Canadian HR Reporter

www.hrreporter.com 11 "It just depends on what their culture is. If an employer truly believes in what they're trying to promote, it's going to be another way to benefit them from a recruitment and talent-acquisition standpoint." For those companies that don't walk the walk, it will be detrimental to have their efforts — or lack thereof — exposed, she says. "[The] flip side for those organizations [that] are not meeting those objectives, if they're saying that they're diverse but their employees and equity employees are saying the opposite, it's going to hurt them. It'll run the gamut for a while." How employers can improve DEI ratings Some employers are constantly moni- toring ratings sites such as Glassdor and reacting accordingly, says Frydenlund. "I worked for an organization before- hand and one of the things that we did was we had a group of people who were constantly reviewing the feedback that comes out to ensure if there were any steps that needed to be taken," she says. "But I would imagine it is going to call employers to task and I am very curious "Comparably is a similar employer review site that has also begun requesting demographic information from companies and reviewers and I think Comparably is a little ahead of Glassdoor in this area — they've already started providing their customers with demographic analytics." Other sites such as Chezie and Dipper are targeted at tech employees, says Robertson, and employers should be ready to keep that light shining inside their own companies if they want to attract younger workers. "There's a lot of studies showing that gen Z values are really important in the workplace but also the values of the company consistently come up as some- thing that's a factor that they're consid- ering, especially tech companies [that] are putting a lot more thought into diversity, equity and inclusion and what that looks like, your employer brand," she says. Once some of the data comes out into the open, it's up to individual organiza- tions to react accordingly, according to Lisa Frydenlund, HR knowledge advisor at the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) in Sacramento. to see how they will be responding and how it's going to trickle down and out." To enhance ratings, its not simply a matter of employers placating employees but promoting DEI values every day, says LaFlèche. "I don't think it's a matter of improving the ratings — there's always going to be happy employees and disgruntled employees — but [for] every company just to stay true to their values and diversity/inclusion is part of that and people will value that," she says. "I don't think anyone believes every- thing they read online, but, at the same time, if you can shed some light, if there is an issue or something that needs to be addressed, as long as the organization addresses it when it's brought to light and finds a great resolution that main- tains the company values and culture, that's what organization should do." One of the tools that has been employed by employers to gauge the level of DEI impact has been demographic questionnaires. Some employers put out surveys to gather feedback and, while some are really good, in asking about diversity and inclusion, it's a missed opportunity "If an employer believes in what they're trying to promote, it's another way to benefit, from a recruitment and talent acquisition standpoint." Lisa Frydenlund, SHRM more often than not, says Carayannakis. "Even though companies are constantly trying to improve, this is one area that has been left in the shadows because, if you're not asking for the feedback and creating the opportunities to give that feedback, then you're not going to get it and, there- fore, you're not going to action it." CHRR

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