This is the first post in a series on building skills for Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion (DEI). See the second.

As organizations look ahead and strive to stay competitive, many are hyper-focused on artificial intelligence, automation, and the skills needed to drive new technologies. These are all critical pursuits.

But as business leaders seek innovation, they may be overlooking one critical factor: Developing skills for DEI. For many companies, leaving DEI off the to-do list could wind up being a catastrophic miss.

Who hasn’t missed? Consider AstraZeneca, where leaders successfully prioritized Generative AI upskilling at scale and found that “human skills are as important as the technical skills.” As AstraZeneca quickly recognized, without human skills even the most technically advanced organizations struggle to reach targets. Why? Technologies can’t reach their full potential without the support of crucial human skills.

Skills required for DEI—like critical thinking, creative problem-solving, and cross-cultural agility—are ultimately all about people, the very same people who drive your business and meet its goals.

What are the skills needed for DEI?

Skills are measurable, developable capabilities, and they provide a clear and objective way to track employee growth and performance over time. In doing so, they can serve as a consistent framework for evaluating progress, identifying gaps, and aligning individual development with organizational goals.

Applying this concept to DEI, skills become the measurable capabilities that enable employees to foster inclusive and equitable environments and to drive positive DEI outcomes. By measuring DEI skills, organizations can ensure accountability and sustained DEI impact.

A growing shift to skills-based learning and development is redefining how companies approach employee development. In doing so, this shift is reshaping how that development connects to work.

DEI programs have historically been challenging to measure. In a skills-first framework, DEI initiatives can be evaluated not only by participation and engagement, but also by the development and application of inclusive skills across a workforce, from inclusive leadership to cultural awareness and allyship. 

The skills people need for DEI bridge the gap between technological advancements and human collaboration. The financial firm Skandinaviska Enskilda Banken boosted performance by creating training that emphasized psychological safety, which in turn enhanced knowledge sharing. The result? Revenues 25% above targets in a key market segment.

By framing DEI as a measurable set of skills, organizations can better gauge the success of their initiatives and align these efforts with overall business goals, creating a culture that is inclusive in principle and demonstrably so in practice. We’ll delve more deeply into what DEI skills you might prioritize for your organization in an upcoming Part No. 2 of this series.

The Value of DEI

As companies work to identify the skills that will drive their future success, DEI programming seems to be slipping further down the priority list, with the extreme cases making headlines. This comes as DEI skills have never been more important. While technical advancements promise to boost efficiency, it’s the human skills—like critical thinking, cultural awareness, and collaboration—that allow employees to effectively leverage tech tools.

Data shows that companies that prioritize diversity and inclusion outperform their competitors. A study by McKinsey found that organizations in the top quartile for gender diversity on executive teams were 25% more likely to have above-average profitability. Ignoring these skills means missing out on opportunities to enhance cash flow, stakeholder value, and overall financial resilience.

Meeting the Moment: Why DEI Skills Matter More Than Ever

Amid economic pressures, workforce burnout, and unprecedented rates of change, employees are expected to do more with less. But without a supportive and inclusive culture, engagement and productivity suffer. DEI skills foster environments where all employees can feel valued, included, and able to bring their best ideas forward—ideas that are often the key to driving innovation and hitting ambitious business goals.

The Conscious Culture initiative at Cisco Systems emphasizes building inclusive teams, offers unconscious bias training, and develops internal resource groups that drive leadership accountability. Another example comes from Allianz, where DEI is considered to be “core to business and purpose,” The company embraces the positive impact “on employee engagement, customer loyalty, and stakeholder trust.”

Addressing Potential Resistance

Some business leaders might argue that during times of economic uncertainty, prioritizing DEI skills is a luxury, not a necessity. However, failing to invest in these skills can lead to disengaged employees, higher turnover, and a lack of innovative ideas—all of which ultimately hurt the bottom line. In fact, companies with diverse and inclusive cultures are more resilient during downturns, as they are better able to adapt and innovate.

What’s next?

As you set goals for the coming year, don’t overlook the power of DEI skills. These aren’t just soft skills—they’re strategic assets that drive company performance, innovation, and employee satisfaction. By integrating DEI skill development into your company’s goals, you’re setting the stage for a more adaptable, innovative, and competitive organization.

Neglecting DEI skills in your goal-setting process isn’t just a missed opportunity—it’s a critical misstep that could hold your organization back from reaching its full potential.

Degreed Professional Services

Hali Linn is a Learning Strategy Consultant on the Degreed Professional Services team.

Degreed Professional Services partners with business leaders and learning pros to explore learning strategies, technology goals, and questions. Book a free and private consultation.

