The Importance of a Global DEI Approach
There’s no longer any doubt that diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) are important to an organization’s continued success. Now the question remains: how do we implement effective DEI strategies at a global scale?
Due to budget constraints and a lack of readily-available content, most organizations have a North American-centric DEI approach with a focus on inequity, exclusion and racial injustice in the U.S. This is reflected in organizational DEI initiatives, with 84% of DEI leaders choosing to settle for “one-size-fits-all” programming for their employees (Crescendo DEI, 2020). But North American-centric content is only applicable to a subset of a workforce that is spread across the globe. A truly inclusive DEI strategy has to meet employees where they are and address the nuance of DEI in their own regions - otherwise, the result is a feeling of othering and exclusion for those whose experiences aren’t accurately represented.
The fundamentals of diversity, equity and inclusion learning may be applicable across regions - concepts such as bias, cultural competency and microaggressions are relevant to social and political contexts at a global level. But organizations that go deeper and address DEI in the local context for their global offices will see stronger results, both for their DEI programs and for their organizational performance.
The difference of a global approach
1. Strengthen your international teams
When done right, DEI work connects individuals through shared learning, experiences and mutual understanding. Having a global approach to DEI programming helps extend those connections across borders, which is essential for productive multinational teams.
Global DEI programming allows for genuine inclusion by creating regional representation. Interacting with DEI programming that is tailored to their region helps employees feel visible, and prevents teams from feeling isolated or alienated from the HQ population.
In turn, this helps create a sense of belonging - a feeling that allows employees to bring their full selves to work. More than ever, in the age of virtual communication and remote work, cultivating a sense of belonging within your global teams can also improve employee retention and innovation.
2. Maintain global cultural competence within your organization as a whole
With rapid globalization in the last decade, the importance of global partnerships and connectivity has skyrocketed. As a result, the need for cultural competence - the ability to understand and communicate with people from other cultures effectively, is greater than ever.
Global DEI programming helps address this and even helps improve collaboration between international teams by reducing cross-cultural misunderstandings and ethnocentrism - evaluating other cultures based on one’s own cultural standards. Using a global approach here can allow individuals within your teams to develop cultural knowledge beyond the region they are situated in. This can enhance their collaborations with other teams, partners and stakeholders.
3. Align your core company values at a global level
Do your company values include diversity, inclusion, and belonging? By extending your DEI efforts to an international scale, and taking into account the unique needs of each region, you can honor these values and engage every employee in bringing them to life through their day-to-day. At first glance it may seem straightforward to set the same values and strategies at global scale - but every region’s own culture and norms need to be considered when communicating these values.
Here are two ways you can customize your approach for different regions:
Engage local leaders in developing model behaviours for each value that align with the local culture - individualist and collectivist cultures might have very different understandings of your values in practice.
Provide localized content for DEI learning. While the core definitions may be the same, the way they show up in the local workplace differs region by region. Our global partners see the difference that localized content makes - employees are far more willing to participate in weekly DEI learning when the content is personalized to them. See how you can leverage Crescendo’s regional support to provide always-fresh localized content to your global teams.
Successful DEI programs strive for equity at all levels - community, regional, national and global. Global DEI programming strengthens connectivity within individual teams, fosters cross-cultural collaboration and mutual understanding, and encourages company-wide inclusion of employees from all regions where you operate. When planning and developing your DEI strategies, consider implementing a global lens to DEI and exploring inclusion beyond your HQ region.
58% of DEI leaders struggle to support international employees with localized DEI programming (Crescendo DEI, 2020). Connect with us to learn how Crescendo provides DEI content catered to the interests of international teams!
