In recent years, diversity has become a hot-button issue for forward-thinking organizations. Right now, an estimated 80% of US companies have taken action on a Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion program. However, according to Harvard Business Review, most diversity programs fail. Despite several new initiatives and the use of big data in building programs, some studies show that policing people’s thoughts and feelings can actually lead to bias instead of increased diversity. 

We’ve seen countless programs implemented and we’ve done a lot of research on what works. Rather than using tactics that employees may view as control tactics, we recommend making things fun and compelling. How does a company do that, though? Browse our list of diversity program ideas below and give a few a try in your own workplace for a happier, more diverse, and more collaborative company. 

What is a diversity program? 

Diversity, equity, and inclusion programs refer to organizational frameworks that seek to promote fair treatment and full participation of all people. These initiatives include measures taken to enhance the well-being of underrepresented groups, as well as bring more participation from groups that might be marginalized within a community. An intelligently designed diversity program will improve the workplace experiences and outcomes of target group members. 

Diversity program ideas

1. Inter-departmental blueprint

Make inclusion more than a buzzword by involving team members. Hand-pick cohorts who would make great representatives for your diversity initiatives and get everyone into a room together. Make sure there is representation from all of your departments and teams, and task them with doing research on DEI activities. They should start by evaluating the current gaps and coming up with specific goals, and then developing a roadmap for how to close those gaps and accomplish the goals. For more ideas on cross-functional collaboration, make sure to follow our blog. 

2. Hiring performance ratings

If you have team leaders who are responsible for regularly hiring, you may want to periodically review their practices and stats. This will help to ensure that all managers are making fair pay and promotion decisions. There should be a goal of identifying and rewarding the top talent, as well as providing a litigation shield. It’s common for companies that are sued for discrimination to learn that their performance ratings systems allow biased treatment. With more proactive effort, this won’t take you by surprise, and you can get employee participation along the way. 

3. Intersectionality workshops

To deepen employees’ understanding of how various aspects of identity intersect, you can hold a special workshop. In the discussions, you can cover the complex relationship between factors like race, gender, sexuality, etc. This can help everyone to understand the challenges and perspectives of colleagues with multiple marginalized identities. This is a great team cohesion strategy as well. 

4. Diversity hackathon

These events bring employees together to address inclusion collaboratively. Divide everyone into small groups to brainstorm, develop, and present innovative solutions to specific diversity-related issues. Ask teams to look at specific challenges to diversity and inclusion and work together to come up with solutions that they can present to leadership. 

5. Diversity calendar of events

Some workers might feel alienated if you only celebrate the most common holidays. If you have a multiethnic workforce, it’s important to recognize dates that matter to others as well. One way to do this is to put together a calendar of events that’s inclusive of all cultures or religions. Learning about new holidays or celebrations is a powerful exercise for everyone in expanding their horizons. Make sure all employees have the opportunity to add special dates to the company calendar. You’ll also want to include any diversity-focused events your company is hosting, along with potential group volunteer opportunities. 

6. Innovation grants

Sometimes you have to put your money where your mouth is! Support research and innovation projects related to DEO initiatives by offering grants on topics like workplace bias, diversity in product design, or inclusive culture events. Let employees know that there is a grant with actual funding at stake, and they are able to propose diversity programs for a chance to win a budget for implementing their program. That way, your own employees can come up with ideas to address diversity-related challenges, and you will have an actual line item in your budget to pull it off. 

7. Employee value proposition

An EVP is the total monetary and non-monetary value provided to workers for their efforts and contributions to the company. An EVP shows your entire workforce that you truly live by core values, including diversity and inclusion. You may also want to include a statement from your CEO, which is a good indicator that you are serious about diversity strategies and making them part of your overall mission. Have your leadership develop this statement and share it at your next team-building retreat or all-company meeting. 

8. Photo bulletin

What better way to get to know your colleagues than to get a glimpse into their real life? Put up a bulletin board where people can add photos that display their family, cultural events, or other elements of their community that they’re excited about. Have employees place photos or other memorabilia that can spark a conversation with others in the office. This is also a great way for employees to learn new things about each other and get to know each other better. 

9. Accessibility initiatives

It’s important to make your workplace inclusive of disabled people as well as ethnic or cultural groups. Perform research on the physical, digital, and assistive accommodations that make things easier on any staff who may have disabilities. Everything from wheelchair ramps to screen-reading technologies should be on the table as a way to help employees in your workplace. This is important not only for meeting legal requirements but also showing employees that you actually care about them and demonstrating the values that matter to you - which can be a powerful motivator for attracting and retaining top talent. 

