THE DE&I DEBATE

DOES DIVERSITY, EQUITY, & INCLUSION IMPACT MERITOCRACY? ONLY IF ORGANISATIONS LOOK AT DE&I AS A TICK-IN-THEBOX ACTIVITY.

- AJITA SHASHIDHAR

Godrej Industries recently ran an experiment to check for bias in its hiring process in one of its group businesses—it masked gender identifications on resumes of candidates. The move resulted in a 49% improvement in CV shortlisting for women in some functions. The company, known for its forward-looking diversity, equity and inclusion (DE&I) initiatives, realised merely masking gender identifications at the time of hiring could help build a gender-balanced workforce, and ensure the company hired superior talent.

“Unconscious bias is a real factor in how we hire talent and build organisations. That bias is present in every system, and it’s expressed in different kinds of prejudices. We see DE&I work as minimising those biases, which means expanding the parameters we use to build organisations. It doesn’t replace talent or merit. By recognising the merit of people who have been held back by historical disadvantage, our talent pool expands,” says Nisaba Godrej, executive chairperson, Godrej Consumer Products Ltd.

Sanjiv Mehta, executive chairman, L Catterton India, has been a DE&I champion throughout his career. The Unilever lifer, during his stint as MD, Hindustan Unilever, pushed his hiring team to ensure there was at least one woman in the final shortlist of the best three. The job finally went to the most deserving candidate.

“Diversity will only succeed if the process is fair and meritorious. If meritocracy is compromised, the business will not grow. During my tenure at HUL our diversity percentage went up from 18% to 48%, and market cap rose from $16 billion to $62 billion. It wouldn't have happened had we not focussed on meritocracy.”