Diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives allow businesses to create a balanced workforce where every employee has the resources they need to succeed. When your company strives to create an equitable, fair, and inclusive space, everyone benefits.

Human resources (HR) teams that enhance their DEI efforts can reduce bias in the hiring process, improve employee experience, and create a workplace where everyone thrives. In this guide, we'll explain how DEI programs work and how to improve DEI in the workplace.

What is diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI)?

Diversity, equity, and inclusion are three core values many businesses emphasize on their journey to eliminating bias in their organizations. A company that excels in DEI will have a representative workforce that listens to and values all voices.

While each of these terms is important, they work best when all three come together.

DEI definition

Each of the three pillars of DEI represents different focuses:

Diversity means having a workforce that includes various ethnicities, national origins, physical abilities, and socioeconomic statuses. It ensures representation from diverse backgrounds and identities at all organizational levels.

Equity is the active process of ensuring fair treatment for employees, considering their socioeconomic backgrounds, ethnicities, and other factors affecting their success. While equality is important, equity levels the playing field, ensuring everyone has equal opportunities to thrive, regardless of background.

Inclusion, the final part of DEI, refers to ensuring your organization empowers underrepresented groups and instills a sense of belonging in your diverse workforce. An inclusive work atmosphere means that everyone feels comfortable and supported while at work.

The three pillars are essential for creating a fair and balanced workplace. DEI initiatives particularly resonate with Gen Z employees—12% of those under 27 consider it a top priority, as highlighted by SurveyMonkey research.

What are the differences between diversity, equity, and inclusion?

It’s extremely common to see diversity, equity, and inclusion referenced by their shared acronym, DEI. While striving for all three of these characteristics in your workplace is essential, it’s also critical that HR pros understand the difference between them and what sets them apart.

Diversity is foundational for DEI. By ensuring diverse hiring boards, companies reduce bias and create fair selection committees. A diverse organization opens the company to various ideas, perspectives, and talent.

Equity focuses more about how you treat your employees. An equitable society acknowledges that everyone has different starting points and experiences that shape social differences.

A common example that HR managers falsely assume is that all of their employees and potential hires begin on the same starting line. In reality, people from different socioeconomic backgrounds could be in significantly different places.

For example, consider unpaid internships. While they appear to offer equal opportunities, they often exclude those who cannot afford to work without pay. Interns from better economic backgrounds can rely on external support, while others may struggle to go unpaid for months.

Inclusion aims to create a workplace where everyone feels valued and heard, often requiring more effort to empower certain groups, representing equitable inclusion.

Why are diversity, equity, and inclusion important?

Here are some of the most common benefits of DEI that show why diversity, equity, and inclusion are important:

Boost recruitment and retention: Top talent prefers companies that value DEI. If your business recruits a diverse workforce and promotes these values, you’ll attract more quality CVs and access top talent. Moreover, happier employees are more likely to remain in their roles longer.

Improve employee satisfaction and engagement: When you show your employees that you actively care about creating an environment where they can thrive, they will be more satisfied and engaged.

Combat systemic racism and implicit bias: When you have a lack of diversity in your hiring teams, the hiring process itself becomes compromised. People have inherent biases that are only challenged when you have a diverse range of opinions, perspectives, and people all working together to combat systemic racism.

Reduce microaggressions: Microaggressions are small comments that reinforce bigoted tropes. When someone feels supported in their organization, they’ll know they can call out microaggressions and educate people on why they should avoid them in the future.

Empower underrepresented groups: Focusing on DEI helps create fair hiring practices that build a diverse staff, ensuring that everyone’s voice is heard and supported.

Foster an inclusive workplace: When HR managers focus on improving DEI, they create an organization where people are happier, feel supported, and actively enjoy coming to work.

From productivity and retention gains to employee wellbeing and satisfaction gains, DEI is a win-win for everyone.

Diversity, equity, and inclusion in the workplace

In a recent study, SurveyMonkey research revealed that DEI is sought-after at all stages of the workplace:

82% of employees and 61% of C-level executives say their workplace prioritizes diversity and inclusion.
78% of the workforce says working in an organization that prioritizes DEI is important.
86% of women value working at an organization that prioritizes workplace diversity and inclusion, while 72% of men do.

Employees actively seek workplaces that value DEI. Converting your business into an enterprise that strives for diversity, equity, and inclusion will reap numerous benefits.

Examples of DEI in the workplace

Diversity, equity, and inclusion are vital when creating a better business where everyone feels valued. But what does DEI in the workplace look like?

Here are four examples of how your business can actively embrace DEI:

Create inclusive hiring practices: A diverse hiring board reduces bias and selects the best candidate. Utilizing diversity and inclusion officers can help achieve goals for a fair workplace.

Provide diversity and inclusion training: While many studies highlight the importance of DEI for businesses, some employees may need to grasp its significance as an organizational goal. DEI training will clarify its importance and empower employees to support workplace equality.

