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Diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) has never been more important to CEOs, shareholders, employees and customers. However, finance may find that aspects of diversity deteriorated while it was busy handling the COVID-19 crisis. Corporate finance and accounting performed poorly in a number of key DEI metrics in a Gartner labor market survey taken in 2Q20. Results revealed that people of color make up just 11% of the total workforce in corporate finance, and just 6% of senior finance roles. This is 6 percentage points lower than the average corporate department. Learn more: Gartner CFO & Finance Conference “Finance’s DEI underperformance isn’t just a hiring problem to manage via HR,” says Kotei Kotey, Principal, Advisory, Gartner. “Finance leaders have a direct impact on this issue not only in managing their own function, but also through the extent to which they prioritize funding for corporate-level DEI initiatives.” Reduce bias in hiring Here’s how finance leaders can help improve diversity recruiting and reduce bias: Evaluate current talent pools: Ask the HRBP to assess the sourcing channels to prioritize the most effective channels for sourcing diverse candidates. Explore nontraditional talent pools: Finance should engage with diverse employees or diversity affinity groups within the organization