PEOPLE & TALENT STRATEGY
Diversity, equity, and inclusion strategy, assessment, and program design. We help organizations build equitable talent practices, inclusive cultures, and accountability frameworks that produce measurable outcomes — not just statements of intent.
Beyond the statement on your website
Most organizations have a DEI commitment. Fewer have a DEI strategy. And fewer still have the accountability frameworks to know whether their efforts are working. If your DEI work feels performative — a training here, a celebration month there, a statement nobody references again — it’s because it isn’t embedded in the systems that actually drive outcomes: how you hire, how you promote, how you pay, how you develop, and how you hold leaders accountable. That’s what we help you build.
Who This Is For
- Organizations wanting to move beyond performative DEI to systemic, measurable progress
- Companies building or refreshing their DEI strategy with real accountability frameworks — not just aspirational goals
- Leadership teams that want to embed equity into core talent practices: hiring, promotion, compensation, and development
- PE portfolio companies where DEI is both a value creation lever and a risk management priority
- Organizations responding to board, investor, or employee pressure for a credible DEI strategy
- Companies that have tried DEI initiatives that didn’t stick and want to understand why
Our Approach
We approach DEI as an organizational design challenge, not a training problem. Training can build awareness, but it doesn’t change systems. Lasting progress requires examining and redesigning the talent practices, decision-making processes, and accountability structures that produce inequitable outcomes — often unintentionally.
Every engagement starts with data — understanding where your organization actually stands before recommending where to invest. We measure what matters, build strategies grounded in evidence, and create accountability frameworks so progress doesn’t depend on enthusiasm alone.
Services
DEI Strategy Assessment & Development
A comprehensive assessment of where your organization stands on DEI — across culture, talent practices, leadership behavior, and employee experience — followed by a multi-year strategy with prioritized initiatives, success metrics, and accountability mechanisms.
What you get: Current-state assessment (data analysis, employee listening sessions, leadership interviews), gap analysis against best practices, DEI strategy document with prioritized initiatives, success metrics and measurement framework, accountability structure with leadership ownership assignments, and executive presentation of findings and roadmap.
Equity Audit of Talent Practices
A systematic review of your core talent processes — recruiting, performance management, compensation, and promotion — to identify where bias may be built into the system and where equitable outcomes are being undermined by process design, not individual intent.
What you get: Process-by-process equity analysis across the talent lifecycle, identification of structural barriers and bias points, data analysis of outcomes by demographic group (where data is available), specific recommendations for redesigning each process, and implementation guidance with templates and tools.
Inclusive Leadership Development
Development programs for leaders at all levels — from first-time managers to the C-suite — focused on building the specific capabilities needed to lead inclusively. Not a one-time workshop, but a structured development approach that changes behavior over time.
What you get: Assessment-based development (using tools like EQ-i 2.0, DiSC, or Hogan to understand individual patterns), facilitated workshops on inclusive leadership practices, coaching for senior leaders on personal inclusion gaps, and integration with your existing leadership development programs.
ERG/BRG Strategy & Launch Support
Design and launch of Employee Resource Groups (ERGs) or Business Resource Groups (BRGs) — structured to drive both community and business impact, not just social events.
What you get: ERG/BRG framework and charter templates, executive sponsor selection and coaching, leadership development structure for ERG leaders, budget and resource recommendations, success metrics tied to both employee experience and business objectives.
DEI Metrics & Accountability Framework
For organizations that have a DEI strategy but no way to measure whether it’s working. We build the measurement and accountability infrastructure — so DEI progress is tracked with the same rigor as financial or operational performance.
What you get: DEI scorecard with leading and lagging indicators, data collection strategy and dashboard design, leadership accountability assignments with reporting cadence, board/investor reporting framework (where applicable), and annual review process design.
How It Works
Discovery Call
A free 30-minute conversation to understand your organization’s DEI history, current state, and goals. We’ll discuss what’s been tried, what’s working, what isn’t, and what success looks like for your leadership team.
Scoping & Proposal
Based on the discovery call, we recommend the right combination of services and develop a proposal with scope, timeline, and investment. Most organizations start with the DEI Strategy Assessment or an Equity Audit — then layer in additional services based on what the data reveals.
Assessment & Analysis
We gather data — employee listening sessions, leadership interviews, talent practice reviews, demographic analysis — and assess your current state against best practices. No assumptions. No pre-built playbooks. The strategy is built from your organization’s actual data.
Strategy & Implementation
We deliver findings, recommendations, and a prioritized roadmap. For organizations that want ongoing support, we can provide implementation guidance, quarterly progress reviews, and accountability coaching for leadership.
Investment
DEI engagements are scoped based on the combination of services, organizational size, and complexity. Contact us to discuss your situation — we’ll provide a specific proposal after the discovery call.
Frequently Combined With
DEI work connects to almost every other people-strategy domain. Clients frequently pair it with:
- Employee Engagement & Retention Strategy — When inclusion gaps are driving disengagement or disproportionate turnover in specific populations.
- Compensation Philosophy & Benchmarking — When the equity audit reveals pay equity issues that need a structured compensation analysis and remediation plan.
- Talent Acquisition & Recruiting Strategy — When the audit identifies bias in sourcing, screening, or interview processes that limit the diversity of your talent pipeline.
- Team Development Programs — When inclusive leadership development is best delivered as part of a broader leadership team program rather than standalone training.
[Placeholder: Add a testimonial from a DEI engagement. Focus on the shift from performative to systemic — what changed in practices, accountability, or outcomes.]
Common Questions
We’ve done DEI training before and it didn’t change anything. How is this different?
Training builds awareness — which matters — but it doesn’t change systems. If your hiring process, promotion criteria, compensation structure, and performance management system aren’t designed for equity, a workshop won’t fix that. Our approach focuses on the structural and systemic changes that produce different outcomes, with accountability frameworks so progress doesn’t evaporate when attention shifts to the next priority.
We’re a small company. Is DEI consulting relevant for us?
Yes — and it’s actually easier to embed equity into your talent practices while you’re still building them than to retrofit later. Companies in the 50–200 employee range are establishing the hiring processes, promotion pathways, and cultural norms that will scale with them. Getting equity right now prevents the systemic issues that larger organizations spend millions trying to fix.
How do you handle political sensitivity around DEI?
We focus on what’s measurable and what drives business outcomes. Equitable talent practices reduce legal risk, improve retention, expand your talent pipeline, and produce better team performance — those are organizational imperatives regardless of political perspective. We frame the work around fairness in talent systems and data-driven decision-making, which resonates with leaders across the spectrum.
Do we need to have DEI data before we start?
No. Many organizations don’t have demographic data linked to talent outcomes when we begin — and that’s one of the things we help build. The DEI Strategy Assessment includes data gathering as part of the process. We’ll work with whatever you have and help you build the data infrastructure to measure progress going forward.