Dean Curtis, Group Managing Director at LexisNexis Risk Solutions and President & CEO, ICIS, part of the data and analytics company, RELX.
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As a business leader, my role carries both the privilege and responsibility to provide a platform and look for opportunities to make a difference not only for our company and people but also for society. Diversity is the outcome of inclusion—embracing all our differences, experiences and beliefs in an environment that enables people to be the very best version of their true authentic selves.
As a company with customers and employees all over the world, we at my company truly understand the value and benefit a team receives from diversity. We believe that an inclusive environment is essential for high performance, nurturing big ideas and developing industry-changing innovation.
How To Measure A Diverse Workplace
It is hard to manage what you can’t measure, but the answer is not simply to hire people to meet a metric and quota. If we only look at data or outcomes, we discover that we will never get the best from our people. The company culture must ultimately be conducive to a sense of belonging, which lends itself to performance.
In order to be sustainable, inclusion must come before diversity. This is not about just coaching or “fixing” diverse or once-marginalized talent. We must dramatically re-envision the environment in which we perform, as well.
Traditional education systems often do not help so much as to encourage conformity in the interest of passing the same tests, wearing the same clothes and speaking the same language. But true innovation—and the best decisions—come from different ways of thinking and behaving. As Dr. Amy Edmondson once said: “Anyone’s voice can be mission critical.”
As leaders, how do we create a culture where everyone’s voice is heard and valued?
Attracting A Diverse Workforce
We live in an era of industrial change, and new skills are critical to supporting an aging workforce that has historically been dominated in many areas by white males. As we move further from the industrial revolution, people no longer need to stand by machines. Data literacy and being digitally native are crucial skills as the blend of humans and technology now generate significant value.
We must also support, address and change cultural bias in the workplace as we introduce the new skills needed for the future, both in existing and new talent. We at ICIS have a very diverse workforce in terms of age, with employees who have been with us for decades, as well as younger millennial and Gen-Z cohorts with different digital skills and ways of consuming information.
We should encourage young, diverse talent to go into STEM subjects within education systems, as these teach the skills needed to solve some of the largest problems of the coming decades and will be in high demand. There are also emerging areas where different talents will be sorely needed and in short supply, such as in digitalization and sustainability.
One of the fundamental changes needed to deliver diversity is in the traditional recruitment processes. When looking to fill a vacancy, we should focus on what the role requires over historic prerequisites such as academic qualifications. Certain technical acumen will be required for some roles, and we will need to make sure people have the specific capabilities required for a role, but we should also give some thought to what qualities and behaviors are needed for success.
Hiring Isn’t The Biggest Challenge: It’s Getting The Best Out Of Talent
When we have hired the best talent to evolve our culture, how do we ensure they do not change in order to fit in? When individuals can bring their best selves to the table, they are able to put forth the very insights for which we hired them in the first place. This allows the business to truly embrace the experiences and diversity they bring. Encompassing a wide range of perspectives and providing role models not only for different identities as well as generations will be critical. This is just one reason representation is so important at the executive level.
We at ICIS and RELX strive to future-proof our talent pipeline through diversity targets and strategies designed to hire from diverse talent pools. Internal programs are in place to accelerate both gender and ethnic diversity, and every leader has a relating KPO, but we have so much more to do. We are not going to just hire to meet numbers but must develop an ethnically and gender-diverse talent across our organization to create an inclusive culture where the best talent can thrive.
In Summary
There is so much more we can and need to do to improve diversity and inclusion. Measurement is a key first step, but we must ensure it is followed by a wider and executive-level commitment to reach certain milestones.
I am fortunate enough to be a trustee of the McKenzie Delis Foundation, which publishes a unique report of leading U.S. and U.K. organizations that seek to uncover best practices as well as areas for progress and improvement. Ultimately, culture will define us, and talent attraction and acquisition are key. We must be careful in what we ask for in terms of education and experience when we hire people for who they are in the interview process. We must also be creative in where we search for this talent.
Most importantly, the best thing we can all do to develop talent is commit to all playing our part in building a truly inclusive environment where people belong and can be the very best version of themselves. This takes constant hard work from everyone.
In our fast-paced world, taking the time to understand others’ views is no longer a luxury but a necessity. We must have the courage and the curiosity to look at the world through the lens of others. Only when people can do this will they be able to truly speak up without fear of judgment. This is essential to getting the best outcomes, ideas, performances and decisions out of our teams, enabling our organizations and society to thrive.
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