Building Diverse & Inclusive Associations

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I joined the Board of the Human Resources Leadership Forum (HRLF) three years ago and was asked to lead a diversity and inclusion effort on behalf of the association. As background, HRLF is the leading community for connection and learning for senior level HR leaders in New England with about 400 members. The D&I topic had been discussed often in the past by leaders and members at HRLF, but real action and progress had not been realized.

As an HR Leader and former CHRO, I reflected upon my experience with this work in a Fortune 200 public company and realized that as challenging as it was then, the differences in doing this work for a member-driven association would present some unique challenges. This journey would be a bit different.
In a company the employees are typically much more vested in the outcome of such an initiative. The company is important to the employee for their livelihood and career – they have made a commitment. They want the company to be successful and understand that diversity and inclusion impacts business success – employees are all in.

I understood upfront that in an association the commitment is different. In the case of HRLF, the typical member believes that if they pay their dues, they get high quality programming and the opportunity to network with peers and thought leaders. It is episodic, the program or networking event ends, and they return to their job, career, family etc… The learning is that the commitment to a membership-based association is fundamentally different from that of an employer.

So the question becomes, will what worked in the area of D&I in a company
work for an association trying to become more diverse and inclusive?

Building D&I Capability in an Association

Once I recognized this fundamental difference, I began to plan an approach that the Leadership of HRLF could leverage to improve the diversity of its members, and build an environment that would be more inclusive to those members to more easily participate, interact, converse, challenge one another and develop together as HR professionals and leaders.

In a practical sense, I started the effort by searching the web to find what others had done for associations to advance diversity and inclusion that I could leverage or borrow to help HRLF. I found some information to include commitment statements to D&I and leveraged that in our early thinking as I began drafting an approach that started with the strategy of HRLF. In companies we learn early on about the importance of connecting the work of HR, or any function, to the business strategy. We learn that initiatives that we in HR may think are good for the business, will fail without that important connection. It is no different in an association. Fortunately, the strategic thinking had been under way and the Board had produced a strategy that would position the association for success in the D&I space for the long-term.

HRLF Strategic Imperatives

“We provide the latest and most diverse thinking, trends and
resources that anticipate, identify and inform to help our
members solve challenges and create new opportunities.”

“HRLF is a collegial and trusted community where
members eagerly exchange ideas and grow professionally.”

Strategic Framework

Looking to the strategic imperatives, we then developed a shared understanding of diversity and inclusion, and a strategic framework that provided us the focus we needed to identify actionable tactics that would improve the diversity and inclusiveness of the association.

After considering all of the various inputs that must be considered when developing a strategic direction for an organization, we built a framework with four pillars – not unlike what a company would do in their strategic planning process. Focusing on members, partners, programs and leadership, we developed actions within each pillar that would directly impact the strategic imperatives that had been so well defined by the Board, and more importantly that would make the association more diverse and inclusive across several areas.

With the definitions and framework in hand, we shared the output with our membership and ask for volunteers to join the first HRLF D&I Committee. This was an important step and learning for me. An association has different engagement levels with its members than an employer does with its employees. Connecting with membership to ask for their help was a critical step in moving the effort forward. The first committee was comprised of a diverse group of five members in addition to two members from the HRLF Board.

Ask the members what they think

The D&I Committee designed and delivered a member survey intended to provide us with a better understanding of who our members were, and what they were interested in related to the topic of diversity and inclusion. We also asked about experience on the topic and provided an opportunity to volunteer with the organization. The survey response rate was close to 30% – a very good rate from what we could determine from other associations who had conducted member surveys. We produced an executive summary of the results from the respondents and shared it electronically and in person at member programs. We identified topics of interest and shared those with our programming committee to help with the addition of D&I focused programs to our annual calendar.

AccomplishmentsIn addition to the survey and subsequent engagement with members, we also announced new Board members to include two people of color. We achieved our goal for at least one of the six programs to be dedicated to the topic of Diversity & Inclusion annually in the past two years; and actually delivered three programs on D&I in the past 18-months.

Opportunities

As I had mentioned, this is a journey and this work takes time. In an association you have limited resources, which means that this work, although important and valued, may take longer to complete. After a little more than a year, we expanded the committee and invited those who expressed interest on the survey, as well as others we had met after the many updates we shared with members, to join. The addition of more members from various backgrounds related to HR, energized the group and the discussion. Using the framework, we reviewed the activities that had been included and identified ideas to advance the D&I agenda.

We have made progress, but we recognize we have much work yet to do. We have moved forward in the areas of members, programs and leadership. But have many opportunities in the area of learning from our partners who may do this work well and building partnerships with other organizations to grow our membership base and include professionals in HR who are more diverse.

In recent months, with the help of the D&I Committee, we recognized that our membership definition was actually hurting our efforts to recruit more diverse members. The Board acknowledged that as a senior level association for HR leaders, we were excluding more junior HR professionals who are actually more diverse than the senior ranks of HR. Leveraging our existing Emerging Leaders program we now invite that group to be members, allowing for potentially another 50-60 members on an annual basis.

Additionally, we are talking about how we deliver our content and if the methods of today and yesterday will work for the “Next Generation” of HR Leaders. Building alliances and partnerships is also a focus area as we work to identify potential groups to partner with in the coming months and years.

Learnings

At this point of our journey we have learned much about how to affect change of this scale in an association like HRLF.

As with any effort in our own organizations that require designing and implementing a program or process change, it has to start with leadership from the senior most level. The HRLF Board identified this opportunity and assigned Board Members to develop a plan and execute the identified activities.
Connecting this work to the organization’s strategy is an important activity. If your organization has not done the work around strategy and the future – do that first. Connecting any D&I focused work to that output is critical to any success.
Communicate to all your stakeholders early and often. Talk about the plans, accomplishments and opportunities still to be realized. In this area, HRLF still has opportunity to better integrate D&I in all communication activities. It requires a steady drum beat of change.
Engage membership early and often. In the first two years we provided numerous updates at Member Programs, conducted our first D&I survey and expanded the committee to include all who had an interest.
Build a strategic framework that connects the work to the larger strategy and measure and report your success.
Capture opportunities. Routinely solicit from the committee and association members using program surveys and be sure to report activity and progress toward any goals you set.
And finally, engage membership and communicate early and often!

Read the full strategy document prepared by HRLF's Diversity & Inclusion Committee HERE.

Mike Dunford is the former CHRO at Covidien and currently principal for the Dunford Consulting Group, a leadership and human resources consulting firm focused on executive coaching and the development and execution of talent strategies. A board advisor and veteran advocate, he leads several career readiness programs in the Boston area for transitioning veterans. He left the HRLF Board after the end of a three-year term in December 2019.

Diversity & Inclusion Defined

The HRLF Board met and approved definitions to guide this work in the fall of 2017.

Diversity: the quality of being different or unique at the individual or group level. This includes age; ethnicity; gender; gender identity; language differences; nationality; parental status; physical, mental and developmental abilities; race; religion; sexual orientation; skin color; socio-economic status; work and behavioral styles; the perspectives of each individual shaped by their nation, experiences and culture – and more. Even when people appear the same on the outside, they are different!
Inclusion: a strategy to leverage diversity. Diversity always exists in social systems. Inclusion, on the other hand, must be created. In order to leverage diversity, an environment must be created where people feel supported, listened to and able to do their personal best.

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