10. Culture day

There are so many great cultural elements that can bring people together. Music, styles of dance or dress, food… the options are nearly endless. Schedule a day where employees can bring in some of these elements to share their culture. If you want to take things a step further, consider hosting a series of classes focused on learning new cultural elements. For example, you could offer a weekly cooking class where people teach others to cook a dish that was prominent in their upbringing, or a monthly dance class where people learn various dances from different countries represented in your office. 

11. Fashion display

Incorporate fashion into your diversity initiatives for a fun spin on things. Encourage your employees to wear attire and accessories that represent their culture. Employees can wear things like team jerseys, traditional costumes, special jewelry, or regional colors - anything that gives other coworkers an idea about what is special to them. However, you may want to set some expectations ahead of time, just to make sure everyone is work appropriate. 

12. Word clouds

These are fun team-building exercises that can help with diversity ideas. Start by having everyone in your group complete a survey or questionnaire where they add the first word that comes to mind when they think of a certain topic. Some examples are food, clothing, family, etc. Collect the responses, and then create a word cloud using an online program. In a word cloud, the font of the most commonly used words are bigger and more noticeable. Then use it to host a discussion on concept variety and similarities. 

13. “Pair and share” exercise

Employees should be an active part of fostering an inclusive, positive work environment. You can facilitate this by splitting people into pairs and having them look for similarities and differences. This will help people to not only get to know each other better, but collaborate more effectively over time. The idea is to help people learn how to connect better and celebrate their differences. You can do this in person or you can set up Zoom meetings in pairs. 

14. Diversity expert speaker

Inviting public speakers is a key part of encouraging diversity and inclusion in your workplace. Having a speaker who is really familiar with the subject matter is a good way to give credibility to your ideas and get employees excited about new initiatives. Perform a search in your area for professionals with great credentials, or reach out to HR associations or other industry groups to see if you can get a great recommendation. 

15. Online lecture

For teams that are scattered, you can still coordinate a great educational session. Plenty of diversity experts are willing to participate in online sessions or virtual panels. Do your research and find a great topic, and then invite all of your virtual workforce to participate via Zoom. Everyone is bound to learn something new that can be helpful to the company’s outcomes. 

16. Meeting leader rotation

One simple way to encourage more diversity in day-to-day events is to switch up who is running a meeting. This also demonstrates to your leadership team that you’re serious about including everyone. By experiencing different meeting facilitators, your entire group will gain new perspectives and approaches. Start by asking your leadership team to take on one or two meetings per month that they’ll prepare and set an agenda for. Make sure all meetings are adequately covered with a different leader for each instance. 

17. Review pay policies

This happens at the leadership level but will affect everyone within the organization. The top management of your company should make it a point to review employee compensation and make sure there are no discrepancies present that could be hurting a protected class. You may also want to bring in a consultant to help review your payment plans and provide you with information on current market rates. Let employees know that you are doing this, so they feel extra supported. 

18. Encourage referrals

Personal referrals are a great way to source diverse candidates. If your workforce is already somewhat diverse, focus on encouraging your current employees to recruit their friends or contacts. Make sure to communicate your goals of building out a more diverse workforce and be open to employee feedback on the best way to do this. 

19. Implement flexible work arrangements

One of the best ways to support all of your employees is to institute flexible work policies. This allows people of all backgrounds, faiths, and situations to enjoy holidays, events, and hobbies that are relevant to their culture. Some employers set a certain number of holidays that employees may take at their choosing rather than adhering to a traditional holiday calendar. For more ideas on improving overall employee well-being, check out our blog. 

20. Celebrate additional holidays

As we just touched on, not everyone celebrates the same holidays. Consider celebrating holidays and events for underrepresented groups like Black History Month, Juneteenth, and Pride in your office. Make sure they are included in your corporate calendar and that employees know they have full support to be off of work and participate in these days. 

Traits of a successful diversity program

As you can see, there is no shortage of potential diversity program ideas that you can implement. How can you ensure that they’re effective, though? The truth is that diversity measures are most meaningful when certain steps are included. Impactful diversity initiatives have the following in common. 

1. Backed by needs analysis

If you don’t have a thorough understanding of your current situation, then it’ll be hard to create initiatives that make a difference. You might want to start with in-house focus groups, engagement surveys, or other research efforts. This is a good way to see where you excel and where there is still room for improvement. 

