Why Flexible Work Is Essential to Your DEI Strategy

In celebration of Black History Month this year, we’ve seen corporate leaders participate in more public displays of solidarity than ever before, from employee volunteer days and internal company workshops to writing large checks to community organizations and nonprofits. These efforts are no doubt designed to demonstrate the commitments they’ve made to diversity, equity, and inclusion over recent years in response to the Black Lives Matter movement and increasing awareness of the problems of systemic racism.

But when companies tout the accomplishments of Black people or support Black causes while ignoring the inequities holding people of color back in their own organizations, their actions feel like “performative wokeness,” especially if they’re largely abandoned the other 11 months of the year. We’d like to see leaders move beyond transient or surface-level displays of DEI by investing in initiatives that actively support their employees of color. And they can start by making pandemic-era flexibility a permanent offering for all.