How to Customize DEI Programs in a Global Company: Tips and Strategies

Dear Peoplism,

I work at a small but global company. I'm having trouble finding good resources to help me understand how to meet the DEI needs of the many different countries we work in, including the UK, Spain, and Germany. Everything I read says to be mindful of differences. But other than a few differences that I have observed or vague statements that claim the US is more open to talking about differences, I’m not sure what those differences really are. I haven't found a lot of concrete guidance. Where should I turn? I'm happy to do my own research, I just don't know where to start.

This is what keeps this DEI Director up at night! Thanks in advance for any guidance you can offer.

Sincerely,
Losing Sleep in Every Time Zone

Dear Losing Sleep in Every Time Zone,

Being a DEI Director tasked with understanding how complex social inequalities play out in the workplace and driving solutions to fix those inequities is a massive job. You have to be a sociologist, demographer, management consultant, HR professional, and therapist all in one. It’s hard enough to understand the complexities of these inequalities in one country—it’s frankly impossible to be an expert on inequalities in every country around the world.

So, first, don’t beat yourself up.

That said, your desire to make sure that your DEI strategy is tailored to fit the different contexts and needs of the countries you work in is spot on. It’s just that you will need more resources and time to accomplish such a big goal. To make this goal a reality, we recommend you do two key things:

1. Build country-specific feedback & customization into each initiative in your DEIB strategy.
2. Get grounded in the demographics and social inequalities in each country

Below we'll give you concrete steps on how to get started with each of these.

Build country-specific feedback & customization into each initiative in your DEIB strategy

You’re already thinking about how to customize different aspects of your DEI strategy and programming for different countries. We recommend formally incorporating this as a step into each DEI initiative in your strategy. Doing this will show employees that country-specific customizations are a key focus of your strategy. It will also help you get the resources you need to make these customizations a reality.

For example, if your current DEI roadmap includes launching ERGs, providing company-wide training on allyship, and re-writing your job descriptions to be more inclusive, add “Get and incorporate country-specific feedback” to the project plan for each initiative.

One strategy for gathering country-specific feedback is to create a Global Roundtable type of forum for each initiative, with representatives from different countries/regions where you work. You can present plans for a particular initiative, get country-specific feedback, and integrate that feedback into the project roll-out process.

You may feel that you don’t want to burden underrepresented employees by asking them for feedback on programs meant to serve them. Certainly, you shouldn't ask for or expect hours and hours of unpaid labor. But most employees are very happy to be consulted on issues that impact them.

Of course, it's important that employees volunteer for this opportunity, rather than be "voluntold." We recommend communicating the opportunity to join the Global Roundtable to all relevant employees.

Get grounded in the demographics and social inequalities in each country

This is not going to be easy. But getting a foundational level of knowledge about key workplace inequalities in each country you serve is going to be time well spent. And if, like us, you love to learn, it’s going to be fascinating.

Here are some of our strategies and tricks for getting up to speed quickly:

1. Make a list of each country your company works in/has employees in.

2. Get friendly with Google Scholar.
Use these keyword search formulas to find relevant scholarly articles:

Workplace discrimination + [country name] + (optional [industry])
Workplace inequality + [country name] + (optional [industry])

These searches will show you current research that is being done on workplace inequality in each country, which in turn will give you a sense of the main drivers of inequality there.

For example, when I search for “workplace discrimination Germany” in Google Scholar, I see the following results:

The first page of Google Scholar results suggests that discrimination against immigrants, migrants, ethnic minorities (especially those with Turkish backgrounds), and religious minorities (especially Muslims) are top research focuses.

Next, read some articles. We know, we know, these are dense, academic articles often written in boring language on a very narrow topic. But these academic articles, regardless of the specific topic, will provide a literature review that sketches out the history and current state of the broader issues. You can be sure this review is based on other academic sources, not just people’s opinions.

Now you’ll be ready to do some general Google-ing on more business-specific topics. For example, it’s easier to figure out what you need to research to ensure your hiring training is tailored to negative stereotypes in Germany if you know that stereotypes against people who are Turkish or Muslim are a key concern there.

3. Explore the census.
For each country, find that country’s census website and explore the data.

A typical search would be: “[country] + census.” Then navigate to the “population” page or “labor” (or “labour” in some countries) market page.

This will give you the basics of the main demographic groups that are used in that country, as well as what language people in that country will be familiar with. (Note that this isn't foolproof. For example, in the U.S. we still don’t include trans people in our Census. The U.S. Census has also not caught up with the term Latine, etc. But it’s a good starting point).

For example, when we Google “UK census” we can quickly find the Office for National Statistics. We would then navigate to “People, Population, and Community” to see the type of demographics that are commonly reported. (Tip: to start, look for the word “population”). From the options available, we see “cultural identity,” which lets you go further into statistics on ethnicity, language, religion and sexual identity. The ethnicity page, for example, shows us the way that the UK census categorizes ethnicity:

You can see that these are very different categories than in the U.S., for example. You might ultimately still use broader race/ethnicity categories company-wide, but it is extremely helpful to know what kind of benchmarks are available in the UK and the official governmental language used.

4. Repeat for each country you work in.
Don't try to cram! Give yourself enough time to do this well.

Of course, the Google Scholar + Census approach isn’t going to make you an expert on DEI in each country. But it will help you grasp the relevant national and regional context so that you can better know what kind of resources you need.

Developing a DEI strategy and programming that is tailored to each specific country or region is extremely important. We can all agree on that in theory. But, in our experience, most companies are not yet willing to provide the resources needed to actually deliver on that goal. You will need significant time and resources to make this happen. You can start by baking in country customization, feedback and learning into your DEIB project planning. And of course, if you want some outside support you can always reach out to us.

We hope this helps you get some sleep!

Good luck,
The Peoplism Team

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