As organizations strive to foster inclusion and diversity (I&D), it is critical to ensure that these efforts comply with legal standards while achieving meaningful outcomes. Ambitious I&D initiatives that disregard anti-discrimination laws or emphasize optics over merit can not only fail to deliver results but also expose organizations to legal risks. By integrating compliance with inclusivity strategies, companies can create equitable workplaces that align with both their values and the law.
The SHRM BEAM (Belonging Enhanced by Access through Merit) Framework provides a useful starting point for crafting I&D programs that are both legally sound and effective. However, be sure to review your specific I&D initiatives with counsel. While the steps below are provided for guidance and as examples of best practices, they should not be considered as legally required or mandated by any governing law. There are many different paths to compliance; the below is just one possibility.
Here’s a step-by-step guide to using BEAM principles to help ensure your I&D strategies meet legal requirements while driving impact.
Step 1: Familiarize Yourself with Anti-Discrimination Laws
To avoid legal pitfalls, organizations must have a thorough understanding of anti-discrimination laws. Several federal laws protect employees from discrimination based on factors such as race, sex, disability, and age. State and local laws may also provide additional protections, so you should consult these laws for any anti-discrimination requirements.
Action Item: Consult with legal counsel to stay updated on local, state, and federal laws. For global organizations, ensure compliance with international regulations such as the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) when processing employee data.
Step 2: Operationalize Inclusion Across Your Organization
For I&D efforts to drive meaningful change, they must be embedded into core business strategies — not treated as standalone initiatives. This is the goal of the Operationalizing Inclusion BEAM principle.
Ways to do this include:
- Tie inclusion directly to business objectives, using performance metrics such as improved employee engagement, innovation, and productivity.
- Embed inclusive practices into all aspects of your organization, from hiring and promotion to leadership development to training and workplace culture.
Action Item: Share success stories, quantitative data, and case studies that demonstrate how inclusive practices lead to measurable outcomes such as enhanced collaboration, innovation, and company growth.
Pro Tip: Consider codifying your organization's approach to inclusion and diversity in a policy. SHRM's Inclusion & Diversity Policy Template is one place to start.
Step 3: Develop Merit-Based I&D Strategies
I&D initiatives that prioritize merit as opposed to group quotas or preferences help reduce legal risks. This approach provides a merit-based framework to guide managers to make decisions regarding available opportunities based on job and business-related factors, including relevant skills and qualifications, rather than personal attributes such as race or sex.
Here are some ways to leverage the BEAM principle of Merit as the Primary Lens to operationalize merit-driven inclusion:
- Anti-exclusion: Design programs that are open to all qualified candidates, regardless of protected categories such as sex or ethnicity.
- Access for all: Create opportunities based on objective merit, enabling individuals to demonstrate their skills.
- Skills-first optimization: Focus on upskilling employees and evaluating them against measurable, job-relevant criteria.
Practical Example: Instead of mandating that X% of a department must come from certain demographic groups, implement competency-based hiring strategies that evaluate candidates anonymously based on relevant problem-solving abilities and skills.
Action Item: Use tools such as blind resume screening or AI-driven assessments to identify top talent objectively and without bias.
Pro Tip: You can reinforce organization's commitment to inclusive hiring by making it policy. See SHRM's Inclusive Hiring Policy Template for an example.
Step 4: Eliminate Bias in Recruitment and Promotions
Bias, whether conscious or unconscious, is a major risk factor in I&D lawsuits. Employers may face accusations of discrimination by a member of a majority group (such as a male employee or a white employee) if a certain racial group or gender is favored over another, even unintentionally.
Access Over Identity, another BEAM core principle, helps reduce bias in the hiring process in these ways:
- Blind recruitment: Remove identifying information such as names, addresses, and schools from resumes during initial reviews to prevent unconscious bias. Avoid over-reliance on credentials such as degrees, which can exclude talented individuals with nontraditional backgrounds.
- Skills-based assessments: Focus solely on job-relevant qualifications during assessments.
- Standardized evaluation metrics: Use scoring rubrics with defined criteria for interviews and performance reviews. This creates a framework for accurately reviewing all candidates and employees based on legitimate business or job-related factors.
- Training for decision-makers: Offer regular training sessions on equal employment opportunities, including training on eliminating unconscious bias and ensuring inclusive decision-making practices for managers and HR professionals so they make objective decisions based on merit, qualifications, and other job-related factors.
Practical Example: Use AI tools to objectively assess candidates’ job-relevant capabilities, such as coding proficiency or technical problem-solving, rather than looking solely at formal credentials.
Action Item: Train AI systems to align with today’s diverse applicant pools and regularly audit them to prevent bias.
Pro Tip: Incorporate AI tools cautiously. Ensure algorithms are audited regularly for fairness by external parties to avoid perpetuating biases inadvertently.
Step 5: Maintain Transparency and Communication
Open and honest communication builds trust and reduces the risk of I&D programs being seen as unfair or biased. Perceived secrecy around program goals or participant selection processes can lead to resentment or complaints.
Follow this transparency checklist:
- Clearly state objectives: Articulate the purpose and goals of your I&D programs. Make it clear that these initiatives are designed to benefit all employees and strengthen organizational performance.
- Explain selection criteria: Publish detailed eligibility criteria for I&D initiatives, including information about how merit is assessed. Ensure individuals meeting these criteria can easily access opportunities. Also ensure that there are no exclusions or preferences based on an individual’s protected status.
- Provide feedback channels: Create systems for employees to provide feedback on processes, raise concerns, and seek clarification about I&D programs.
Practical Example: Say your company offers mentorship programs for employees. Describe these programs as professional development initiatives open to anyone needing a mentor, with clear qualifying criteria based on skills or career stage rather than demographics.
Step 6: Monitor and Evaluate Progress
Regular monitoring ensures your I&D initiatives remain compliant while effectively advancing inclusivity. Use the BEAM principle of Continuous Calibration to assess outcomes and adjust based on feedback or observed biases.
What to measure:
- Participation rates: Track participation demographics to verify programs are inclusive without favoring certain groups at the expense of others.
- Performance impact: Measure whether inclusive programs translate to improvements in engagement, retention, and productivity.
- Program accessibility: Audit whether all eligible employees are aware of and able to access opportunities fairly.
- Sentiment ccores: Use employee feedback to evaluate inclusion and belonging.
Action Item: Consider using anonymous surveys to gather honest employee feedback on the perceived fairness and impact of programs.
Step 7: Seek Legal and Ethical Input Early
Before launching a new initiative, consult with legal experts to understand your compliance obligations and ensure equal opportunity for all. This will help identify potential risks and eliminate them proactively. Additionally, involve ethics and compliance teams to align programs with organizational values.
Action Items:
- Draft policies for review by internal or external legal advisors.
- Engage diverse employee resource groups (ERGs) or focus groups to gather community input while safeguarding against legal challenges.
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