Make Sure the Water Goes on the Fire

by Tammy Klugh

Vice President, Diversity & Inclusion Global Human Resources
Kelly Services, Inc.

What is the ROI for diversity? For years, practitioners and corporate executives have struggled to answer this question. Hundreds of experts, researchers, and publications in the diversity field grapple with the issue—some of them promising “magic formulas” to quantify a company’s investment.

Sometimes, the most widely sought answers are right under our nose. It reminds me of something my firefighter husband often says to new recruits: “Despite all of the complex lessons, powerful tools, and intense training you’ll receive as an up-and-coming fireperson, don’t forget the main goal is to make sure the water goes on the fire.” In other words, don’t over-think a solution to the point of paralysis.

“The current business climate offers excellent opportunities to prove the necessity and value of diversity.”

I try to apply that same wisdom to the area of diversity. There are complex reasons the human psyche causes people to subconsciously gravitate toward homogeneity and exclusivity. Given this fact—which can probably be traced to the beginning of time—how do we address inclusion issues in a business setting where profitability is the main goal? What are we left with when we recognize we may not be able to solve the world’s societal problems; when we remember we can’t turn for-profit corporations into therapist offices; when we understand compliance and the legal system can go only so far in changing behaviors?

My view: keep the goal simple, and accept progress from all corners. The current business climate offers excellent opportunities to prove the necessity and value of diversity. The unpredictability of the market and the rapid growth of technology have created fierce competition to provide the finest goods and services. In turn, companies are scrambling to find the most innovative, analytical, and productive talent to deliver those goods and services. The problem is talent demand is outstripping talent supply. Diversity factors such as the declining global birthrate and the globally aging workforce are converging, forcing companies to seek new or undertapped sources of talent to achieve their business goals. The search for the best and brightest people has become a business imperative.

In this highly competitive climate, the ROI of diversity and inclusion becomes easier to quantify. The talent supply/demand mismatch requires companies to “cast the net wider” to find top talent, and embrace demographic groups who have faced barriers in the past. Today, companies that continue to create— or even unwittingly allow—barriers for immigrants, ethnic minorities, women, individuals with disabilities, those in the LGBT community, or any other group based on their demographic makeup will lose in the competition game.

It may not be the way diversity professionals imagined the water getting on the fire. It may seem too easy to see inclusion being driven by sheer business need rather than by our tools and training or a revolution in human thought and ethics. But diversity ROI is part of the age-old economic premise of supply and demand nothing more, nothing less. The water is getting on the fire, and we need to remember that’s been the goal all along.

This article has been sponsored by:
Springboard Consulting