What do you do if your Economics team lacks diversity and inclusivity?

Diversity and inclusivity in what sense? The sole criteria of one being in the team must be their ability to contribute positively to the team. These composition norms are laughable at its core.

💡 Address the Root Causes Identify and address the underlying factors contributing to the lack of diversity and inclusivity, such as biases in recruitment, promotion, and retention practices. source 🌐 Expand Outreach and Recruitment Actively seek out and recruit candidates from diverse backgrounds by partnering with organizations and institutions that represent underrepresented groups. source 🌱 Foster an Inclusive Culture Create a welcoming and supportive work environment where individuals from all backgrounds feel valued and respected. 📊 Data Collection and Analysis Collect data on the demographics of your Economics team to understand the current state of diversity and track progress over time.

Once you understand the current state, establish clear goals for improving diversity and inclusion in your team via setting targets for recruitment to ensure a more diverse candidate pool.

To improve diversity and inclusivity in your Economics team, focus on inclusive hiring practices, provide diversity training, foster an open and respectful workplace culture, and regularly evaluate progress to make necessary adjustments.

Important to understand why/if this has happened? Was it intentional? Or due to some biases- your own or of key members in the team? Also, need to define what diversity & inclusivity should mean for your team (it can be different for different teams & settings).

Share your findings and brainstorm goals together with the team. A transparent goal with clear steps and a discussed result always has a high chance of being achieved.

1 - Diversity begins at the top ⏫ Enrich your leadership team with key players from various personal and professional backgrounds, then establish a corporate structure to encourage mentoring and inclusive hiring practices. 2 - Hiring top diverse talent presents challenges due to a limited talent pool. It's crucial to invest in a strong internal education system. Equally important is a collective corporate effort. After all, who else will help expand the diverse talent pool? 3 - Some old-school rules need adjusting. Finance is deeply traditional which is fantastic at times, but evolving with adaptive leadership ensures resilience and longevity. So, let's start asking questions to drive positive change & attract and retain diverse talent.

Communication- the glue which keeps the team together and effective. Over communication does not hurt anyone, but under-communication can really mess things up. Encourage team members to be sensitive and careful, but open at the same time.

In addition to setting up mentor-mentee relationships in teams, it is important to monitor the outcomes of those relationships regularly to ensure the relationships are mutually beneficial or achieve the desired outcome. Set milestones for the mentors and mentees and allow the relationship to continue formally for at least 6 months.

Organizations increasingly hire a Chief Diversity Officer, a senior member within HR to focus on developing and executing their DEI policies, preventing discrimination, and recruiting a diverse group of employees.