The Power of Partnership - The Role of Internal Communications in DEI
In today’s business landscape, diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives are facing mounting scrutiny. Despite years of effort and investment, some organisations are questioning whether these efforts are truly delivering the cultural shifts they promised. Concerns over “DEI fatigue” are on the rise, as businesses grapple with the perception that DEI initiatives may be performative, siloed, or disconnected from broader business goals. With economic pressures and political debates challenging the legitimacy and impact of DEI, some are asking: Is DEI on the decline, or can it still drive meaningful change?
While some of these concerns may be valid, they often stem from organisations taking a fragmented, short-term approach to DEI. Often, activities are a knee-jerk response driven by a desire to move to rapid action, and are often an implementation of something that they have seen work in another organisation.
Too many businesses treat DEI as a box-ticking exercise or focus solely on symbolic events like Black History Month or International Women’s Day. Without a clear strategy, such efforts can be seen as token gestures that fail to address systemic inequities. However, the reality is that DEI is not dying—it is evolving. And, when aligned with core business strategies, it remains a powerful driver of success and innovation.
Successful organisations who are really moving the dial on DEI take a systemic, strategic approach. They recognise that creating an inclusive organisation requires widespread mindset and behaviour shifts and therefore needs to be approached as a culture change. Just as importantly, they understand that they are operating in a system, and that they need to ensure the activities they implement are aligned with each other and to the organisational strategy.
One of the critical levers for transforming DEI from a fading trend into a lasting culture shift is the strategic partnership between DEI and Internal Communications (IC). IC professionals hold the keys to influencing behaviour, creating alignment, and ensuring that DEI initiatives are understood, embraced, and sustained across the organisation. By fostering collaboration between DEI and IC, companies can move beyond superficial commitments and work towards genuine, systemic inclusion.
The ABCD of Aligned DEI
At Liberare Consulting we use the ABCD of Aligned DEI, which outlines the four key components that should underpin any DEI strategy:
Ambition: Clearly define and communicate the organisation’s DEI vision and strategy. This includes aligning DEI goals with the broader business objectives and ensuring that key stakeholders, particularly senior leadership, are on board. It also includes clear governance structures and accountability for DEI throughout the organisation.
Behaviour: Focus on developing and reinforcing the individual and collective behaviours that support diversity and inclusion. This includes a definition of expected behaviours, training and development, and senior leadership role modelling of inclusive behaviours.
Context: Consider both the internal and external factors that influence the pace and success of DEI initiatives. This could include the company’s existing culture, competing business priorities, and broader social movements that could impact employee or customer perceptions.
Design: Develop systems and processes that reinforce the desired behaviours. These structures, ranging from recruitment policies to performance management systems, ensure that DEI isn’t just a buzzword but an operational reality.
How Can DEI and Internal Communications Partner?
To drive systemic change, DEI and IC teams need to work together, leveraging their unique strengths to benefit from their collective intelligence. This partnership can accelerate the organisation’s journey towards a more inclusive culture, engaging employees at all levels. Here are just a few examples of how the ABCD model can be applied with the help of Internal Communications:
Ambition: Building a Compelling DEI Narrative
As we mentioned earlier, DEI is fundamentally about changing mindsets and behaviours—something that requires a powerful, compelling narrative. Internal Communications can collaborate with the DEI team to develop a communications plan and to craft and communicate an effective narrative, ensuring it resonates with employees. A clear and consistent DEI story can win hearts and minds across the organisation.
Behaviour: Promoting Initiatives That Drive Real Change
Communication plays a vital role in promoting key DEI behaviour change initiatives, from leadership development programmes for under-represented groups to inclusive leadership programmes. However, the success of these programmes hinges on how they are communicated. Without a thoughtful, targeted communication strategy, employees may not engage with these initiatives or, worse, may resist them due to a lack of understanding.
Internal Comms can help market these programmes, ensuring they reach the right audience and addressing any concerns, whether from participants who feel reluctant to be singled out or from employees outside the target group who may perceive the initiatives as unfair. Effective communication can help build a more inclusive culture by demystifying and normalising DEI efforts.
Context: Leveraging Organisational Insight
Internal Comms professionals may be more closely attuned to the organisational pulse than DEI teams. They have insights into the internal context—such as ongoing change initiatives—and can help ensure that DEI efforts are aligned with or complementary to other business activities. Employees are busy and bombarded with communication. By collaborating DEI and IC can prevent conflicting messages and initiatives, creating a more coherent approach to DEI activities and ensuring that DEI messages are not lost among the noise.
Design: Communicating Systems and Process Changes
Building an inclusive culture requires the modification of the systems and processes that guide everyday inclusive behaviour. Engaging under-represented employees in reviewing and developing new policies is an effective way of getting people on board, and helps ensure that the new systems and policies are robust. Internal Communications can play a pivotal role both in listening to employees, and in announcing and explaining changes, ensuring employees understand the why, what, and how behind new processes. Whether it’s a new recruitment policy or changes to performance evaluations, the IC team can ensure that these shifts are communicated transparently and consistently.
If you want to know more about Internal Communications, why not check out my friends at h&h. They are an award winning internal comms and employee engagement agency who in addition to being great to work with, have a wealth of useful information on their website.
