It’s been a complex year for DEI practitioners. Both the market and the political landscape have been fraught, and a wave of backlash has engendered uncertainty about how companies can continue to advance equity. Practitioners, in particular, may be finding it difficult to persist toward meaningful organizational change in the face of contentious conversations and media firestorms generated across the political spectrum. There is mounting concern that public corporate commitments to improving workplace equity are superficial and ultimately ineffectual. This might lead many to fear what have become highly polarizing terms, among them the word “diversity” itself.

However, many strides have been made over the past year to help companies wade through complexity and effect concrete change, in particular by investing in and building meaningful relationships with employees. The SAG-AFTRA and WGA strikes captured headlines earlier this year and endured for months, while the United Auto Workers saw historic wins against General Motors, Ford, and Stellantis.

Why are these recent developments important for the future of DEI work? Some answers can be found in research from HBS faculty:

• Professors Lakshmi Ramarajan and Julie Battilana have investigated the history of worker disempowerment and argue that redistributing power to employees could lead us to a more sustainable and equitable economy. Read their full article, “Democratizing Work: Redistributing Power in Organizations for a Democratic and Sustainable Future” to learn more about democratic organizational change.
• In an interview with Professor Geoffrey Jones for the Creating Emerging Markets Series, the late Indian women’s union organizer Ela Bhatt shares how both private sector practitioners and business school educators can help reframe the employer-employee relationship to be more equitable. Watch or read the interview here to learn more.

So, what steps can organizations take to build trust with employees?

1. Realize that all of your employees have value. The health of an organization is dependent on the skills and morale of every employee, whether they conceive of the product or distribute it.

   • Professor Joseph Fuller and Manjari Raman of the Managing the Future of Work Project investigate how neglecting low-wage workers can impact everyone. They reveal how investing in mentorship, pathways to advancement, and skill development can help companies grow in the long run. Read the full article to learn more.

2. Rethink your hiring requirements. Many job descriptions require college degrees as a hiring criterion, leading to worker shortages and inequities. Workers from historically underresourced backgrounds, namely Black workers, are often **less likely** to possess four-year degrees.

   • To ameliorate these inequities, the OneTen Coalition formed in an effort to see their member companies adopt more skills-first hiring policies and a skills-first organizational culture over degree requirements. Companies like AT&T, IBM, Microsoft, and Walmart have already adjusted their hiring practices to prioritize skills over education benchmarks.

3. Prioritize skill development. One of the most important things companies can do is ****commit to reskilling and upskilling their existing and prospective employees.

   • Professor Boris Groysberg has led research that advocates for the “skills-first movement,” which would entail companies re-credentialing their job postings, reassessing their hiring criteria, and rewarding job postings that emphasize capabilities over degrees. Read Professor Groysberg’s insights and on replacing the college degree requirement here, and read his case on OneTen here.
   • In an interview on HBS’s Cold Call podcast, Professor Linda Hill describes the case on Delta Air Lines CEO Ed Bastian, emphasizing the connection between diversity and innovation. Part of Bastian and Delta’s focus on equal access to opportunity involved taking a skills-first approach to eliminate disparities among employees. Listen to the interview for more insights into how practitioners can learn from Delta’s reskilling success.

4. Leverage technology to stay ahead of the curve. Many workers fear becoming redundant against the speed of automation, but with proper vision and pro-action from employers, it can become a superpower.

   • Professor Rafaella Sadun speaks to adapting reskilling to the age of AI. Hear Professor Sadun’s insight into how employers can help their employees use emerging technologies to their benefit on Harvard Business Review’s IdeaCast series, and read Professor Sadun and co-authors’ article for more information.
   • New technology can help develop skills training curricula. Professor Frank V. Cespedes and co-authors discuss how simulations can anticipate business problems and determine the need for pertinent skills. Simulations can re-create hands-on training in a way that classroom environments cannot, making them the most cutting-edge tool to upskill employees. Read the article on Harvard Business Review to learn more.