For Madhuri Kumar, VP & global head of talent management at ChampionX, inclusion means “embedding inclusion across the lifecycle, which is inclusive hiring, onboarding, development, talent management—that is everybody has an equitable playing field to grow their careers.”

Kumar, one of five speakers on a panel at From Day One’s Houston event, talked about the path forward for workplace inclusivity. 

For several years now, companies have been trying out DEI. But, as Kumar put it, “We are messy humans, trying to do the right thing.” The key is to keep trying, keep learning, and remember why you started in the first place. 

“This is not a sprint, it's a marathon. Let’s pace ourselves,” Kumar said. “It’s a journey we’re on.”

The DEI Journey

It may have started in various forms years ago, but the real push during the pandemic and civil unrest required companies to focus on what they were doing to either hinder or help their employees.

“The last few years has raised the capability around the conversation,” said panelist Jill Ramshaw, VP of HR at Marathon Oil. DEI initiatives were the first focal point, which encouraged employees to be bold, she says. Marathon Oil has increased its ERGs as well. Support from leadership has helped everyone to open up even more.

“These small group conversations help to really get under the surface and think through and work through things that people are not always comfortable talking about,” she added. 

At the core of success on the DEI journey is intentional planning, says Ramshaw. Companies don’t mandate change and expect everyone to fall in line. The ERGs help to bring the middle into play, and help leadership take note of what must change.

“This top down, middle kind of approach helps with the integration,” she said.

From Initiative to Integration

Integration, the panelists agreed, is the next step on the DEI journey. The trial and error of DEI over the past few years has proven valuable, but the move from initiative to integration is vital. 

Panelist Elise Smith, co-founder and CEO, of Praxis Labs says going from standalone DEI to embedded is key, especially when it comes to managers. 

“You can’t do a DEI training and then a separate manager training,” she said. “Being a manager is being a manager who leads with inclusion, who leads with a lens towards equity. We have moved away from the paradigm of those being two separate things.”

In light of that expectation, it is the hardest time to be a manager. They are required to be more and do more for their employees and the company at large. Building those foundational skills that embed equity and inclusion into an employee experience is what will be vital for managers and companies moving forward.

For one client, Smith said it was a great place to work with great feedback scores. However, they saw a dip in engagement across the board last year, especially for underrepresented groups. 

“What we found is that when their managers and their teams worked with us, they had a 10% higher engagement score, because these foundational skills are so core to people feeling seen, engaged, and able to bring their best to work,” Smith said. 

Panelists noted that the Millennial and Gen Z workforce will be a big part of making DEI part of the fabric of companies by the sheer nature of their perspectives on life. 

“They are choosing to work at places that are aligned to their values,” Smith said. She cited a recent study from Deloitte that found 1/3 of Gen Z and Millennials chose not to take a job because they didn’t feel like they were prioritizing DEI and the environment. 

Kumar agreed, “the new generation entering the workforce is going to help us really speed this work up because they're not going to accept anything less. So I truly believe that this work is about creating the workplace of the future.”

Moving Forward

Moderator Shelby Stewart of Essence asked this of the panelists: “when you all consider the current challenges and backlash against the DEI initiatives, are you in your companies likely to take your foot off the gas?”

Panelist Mindy Fitzgerald, global director of diversity, culture and engagement at Air Products said DEI isn’t always popular with people, including their own employees. But the idea of DEI requires a total mind shift.

“We’re not in this game to make friends. And we’re not in this game to be comfortable,” Fitzgerald said. “We’re in this because this is the right thing for our company to do.”

Fitzgerald added: “What does diversity in 2025 or 2027 look like in a company? Where are employees of underrepresented groups of employees? What is their lived experience? What are we doing to meet their needs as employees?”

Part of getting there requires a lot of transparency. At ChampionX, they started a Pipeline to CEO where employees can anonymously write directly to him, and he answers each one personally, then those discussions are published for everyone to see.

“I believe it is a really powerful way through which he shows his ability to be humble, wanting to listen directly with no filters,” Kumar said.

Panelist Lucho Vizcardo, head of international HR, Western Hemisphere at Nabors Industries said DEI has been an evolution for them. The more they learned, the stronger they could move forward with what worked. They continue to use ERGs and take initiatives globally so all can benefit. Learning has been key.

“We didn’t have all the answers at the beginning,” he said. Now that DEI has matured, it’s taking that next step of integration, or in other words, belonging.

“Belonging is where you try to integrate all the things that you learned and that worked, and try to become better as a company.”

From future surveys, the feedback was loud and clear: they weren’t following through and making changes. The show of maturity in DEI is making those changes and moving forward as a company. 

“Are you able to make all the changes? Probably not, but at least you are doing something,” Vizcardo said.

Carrie Snider is a Phoenix-based journalist and marketing copywriter.