As DEI is increasingly politicized, HR still has some low-hanging fruit available.
DENVER — HR professionals aiming to improve diversity, equity and inclusion in their workplaces may feel hamstrung by today’s cultural climate and the Trump administration’s commitment to rooting out “illegal DEI.”
But there are some relatively uncontroversial efforts on which they can focus, experts said last week at the American Bar Association’s annual labor and employment law conference.
HR professionals may have noticed that there are seemingly fewer employers publicly sharing demographic information related to hiring, promotion and pay — but that doesn’t mean they’re not collecting that data, according to Elizabeth Mabey, senior labor and employment counsel at manufacturer Johns Manville. “I believe companies still care about it and are still doing it,” she said.
There’s plenty of work that can be done to advance pay equity for employees performing similar work, and it’s relatively “low-hanging fruit,” according to Susan Garea, shareholder at law firm Beeson, Tayer and Bodine.
Such efforts can include conducting assessments and striving for greater transparency, according to a supporting paper from co-panelist Pamela Coukos, co-founder and CEO of consultancy Working IDEAL. “Regular pay equity reviews are increasingly important to respond to changing laws and evolving market expectations for greater pay transparency,” she wrote.
HR professionals also could analyze barriers to equal...
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