1. Employees, customers and stakeholders have a difficult time identifying examples that speak to your organization’s support for and commitment to diversity, inclusion, equity and access ideals when asked to do so.
2. Your leadership and key decision-making personnel, including boards and staff, lack diversity, particularly with respect to racial and gender diversity as well as diversity across experiences and/or perspectives, and your organization hasn’t set clear goals to recruit qualified, diverse thought leaders to such positions.
3. There are a disproportionate number of majority employees whom are promoted to higher levels of leadership and/or whom are progressing within your business or organization when compared to equally qualified minority colleagues.
4. Diverse employees do not feel safe communicating their DEI concerns to Human Resources, leadership or supervisors because of a fear of retribution or a perception that nothing will be done to address such concerns.
5. Your leadership and key decision-making personnel are not in favor of implementing assessment processes that are meant to yield valuable qualitative and quantitative information about the climate and culture of their business or organization and indicating whether or not employees and/or stakeholders across all demographics – including minority and underrepresented groups – are experiencing professionally supportive, inclusive and equitable workplace environments when compared to their majority colleagues.
6. Employees – especially minorities, including those identifying as people of color or women whom work in predominantly white or male workplace environments – are reluctant to participate in DEI surveys, focus groups, and other data-gathering processes implemented by your business or organizational leadership due to a lack of trust in such processes and/or a perception that their leadership is not committed to improving workplace climate and conditions in support of their diverse workforce and/or stakeholders.
7. Employees are discouraged from engaging in conversations inspired by current events when such conversations might include references to particular cultural communities or groups because they are perceived as too provocative and/or irrelevant to workplace practices.
8. Employees express that they do not feel comfortable bringing their “full selves” to work (i.e. wearing clothing in acknowledgement of a particular cultural holiday or practice or which commemorates a culturally-specific tradition or community) because they do not believe it would be viewed as “favorable” by their colleagues, supervisors or organizational leadership.
9. There is no expectation for employees to support DEI ideals in the workplace or as part of their professional practices as a basic, core expectation of the business or organization and as would otherwise be articulated in an employee handbook; communicated during orientation and onboarding processes, etc.
10. Your organizational leadership have yet to engage the expertise of a DEI practitioner to determine the extent to which their business can gain or sustain a competitive edge in their industries of interest as well as benefit from a decision to invest in DEI resources for the benefit of their employees, services, clients, customers, stakeholders, etc.
11. Your brand struggles to connect with, reach, and/or respond to the needs and interests of diverse customers, communities and/or stakeholders and/or demonstrates cultural insensitivity when attempting to engage diverse audiences.

Which, if any, of these signs applies to your business or organization?