What Makes A Good D&I Consultant?
When I started working in diversity and inclusion (D&I) in 2006, only a handful of consultants worked in this area. Hardly any of the major consulting firms were playing in the space, and if they were, it was an afterthought that lived in the human capital practice. Most of the available D&I consultants were solopreneurs, which came with limitations in their ability to scale up their offerings.
Truth be told, when I started as the leader for D&I at one of the country’s largest accounting firms, I didn’t have the qualifications for the job. But the reality was that no one did. It helped that I had already been working for the firm in a different capacity.
Most people get into D&I work through the human resource space, but a few come at it from other directions. Looking back, I see the people who had diversity in their titles had an incredible passion for the work, and they figured it out as they went along.
A Pivotal Moment For D&I
A great deal has changed since then, specifically when 2020 became a pivotal moment in the industry, driven in a large part by the murder of George Floyd. Overnight, I saw the field become populated by people claiming to be D&I experts in response to the racial justice protests.
The market was suddenly flooded with service providers—many of them solopreneurs but some small consulting shops—who claimed they could help employers address tough topics like anti-Black racism. All of the major consulting firms launched offerings whether or not they had the skills and or credentials to offer such a service.
Qualifications For D&I Consultants
As the dust starts to settle, people are starting to ask serious questions about the qualifications of the consultants they’re hiring. There are countless stories about companies that have hired people only to learn that what they were sold isn’t something the consultant can deliver. So, it begs the question: What makes a good D&I consultant? If you aren’t careful, you may hire someone who takes your organization backward rather than forward.
The diversity and inclusion space is entirely unregulated and largely lacks educational grounding. The advent of colleges and universities offering any form of education in diversity and inclusion management is relatively new. Launched in 2003, Cornell University was one of the first I saw to offer its Diversity and Inclusion Professionals Certificate. I now see many schools offering either Certificate programs in D&I or, in some rare cases, a master’s degree in the area, but those offerings are relatively new. So, what can you look for if you can’t turn to education as a determining factor?
Assessing Potential D&I Consultants
When it comes to assessing a D&I Consultant’s abilities, whether you’re hiring them for an internal role or as an external service provider, here are a few things to consider.
1. Don’t believe everything you read.
Anyone can say anything on a website or LinkedIn profile. That doesn’t mean it’s true. People can be incredibly persuasive with the written word, but that alone shouldn’t be enough to convince you. If you like what a consultant says on their website, make them back it up.
For example, if they say they have toolkits that can help address bias in the recruiting process, ask them to see a copy of the toolkit, even if it’s just them showing it to you over Zoom. You don’t want to hire a consultant who says they’ve done something only to find out they’re making it up as they go.
2. See if they have previous experience.
Often, if people have worked in D&I in another workplace before going into consulting, it can indicate that they have some skills to bring to a consulting engagement. Specifically, if they’ve done work with employee resource groups or diversity councils, it can provide confidence that they know what they’re talking about.
3. Check their references.
References aren’t a surefire way to know if a consultant has the skill you need. Just like the content on a website, it’s easy to get people to give you a reference, even if you haven’t worked for them. That said, if you get three references and prepare a set of standard questions that probe into the work the consultant completed, you should be able to get a sense of whether or not they’re legitimate and if they have the required skills to help you.
4. Lived experience isn’t enough.
Please don’t assume that because someone is a person of color (or gay or lives with a disability or has some other identity) that they will be good as a D&I consultant. Just because you’re part of X community (where X could be any marginalized community) doesn’t mean you know how to be a good D&I consultant. There are specific skills that a D&I consultant should have, and lived experience isn’t necessarily one of them. Skills like change management, project management and facilitation are all critically important skills to look for in your consultant.
5. Not everyone in D&I is nice.
It’s also important to remember that people who work in D&I are human and have their own biases. I’ve heard about D&I consultants who turn out to be homophobic or racist. Just because someone works in D&I doesn’t mean they’re nice or even good people. Just like in any other field, there are disreputable people, so protect yourself and make sure you do your due diligence and research.
We are in a period of flux regarding D&I consultants as the profession matures, and we establish more rigorous qualifications for D&I professionals. While that happens, employers must be confident in who they’re hiring to do this vital work to ensure they achieve the change they’re aspiring to.