Organizations with diverse workforces — in terms of race, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, gender identity, culture, language, ability, and more — and inclusive cultures are stronger businesses. They have more collaborative teams, make better decisions and are more profitable. Diverse leadership perspectives help organizations become market leaders through innovation. And for providers and health plans, when frontline staff represent the communities they serve, patients experience better outcomes.

Unfortunately, most organizations have a long way to go in building truly diverse and inclusive workforces.

The first step in the journey is understanding how integrated diversity and inclusion is in each dimension of talent management, including workforce planning, succession planning, performance management, and more. We built this maturity model to help you assess how embedded diversity and inclusion is in your talent management strategy: How to Embed Diversity and Inclusion in Your Workforce Strategy. Once you identify your biggest opportunity areas, you are then ready to tackle the below.