Chief diversity officers (CDOs) are tasked with balancing demands surrounding diversity and inclusion, and they also navigate complex challenges related to institutions’ constituents. But CDOs also face a number of challenges as they embrace their growing roles on campus.
In a new report, 81 CDOs, primarily from higher ed with input from CDOs in academic medicine and healthcare, offer input on the challenges they face, along with expectations and keys to success during the critical first year.
The Critical First Year: What New Chief Diversity Officers Need to Succeed [1], a study published today by Witt/Kieffer, finds that success for higher-ed CDOs depends mostly on two factors: the conditions in place at the institution, and the expectations that leaders and constituents have for what is to be accomplished.
“The chief diversity officer is a relatively new leadership role on college campuses and one that is growing in significance. The first challenge they often face is that there frequently is no diversity and inclusion strategic plan already in place,” said Charlene Aguilar, CDO survey report co-author and Consultant in Witt/Kieffer’s Education Practice.
(Next page: Do chief diversity officers have the resources they need to effect change?)
Eighty-four percent of respondents said they didn’t have an existing strategic plan to work with when they arrived, though 59 percent understood their responsibilities when signing on for their positions–including putting a plan into place.
More than half of respondents (60 percent) said they experienced “big changes” in their first year on the job.
The report also found that even with the best of intentions, clear job description and administrative support, a lack of resources can be the greatest challenge to a CDO’s first year on the job.
Seventy-two percent of respondents said they were given adequate time to acclimate to their new role, but just 47 percent said they received adequate resources to perform their responsibilities.
Chief diversity officers participating in the survey offered their opinions on what it takes to succeed in D&I:
- Organizational change is constant, so trying to leverage strategy in an ever-changing environment is difficult.
- Diversity & inclusion strategy needs to be baked into the overall enterprise strategy with clear goals, objectives, metrics and accountability.
- If the organization/institution has not articulated the values and behaviors that it associates with excellence, it should engage the new CDO in helping it to define excellence.
- Have an understanding from all parties what the expectations of your role are supposed to be over the course of your tenure and know that will change moving forward.
Most survey respondents said the found enough support from their institution’s president/CEO and administration (86 percent), 14 percent said they did not have such support.
Twenty-eight percent of respondents said they lacked buy-in from broad constituents about what they were tasked to do.
The survey asked respondents about the greatest challenge facing a CDO in the first year. Responses included:
- Knowing what the president and provost will actually support and where their values are.
- Educating all leaders on the importance of diversity and inclusion and its positive impact on everyone in the organization.
- A CDO must be prepared to be “the diversity expert.”
- A CEO who believes he can delegate the responsibility and not be involved.
- When the executive team lacks diversity, it can be hard to help others at that level understand the strategic need for D&I—even with support from the CEO.