DEI Strategy
From ideas to impact. Build the strategy for people, and the business, to perform.
An effective DEI strategy does more than describe who's represented. It should help the business perform.
That means starting with the business strategy, not a list of diversity groups: where does the organisation need to grow, innovate, or transform, what talent does it need, and where are capability, culture or ways of working getting in the way?
Our approach:
the PERFORM framework
Priorities → Evidence → Root Causes → Focus → Outcomes → Responsibility → Mainstream.
Seven steps, one underlying logic: what does the business need, what's happening, why, what matters most, what will change, who makes it happen, and how does it become business as usual.
Priorities
Start with the business strategy + identify and understand the organisation's strategic priorities and workforce challenges + define the performance outcomes DEI needs to support + ground the strategy in business need, and impactful outcomes, not a list of calendar events or diversity groups
Evidence
Understand what's happening, and where + analyse business performance, workforce data and employee experience + gather qualitative insight through structured listening at all levels + apply an intersectional lens to identify disparities, barriers, strengths and opportunities
Root Causes
Understand why it's happening + examine the conditions, systems and behaviours shaping outcomes: recruitment, talent, progression, pay, flexibility, work design + map power dynamics and decision-making + assess leadership, psychological safety and access to opportunity
Focus
Choose where change will have the greatest impact + prioritise the issues that matter most to people and business performance + determine priority actions, responsibility and resourcing + sequence what's tackled first against what can wait
Outcomes
Define what will be different + set measurable objectives connecting DEI to workforce and business outcomes + track relevant factors such as representation, inclusion, belonging, retention, mobility, innovation, decision quality, psychological safety, productivity, customer outcomes and risk + define what evidence will show effectiveness and progress, before the work begins
Responsibility
Link priorities to accountability structures + establish actions, ownership and governance aligned with other existing structures + connect leaders' objectives and rewards to progress + ensure leaders are accountable and resourced to deliver sustained impact
Mainstream
Make it part of how the business works + comprehensively integrate the strategic DEI objectives into people and other business systems and practices + build capability and confidence for leaders and others to support the strategy + keep measuring, learning and adjusting for sustained improvement