The post Neglecting DEI Skills Amid Big Change Is a Critical Mistake appeared first on Degreed.

Why is that percentage so low? There are lots of possibilities—a lack of growth mindset or even a weakness of business partnering and leadership—but David Perring, Fosway Chief Insights Officer, believes the most significant barrier is expertise: These companies “don’t have the level of expertise to execute learning technology well.” 

If your company is part of that vast 80% that aren’t advancing their learning tech, whatever the reason might be, then you’re on the wrong side of that Fosway statistic. If you’re on the wrong side of the statistics because of a lack of expertise, don’t despair. You have options.

At Degreed, we do more than create learning technologies to power open learning ecosystems. We also consult. We advise. We guide. We can jump in next to you to get the work done. And we take great pride in doing so. We’re more than a platform provider.

We’re a partner and want to help you advance your learning technologies in custom ways that make sense for your specific organization. The Degreed Professional Services team operates at the core of these efforts. 

Providing You with Learning Technology Expertise

Understanding, purchasing, integrating, and using learning technology is perhaps the most daunting part of an L&D pro’s job. While most have tremendous knowledge and know-how when it comes to learning techniques, methodologies, styles, and approaches, they’re not always experts when it comes to learning ecosystems, skill data analytics, APIs, and other tech acronyms. And let’s not forget that new learning technology is purchased because of the desire for transformation. Transformation is change and change is hard.

This is why Degreed offers clients technical consulting. Through our Professional Services offerings, we can help with anything from streamlining admin processes to integrating Degreed into your existing learning tech ecosystem. And when your technical needs evolve—and they will—we’re here to work with you through the changes and answer all your technical questions.

Boosting Engagement and Adoption

Degreed Professional Services offers more than technical expertise. If you need a marketing and change management guru to make your learning technology stick, we can help with that too. All too often, a new learning tech platform fails because of a lack of consideration for the people side of the technology. To help you avoid this, our Professional Services team has implementation and adoption down to a science.  

Our team has worked with hundreds of customers to implement the Degreed platform. With every new project, our knowledge grows with theirs. We’re confident we can recommend the right implementation and adoption strategies based on your company’s goals, size, and industry. 

Translating Metrics into Business Impact

L&D tends to struggle with turning learning metrics into business outcomes. That process is a bit like alchemy, requiring some science, a bit of art, and a sprinkle of what can seem like magic. 

The struggle is very real: The Brandon Hall Group in 2021 found that while almost every company (87%) expressed the need to align learning and goals, only 13% said they could get the job done. Let us know if you, like many other L&D professionals, struggle to prove your team’s business impact. Degreed Professional Services can help.  

To make Degreed Professional Services as effective as possible, we’ve carefully assembled a team of industry experts and ex-CLOs who love to consult with prospective clients. These team members understand from their personal experiences how difficult it can be to “speak C-Suite.” That’s why we’ve developed innovative methods you can use to deliver L&D metrics that excite your C-Suite.  

Activating Learning AND Skilling 

While we’re on the topic of appealing to your C-Suite, nothing gets senior executives more hyped than internal skill development. Nay-sayers might argue that accountability for skill development belongs with your HR or Talent teams, but what’s the key ingredient to developing internal talent or developing new skills? Learning.

If your senior leaders want to activate skills, they’ll need mature learning technologies for metrics and skills-based learning. Our team has been actively helping clients grapple with technologies like these for years. Degreed is one of the few learning tech platforms with a track record of helping clients understand the skills their organizations have and the skills they need to win in the future. By helping clients connect the gears of learning and skills, organizations unlock insights and intelligence not otherwise possible.  

How? Clients use Degreed to build insights based on a wide range of analytics our systems generate. Our learning tools and partner integrations enable employees to obtain credentials, which in turn provides L&D even more data for insights. And Degreed helps people develop skills by connecting employees with a talent marketplace, which lets your organization share and resource skill projects, internal gigs, and more. 

Check out our article about the Degreed Product Suite to see all the other ways we support business impact.

It’s time to invest in your digital learning technology. 

“The world is moving so fast,” Perring noted in the Fosway report. “Not think[ing] about how technology can deliver transformation . . . is dangerous.”

In other words, if you’re part of the 80% of companies not using advanced digital learning technology, you need to make a change. 

Don’t let your lack of learning tech expertise, confusion about implementation techniques, adoption strategy, vision for skills, transformation for learning, or inability to speak C-Suite keep you from developing your L&D ecosystem. If you work with the right partner and resources, exploring and engaging with new opportunities can—and should be—a smooth and successful experience.  

Get started today. Book a private consultation with the Degreed Professional Services team.

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