Here's the 3-step plan leaders need to use to achieve 'critical' diversity, according to the Boston Consulting Group
DAVOS, Switzerland - Miki Tsusaka, chief marketing officer and senior partner at the Boston Consulting Group (BCG), doesn't mince words when it comes to diversity and inclusion. Championing the two values is "mission critical" for success, according to the executive who's leading change inside and outside of the company.
Speaking with Business Insider at The World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Tsusaka outlined specific ways companies can make sure they achieve the crucial endeavor of embracing - and reaping the benefits - of a diverse workforce.
And while estimates put the expenditure on diversity initiatives at $8 billion a year, the results are, to say the least, quite mixed.
To ensure success of a D&I initiative, here are the executive's three steps for leaders to follow:
1. Prioritize diversity and inclusion equally.
There has to be a 50/50 split between efforts for diversity and inclusion, according to the executive. Making your workforce more representative of the real world is only part of the equation.
Ensuring employees feel that they can be authentic and unique at work is the other part. Employ es who feel included will perform better, and stay at your company, Tsusaka said.
"You can spend a ton of money on headhunters to bring in this diverse and wonderful new talent pool - whether it's gender or race or ethnicity background - but if the receiving end isn't prepared, you've just lost all that money. The retention part of it, and letting people thrive, is such a big part of it," she said.
In 2019, BCG surveyed 4,000 US employees about inclusion, measuring the elusive value by asking respondents if they felt they could be their authentic selves at work. The report found that 78% of white, heterosexual, cis-gendered, non-veteran men without disabilities felt they were able to be their authentic selves at work. The results were less promising for women, and even worse for women of color.
"Women feel 4 to 6 [percentage points] less engaged than men. If you make that an Asian woman, it's another 7 points [lower]. The more diversity you add on top of that person, the less engagement you're getting, and you're not unlocking the potential of that person," she said.
Creating an inclusive workforce involves a number of factors, the BCG report found, including: leaders needing to be outspoken advocates of diversity, managers requiring training on best practices, and bad behavior not being tolerated.
2. Take advantage of the technological revolution.
Artificial intelligence will be changing the nature of the workplace, and it's up to business leaders to provide their employees with new skills amid these changes, the executive said.
"40% of the labor skills we need in the future, they don't even exist today," she said. "AI is taking away a lot of traditional jobs, so the jobs themselves are going to change."
The key for businesses looking to embrace a changing workforce is to re-skill their employees.
"You have to give people new skills, because the old skills don't apply," Tsusaka added. "The reskilling revolution is very exciting. In a market like Japan, it's the perfect solution for this seemingly unsolvable problem - the population isn't growing, the labor pool isn't growing."
She continued: "The technological revolution is going to help accelerate some of this requirement to upskill and reskill."
3. Model strong leadership to win the talent war.
Being a successful workplace of the future starts from the top.
"Having leadership talk explicitly about the purpose of the company - and diversity and inclusion is part of that - is another way to amplify that you are an employer of choice that takes us seriously," Tsusaka said.
When looking at the next generation of workers to enter the economy, it's even more important company leaders communicate this vision.
Research shows that the majority of Gen Z, or those born between 1996 and 2010, supports inclusion, and embraces social movements such as Black Lives Matter, transgender rights, and feminism.
Tsusaka concluded: "In the war for talent, our data suggest that what the company stands for is much more important for the next generation."