Outcomes Over Optics: Building Inclusive Organizations

The goal of this resource is to start a conversation about moving from optics to outcomes by sharing best practices from a variety of Canadian businesses to move inclusivity forward. Deloitte has identified five concrete actions to create momentum on inclusion among Canadian businesses and within Canada more generally. These actions include:

1. Set expectations for specific, inclusive leadership behaviours: Ensure that all leaders are accountable for their behaviour and actions, take responsibility for setting the tone of inclusivity, and walk the talk of inclusive behaviour within and beyond the workplace.
2. Protect against a diversity backlash: Respond to resistance by embracing positive conflict and take action to increase the number of diverse employees by ensuring that all hiring and promotion decisions are made by a diverse group of people.
3. Empower the “inclusion generation” to prepare for the future of work: Allow millennial and Gen Z employees to have a voice in what they envision flexibility to look like in their workplace and engage all employees in a process to rethink what diversity and inclusion means in the company.
4. Don’t leave future inclusion issues for future generations to solve: Assess current processes and systems that unknowingly perpetuate bias in the workplace. For example, Deloitte replaced traditional annual performance reviews and ratings with Reinvented Performance Management (RPM). RPM enables employees to have bi-weekly or monthly development conversations with their team leader, coach or sponsor, and also allows everyone to provide and seek feedback to align with Deloitte’s strengths-based culture.
5. Own inclusion inside and outside the office: Encourage inclusive leaders to take a more public role by partnering with organizations that support diversity and inclusion communities.