think workplaces are understanding that it's not a one size fits all. That's a major trend. It's not a one size fits all. You really have to look at um what's happening exactly in that organization? Also, there's a trend right now in the ways that organizations are hiring recruiting, talent acquisition, looking at that because in the past we've sort of done this blanket approach to this now, we realize that's not good enough. Organisations have to be really careful about bias around resumes around how hiring managers are receiving information, making sure to wipe that out. And then also, where are they recruiting from? Are they giving room to recruit from spaces from folks who may not even hear about their organization in the first place. I have about 30 seconds with you, but I want to ask about your business came crowder consulting. What made you launch this Kim? Yeah. You know, it was a direct reflection of the things that I experienced in the workplace, particularly when I was in the C suite and started to see the major issues that workplaces may not have been aware of. And so that's what made me start this. I became inspired by that by my own lived experiences, but also by the experiences of other folks in different workplaces and having those conversations. And so my joint now my team and I is to be able to create space so that we can actually move this forward in partnership with our, with our clients, Kim Crowder, founder and Ceo of KIM Crowder consulting. Thanks so much for your time, kim.