172: 3 Easy Ways to Finally Get Started on Your Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Communications

It's February 1, 2022, the first day of Black History Month. If your company does not have any communications out today about this month, I've got you. Welcome to the Indestructible PR Podcast, where we use current events and tested media and PR strategies to help you manage a crisis and build an indestructible reputation. In this episode, we're gonna share three ways to finally get started on your diversity, equity and inclusion communications at a time when you really don't have much more time to lose. A few weeks ago, I gave a webinar to participants in my Indestructible online membership. It was about taking steps to strengthen their DEI communications. Now, January, I felt, was an important month to do this because it's the month before Febr, Black History Month, and it's often a month that many companies apply their only communications relating to diversity, equity and inclusion. One could argue, one should argue that companies should communicate DEI efforts every month. But for many, it's the only month. Now it's 2022. After the year 2021, and particularly the year 2020, it's time. So if you work for a nonprofit, a not for profit, for profit, corporate, big corporate, small corporate, small business, big business, you own your own biz, or you work on behalf of clients as a consultant or through another organization or association, whatever it is, you get it. It's time. Honestly, it is getting more difficult to not communicate about your DEI efforts than it is to do so. So I know that many communicators who want to do it, they know they need to do it, but they're holding back. And there are many reasons why they do. But the ones that I hear more often than not are they're not sure what their leadership wants or thinks about it, so they don't want to bring it up. Or if they do put DEI communications out there, they don't want it to be empty or fall flat. They don't want it to sound like platitudes or that they're not doing enough. So the easier the path of least resistance is to avoid it altogether. But I feel in my work, whether it's working with clients or watching clients or just watching trends online, diversity, equity and inclusion communications is no longer a nice to have. It is a need to have. So it helps to have a plan for action. So in this episode, I'm just going to give you three ways to finally get started in DEI communications. So let's break this down. What do we mean by dei? First, diversity. It's all the ways that individuals are different Equity Allocation of resources and opportunities to create equal outcomes Inclusion Creation of environments and practices to welcome and support any individual or group Are you someone when you hear the word diversity or Diversity Communications or dei, do you just think of communication surrounding black people working in America? African Americans Black History Month Responding to what happened in Minneapolis two years ago, Juneteenth DEI is so much more. It's about all the ways that people are different. So it's a big task. It's not easy, so it's understandable. If communicators if companies struggle with this, diversity matters. And the business case behind diversity communication grows stronger each year because the stats don't lie. According to McKinsey, corporations identified as more diverse and inclusive are 35% more likely to outperform their competitors. According to Harvard Business Review, diverse companies are 70% more likely to capture new markets. And according to People Management, diverse Teams are 87% better at making decisions. So even with this evidence, companies are facing significant challenges in creating work environments that are inclusive. 78% of employees who responded to a Harvard Business Review study said they work at organizations that lack diversity in leadership positions. And a Gallup poll stated that 45% of American workers experience discrimination and or harassment in the past year. Now, what does the experience around people working within organizations that have diversity, equity, inclusion have to do with communications? Well, in your role as a communicator, it is your job to communicate all of it. Communicating DEI is not just about slapping social media posts in the month of February. It is putting out a message about the culture, the value system and the guiding principle of your organization as it relates to dei. Now, your role as a communicator, you are on the front lines. Your role is a significant one in crafting and sharing the voice of your organization. And with this responsibility comes a commitment to being inclusive, communicating honestly and advocating for transparency. The work of a communicator is to build relationships with key stakeholders. That's what you do every single day in your job. But in order to do this, your words and your actions must consider what all the communities in which your organizations operate and you must communicate a clear position on social issues. I know it is not easy to do if you work for a company that doesn't normally do it. Anyone listening? Now who works for big corporate, it's normally not as much of an issue these plans are in place. But I know many of you. I know many of you who listen, work for smaller organizations or you work on behalf of other clients who do not have these programs in place. And oftentimes because they just don't have the resources, it's left to just a few people to be able to put on these plans. And they're big. They're big tasks. So again, like I said in the beginning, sometimes it's easier not to do it. But without DEI Communications, you risk a crisis from employees, key stakeholders, investors, and the public at large. So here are three easy ways to get started or strengthen the DEI communications that you have. First, just as corporate branding is not just a marketing thing, DEI is not just an HR thing or a PR or a comms thing. Leadership needs to be involved because leadership is going to understand the value system for your entire company or organization. So as a communicator, you should have that conversation with leadership to know exactly where your company stands. And if you work big corporate, you already likely have plans in place. You already have media campaigns around it. But ask yourself this question. Do you know your leadership's true feelings on the issue? Is it just in the communication or can the culture of your company back it up? Do they embrace DEI or do they just do dei? Second, update your existing social media channels and embrace a more diverse and inclusive communication style. If you are the person manning your social media, this task is on you. If you work in a bigger communication department, look at what social media is doing. See how your role in communications can support the efforts of what's being put out externally via social media or any other external or internal communication channels. But these external channels, primarily social media, that is the soapbox, if you will, for people who are gauging the culture of your organization and your organization's role as it relates to dei. Remember, DEI communications is not just about checking a box. It's about sending a message about your culture again to key stakeholders. But remember, sometimes those those key stakeholders are future employees. People who you want to recruit to come work there, people who you are actively recruiting to work there, current employees. There's so many other stakeholders that those messages are going to be communicating to. It's not just social media. It's your organization's website, it's the intranet, it's advertising, and so much more. Now, again, big corporate. You work for a big organization, you have a big PR or comp shop. How can your organization go even deeper? How can they do it even better? And what role do you have in making that happen? Third, and you can do this across the board, update the language you use based on your stakeholder conversations. Create or leverage a diversity statement and key messages. Review to ensure that the language is inclusive throughout all of your communications and messaging and make sure that you share everything on all of your existing channels. Remember, DEI isn't just a social media thing, so go beyond the text and consider inclusion in the visuals you use across your social media channels. Representation matters, so it's important that the visuals you use reflect this. Create a more diverse image library. There are so many great and free resources out there to help you do this and if you have a company that has a budget, even better. But keep this in mind as you are engaging in step one and reviewing your existing channels. What content do you currently have that supports DEI and where do you have the opportunity to demonstrate what more inclusion towards gender, race, age, identity, ability and so on. There's so many different areas where you can update the language and the imagery. Think about it. No company, no matter how big they are, couldn't stand to use more updating in the area of dei. In every podcast I add one indestructible tip. It is that leave behind tip that I don't want you to forget that is going to help you build an indestructible reputation. Remember, it's not just about putting a label out there that says, hey, we're a diverse company. It helps you in so many different areas with recruitment, retention, engagement and culture diversity. It just makes sense all all around. That's all for this week on the podcast. If you want to participate in my indestructible online membership and be a part of the monthly webinar trainings that we have, you can check out information online@mollymcpherson.com you can look at the top of the homepage and there's a link to Indestructible Online. Or you can reach out to me directly via social media. I'd be happy happy to speak with you about it. We have memberships for solo practitioners, but we also have membership for organizations that hire my company for trainings either virtually or in person. All participants that do our training immediately get put into our indestructible online community where you can extend the learning from these weekly podcasts. So thanks for listening. We'll see you here next week. Bye for now.