2. Guided by a roadmap

You won’t get far without a firm structure for guidance. You need all of your company leaders to be on the same page, and the best way to make that happen is to create a blueprint based on everyone’s feedback and what you discovered in your initial needs analysis. 

3. Leadership buy-in

As mentioned, your company leaders will play a key role in implementing diversity measures and making them a success. Without consensus among them, it’ll be hard to execute on any meaningful changes. Make sure to encourage personal development as well as programs like mentorship opportunities. 

4. Targeted hiring programs

Specific recruitment initiatives can go a long way in your hiring processes. Start by considering ways to improve your company’s attractiveness to a broader pool of potential workers. From there, you can actively recruit members of underrepresented ethnic groups inside your organization.

5. Measurable goals and objectives

A philosophy that’s too overarching won’t help with much. Many firms start with a lot of big ideas, but not many concrete objectives. How can you know whether or not you’re succeeding if you don’t know exactly what you set out to do? Make sure to have specific goals that you’ll keep an eye on, and a schedule for how often you’ll do so. 

6. Diversity management

You may want to consider creating a position especially designed for implementing your program. This ensures there’s a person actually keeping tabs on your overall diversity and inclusion initiatives. You could also set up an inter-departmental Employee Resource Group that is meant to handle various diversity initiatives, including measuring them and updating executives on progress.   

7. Regular evaluations

Once you have your measurable goals set, choose a cadence for how often you’ll check your progress. Make it a point to regularly evaluate each of your initiatives and adjust them as necessary. 

Great diversity program examples

As we mentioned, more companies than ever before are focusing on diversity initiatives. That being said, some are doing a better job than others. In case you need some inspiration, here are a few of the companies that are doing diversity right. 

1. SharkNinja

A product development and e-commerce company that makes popular kitchen items like specialty blenders and grills, SharkNinja prides itself on being a healthy, equitable, and inclusive workplace. They have put into practice hiring standards that promote diversity, as well as a global DEI advisory board. They also implemented subcommittees focused on training, education, and employee resource groups. 

2. ADP

ADP supplies tools that help to manage human resources activities like payroll, recruitment, managing employee benefits plans and overseeing time-off requests. It’s also part of a larger coalition called OneTen, which is made up of employers who facilitate upskilling and new career opportunities for people of color. They also have several other employee-led resource groups that help with things like unconscious bias. Finally, they put in place a Diversity & Inclusion Talent Task Force to promote recruiting and hiring among underrepresented groups.

3. Ally Financial

This financial company is famous for helping customers with savings accounts, credit cards, auto loans and wealth management services. They have done a lot to show their commitment to DEI. As an example, they implemented training to help leadership identify cognitive bias. They also set minimum wage at $23 while regularly reviewing payscales to ensure equity. A large percentage of their organization is involved with employee resource groups meant to build connections and promote positive changes. 

4. Accenture

A huge consulting firm that provides services like analytics and AI to business clients in more than 120 different countries, Accenture has implemented mandatory steps that help with DEI. Things like employee training on antiracism and unconscious bias as well as equal access to medical coverage for the LGBTQA community make their team more diverse and more supported.  Accenture is particularly focused on creating a gender-balanced workforce and right now 47% of their employees are women. 

5. Autodesk

This software company is helpful for managing construction projects or designing virtual effects for movies and games. Their focus on diversity and inclusion has resulted in multiple community partnerships with groups like the Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers and AfroTech. They also created a special program to provide coaching and mentorship to prepare people of color for promotions to leadership roles. They’ve also instituted several resource groups to promote belonging at work. 

Include diversity into your next team-building event

Diversity is great for overall team building. What better way to support collaborative teams than making sure everyone feels included, heard, and supported? If you have initiatives in place to make sure that your workforce is diverse, you’ll be able to leverage different perspectives and points of view, which can be hugely beneficial. 

Incorporate diversity initiatives into all of your team-building events, including retreats or meetings. A team building retreat is an excellent place to host meetings on DEI, bring in speakers, facilitate discussions, or present new initiatives. Weave your various diversity programs into your next company retreat agenda for an event that leaves employees feeling excited, motivated, and totally bought in to your biggest diversity goals. If you’re not sure exactly how to execute on such an event, reach out to Surf Office. We help companies plan company retreats that invigorate them and put your company values on full display - including diversity and inclusion.