Create employee retention schemes: By embedding DEI strategies into your employee retention programs, you’ll improve the fair treatment of your employees. When your staff feel like you treat them fairly and accommodate their needs, you can reduce employee churn.

Highlight intersectionality: By demonstrating to your staff how valuable intersectionality is when creating a better workforce, you’ll help convert everyone into DEI champions.

Creating and implementing a DEI program in your organization will help your employees succeed at work, pushing your business to new heights of productivity, efficiency, and employee satisfaction.

Related reading: DEI in the workplace: Set goals and meet them

How to implement a successful DEI program

Building a successful DEI strategy is essential for businesses that want to thrive in the modern world.

Here’s a step-by-step guide to creating a successful DEI program.

Gain leadership support: HR teams should demonstrate to leadership why they need to implement a DEI program. Often, the most effective way of doing this is to focus on the strong links between DEI programs, high employee retention, and a better workplace culture.

Conduct demographic assessments: Businesses should use DEI surveys to determine the current representation of various demographics in their organization. Surveys highlighting employee diversity, organizational culture, belonging and inclusion, gender inclusivity, and race and ethnicity in the workplace can provide valuable data.

Set measurable goals for diversity and inclusion initiatives: Effective HR programs begin with clear, measurable goals linked to diversity and inclusion. Clearly outline the objectives and expected outcomes for your DEI initiative. Additionally, note the core DEI metrics to be discussed soon.

Outline diversity and inclusion initiatives: Identify which DEI initiatives you’ll focus on. The most effective approach is often to start by fostering a sense of belonging, challenging bias in hiring practices, and using internal data to pinpoint inequality in your organization.

Follow diversity and inclusion best practices: Ensure that your business follows the best practices for DEI. For example, you can educate your staff about the importance of DEI, create support groups for different identities in your organization, collaborate with employees to create a DEI culture, and ensure that all staff are paid fairly for their work.

Build an employee engagement program. Businesses that invest in DEI often see improvements in their employee engagement experiences. By improving your employees' work experiences with engagement action plans, you’ll help hone DEI efforts and create a better workplace culture for everyone.

Continuously improve your DEI strategy: Regularly inspect your data, engage with your outlined metrics, and report to your company on the effects of your program so far.

With these seven steps, you’ll be well on your way to implementing a winning DEI program in your organization.

Related reading: How to build a corporate diversity report

How to measure diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives

Let's review some of the most important DEI metrics you can use to track the impact of your DEI initiatives:

DEI metrics

DEI metrics are any statistics you can measure within your organization. They are useful for understanding and adapting your diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives.

Here are the most common DEI metrics:

Employee retention: Does your business have similar retention rates across different groups of people?

Employee attrition: Which demographics in your company are the most likely to leave after a set amount of time?

Recruitment: How do your application pools and hired employees compare?

Promotions: Do all dimensions of your promotion system offer your employees an equal opportunity to progress in the company?

Compensation: Are all of the salaries you offer across your business fair? Do you have a gender pay gap?

Employee engagement and satisfaction: Do your employees feel satisfied or dissatisfied with your inclusion efforts?

Brand focus groups: Do your consumers and job applicants perceive your company as diverse and equitable?

Diversity index: Do your DEI metrics offer a representational spread of different demographic groups compared to other businesses in your industry?

Diversity benchmarks: How do you stack up against other companies in your region, industry, or against your competitors?

Different students answer teacher evaluation surveys on various laptops and mobile devices.

DEI surveys

Try these DEI surveys to better understand how your program is progressing:

Exit interviews: Exit surveys allow you to solicit feedback from your churning employees. These surveys can help you pinpoint if you were doing enough to foster an inclusive atmosphere and identify how you can improve for your remaining employees.

Pulse surveys: A culture pulse survey allows your business to discover how your employees feel about your workplace culture and locate ways you could improve it.

Employee satisfaction: Employee satisfaction surveys can offer insight into how your employees feel at work, where you could improve their experience, and how you can better support DEI initiatives.

Related reading: How to measure DEI in the workplace

Launch an effective DEI initiative with SurveyMonkey

Diversity, equity, and inclusion are three vital goals that every business should prioritize. With even a few DEI initiatives, you can enhance your company’s retention rates, improve employee experiences, and build a workplace where every employee feels supported.

With SurveyMonkey, you can execute winning diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives that monitor, refine, and enhance your DEI program.

DEI FAQs

What is diversity and inclusion?
Diversity and inclusion are two distinct characteristics in a workplace. Diversity refers to the overall representation of different identities in your workplace. A diverse workplace would have many backgrounds at every level of your organization. On the other hand, inclusion refers to a company’s efforts to ensure every employee, regardless of ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, religion, or other demographic factor, feels supported by your company.
What are some examples of diversity and inclusion?
How do you promote diversity and inclusion in the workplace?
Why is diversity and inclusion important?
What are diversity and inclusion jobs?