Diversity training isn't enough

Hey Everyone,

A retrospective by Expanding Equity studied why inclusion and diversity programs rarely produce measurable results.

A recurring finding was that the managers who made the related hiring and promotion calls had no metrics, no ownership, and no standing review to discuss the outcomes of their decisions.

Here's how to fix that, together with a new manager-level system you can run next quarter.

Programs vs. systems

If you want measurable change, start by recognizing the difference between a program versus a system: programs create activity, systems create accountability.

A program is a set of activities – a training here, an awareness campaign there – that usually sits in HR with no clear owner at the manager level. Measurement is occasional, and accountability is diffuse, so the behavior of the people making hiring and promotion decisions rarely changes.

A system assigns ownership to line managers, tracks a small set of KPIs on a regular cadence, and ties at least a couple of those metrics to performance reviews.

Where the accountability disappears in most organizations

The Expanding Equity retrospective found that even in organizations where senior leadership was visibly committed to inclusion and diversity, middle managers often had no accountability in their role descriptions and no standing review where results were discussed.

Training attendance went up while promotion rates by group stayed flat, because attending a workshop and changing how you run a hiring process are two different things.

Process changes like structured interview scorecards, diverse shortlists, and skills-based assessments turned out to be more durable than training alone, especially when a manager had a KPI attached to them.

What a strong manager-level system looks like

A workable setup has 4 components.

1. A short dashboard, reviewed quarterly

Track these 6 metrics:

• Demographics by level,
• Retention rates by group,
• Promotion rates by group,
• Candidate funnel representation,
• Pay equity markers,
• A short inclusion index or employee NPS.

A shared spreadsheet is enough to start – the goal is a number you can compare against next quarter.

2. One hiring rule, set before the search starts

The most overlooked starting point is the shortlist requirement – agreeing, before a role opens, that at least one candidate from an underrepresented group will be reviewed before a hire is made. It takes 10 minutes to set up and changes who gets considered without changing the final decision criteria.

3. A quarterly review slot inside an existing leadership meeting

Once a quarter, review your 6 metrics and ask whether anything has improved or worsened since last quarter.

If a number moved in the wrong direction, that's what you focus on. If nothing has improved after two quarters, go back to your hiring process and look for where the process isn't influencing decisions.

4. Two manager-level KPIs tied to performance reviews

Tracking metrics is not enough on its own. At least two of them need to show up in a manager's performance review – for example, whether interview panels were representative and whether promotion rates improved for specific groups.

Importantly, these metrics don't replace performance standards. Hiring and promotion decisions should still meet the same performance bar; the goal is to ensure qualified candidates are consistently considered and evaluated through structured processes.

When a manager knows these numbers will come up in their own review, the quarterly check stops being optional.

Where to start next quarter

The highest-leverage starting point is the baseline.

Pull the metrics, assign ownership, and book the first quarterly review. Without baseline data, everything else is hard to act on.

After that, pick one hiring process change and run it for a single hiring cycle. That's enough to move from good intentions to a working feedback loop.

Go deeper

👉 HBR: 7 Practical Ways to Reduce Bias in Your Hiring Process – a concise guide to structured interviews, diverse panels, and standardized scorecards, with specific steps you can apply to your next hire.

👉 McKinsey: It's Past Time to Get Strategic About DEI – covers how leading companies build DEI scorecards, tie metrics to manager accountability, and move from program to system.

👉 McKinsey: Diversity Wins: How Inclusion Matters – the research behind why inclusion at the manager level drives performance, and what separates companies that see results from those that don't.

👉 Expanding Equity: I&D Retrospective Report – the post-mortem this issue draws on, worth reading in full if you want to understand what failed across organizations and what actually changed behavior.

Coming up tomorrow

Tomorrow we'll break down three decision frameworks (RAPID, DACI, and RACI) and help you figure out how to map them against the key decisions you're contemplating.

That's it for today!

P.S. Does your team have a standing inclusion metric you review, or does it mostly show up in annual reports? Let us know.