Open MenuHide Menu
  • Blackrock
  • iShares
  • Aladdin
  • Our Company
  • Individual Investors
  • United States
BlackRock Careers
  • Life at BlackRock
    • Who We Are
    • Diversity, Equity and Inclusion
    • Technology
    • Rewards and Benefits
    • Social Impact
    • Learning and Development
    • BlackRock Alumni Network
  • Our Teams
    • Analytics and Risk
    • Investments
    • Business Management and Strategy
    • Legal and Compliance
    • Business Operations
    • Marketing and Communications
    • Finance and Internal Audit
    • Sales and Relationship Management
    • Human Resources
    • Technology
  • Early Careers
    • Early Career Programs
    • Americas
    • Europe
    • Asia Pacific
    • FAQs
  • Our Locations
    • Featured Locations
    • All Locations by Region
    • Atlanta
    • Africa
    • Budapest
    • Asia/Pacific
    • Gurgaon
    • Europe
    • Hong Kong
    • North America
    • London
    • South America
    • New York City
    • The Middle East
    • San Francisco
  • Blog
  • Search Jobs

Share blog

  • Share on Facebook
  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Linkedin
  • Share by Mail

How to Approach Equity in Your DEI Strategy

Written by


Michelle Gadsden-Williams
Managing Director, Global Head of Diversity, Equity & Inclusion, BlackRock

Michelle Gadsden-Williams, Managing Director and Global Head of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion at BlackRock, shares three steps you can take to progress your approach to Equity in the workplace.

—

The concept of Diversity in the workplace has changed significantly since the start of my career 30+ years ago. Diversity of yesteryear was akin to affirmative action – a headcount exercise or representation. Many of the diversity strategies, policies, and programs at that time emphasized the differences between employees rather than the ties that bind them. In recent years, the focus has shifted toward inclusion, which emphasizes that we create corporate cultures embracing our uniqueness as individuals and, more importantly, that we foreground treating each other with dignity and mutual respect, shaping cultures of belonging.

Today’s diversity practice – what I call Diversity 3.0 – incorporates the concept of Equity, which (in my words) is about reexamining policies, practices, and programming to ensure equal treatment in the workplace, fair access to advancement opportunities, and fair outcomes for all employees. It also means acknowledging that there is a historical context for under-represented individuals of less privileged backgrounds – like women and women of color – who oftentimes do not enter an organization with the same resources and support systems as their counterparts. Women of color, for example, have a lack of information to rise to the C-Suite.

Equity is a key component of cultural transformation and decision-making that requires a paradigm shift in terms of how we design institutions. It is the most critical part of the DEI equation because it challenges traditional norms of how to run a business or organization and how to lead and engage a workforce. And yet, it is often the least examined and practiced because it is the least understood.

There are actionable steps to approach Equity within any organization’s DEI strategy.

The three steps are:

  1. Know where you stand
  2. Be prepared to have difficult conversations
  3. Ensure leadership at the top is committed and engaged

1. Know where you stand

The first step is to conduct a diagnostic assessment to get a sense of the current state of play. To address Equity, you need to take a hard look at your policies, practices, and programming to reconcile where you fall short in meeting equity standards.

At BlackRock, we recently signed on to do an independent DEI/Racial Equity Assessment where a third party will review our strategy to assess how it is impacting the firm’s key stakeholders: our workforce, our clients, and the communities that we serve.

Engaging in this type of hard self-assessment is essential to gaining the insights needed to foster transparency and hold ourselves accountable to a higher standard. It will increase trust with employees, clients, and communities over the long term and is crucial for an organization to continue to grow and improve.

2. Be prepared to have difficult conversations

Second, you must be prepared to have candid conversations around difficult topics such as race and gender. More than ever before, people are attuned to instances of race and social injustice inside and outside of the workplace, and if you aren’t talking about these issues, then you aren’t going to be taken seriously.

At BlackRock, to facilitate regular dialogue on such issues, we launched a speaker series called “Learning Out Loud,” featuring academicians, thought leaders, and other prominent experts on various topics tackling systemic racial inequality. We’ve also begun to host “Inclusion Dialogues” – small group conversations led by external facilitators that help build the skills necessary to cultivate inclusive environments. The conversations can, at times, be difficult because they are meant to bring awareness to behaviors of non-inclusion or actions of microaggression.

When faced with hard problems, I often say that we should run toward the fire – not away from it. That’s when the most growth happens.

3. Ensure leadership at the top is committed and engaged

Third, the first two steps are only going to work if you have a strong commitment from the top. When discussing this work with CEOs and other leaders, I typically look for three things: the courage to act, the commitment to lead, and the conviction to change. If we fail to get this right, we will revert to the diversity practices of years past where representation is the key performance indicator.

I came to BlackRock primarily because I saw the courage, conviction, and commitment from leadership to roll up their sleeves to do this work. Enabled by strong leadership over the past year, we have made significant progress in adopting Equity into our comprehensive DEI strategy. We have increased our supplier and vendor diversity efforts to ensure that women- and minority-owned business have their fair share of wallet, we have invested in undercapitalized communities through our social impact work, and we continue to be a vocal advocate for increased transparency and disclosure by publicly disclosing our representation numbers.

The “E” in DEI is the newcomer to this practice, and it’s the most critical part of the DEI equation because it’s the consistent “red thread” of Diversity and Inclusion.

A version of this article was originally published on Women Business Collaborative.

Share blog

  • Share on Facebook
  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Linkedin
  • Share by Mail

More stories you might like

category1

"There Are Seats at the Table for Everybody" – How This FinTech Is Championing Women Leaders

May 3, 2022

Read about the Associates Development Program that champions women and supports their professional development.

Read more →
https://cdn-static.findly.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/1182/2022/04/22185457/ADP-blog-post.png 225 384 aleelaguerre https://cdn-static.findly.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/937/2019/07/blackrock-careers_logo_black.png aleelaguerre2022-05-03 21:10:412022-05-03 21:10:41"There Are Seats at the Table for Everybody" – How This FinTech Is Championing Women Leaders
category1

Sharing in the Future of Innovation: A Glimpse into BlackRock's 2021 Innovation Forum

April 22, 2022

Innovation has always been at the heart of BlackRock – in part because of the seamless way our teams work together to continuously deliver on our purpose.

Read more →
https://cdn-static.findly.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/1182/2022/04/20191531/Copy-of-Blog-Featured-Image.png 225 384 jacklyn.apostolik@blackrock.com https://cdn-static.findly.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/937/2019/07/blackrock-careers_logo_black.png jacklyn.apostolik@blackrock.com2022-04-22 15:48:522022-04-22 15:48:52Sharing in the Future of Innovation: A Glimpse into BlackRock's 2021 Innovation Forum
category1

Social Impact Codeathon 2021: Solving Challenges for the Atlanta Community

April 21, 2022

BlackRock Atlanta hosted the Social Impact Codeathon to help local nonprofits create technical solutions to support their missions.

Read more →
https://cdn-static.findly.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/1182/2022/04/21160251/Social-Impact-Codeathon.png 225 384 aleelaguerre https://cdn-static.findly.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/937/2019/07/blackrock-careers_logo_black.png aleelaguerre2022-04-21 20:08:202022-04-22 15:05:20Social Impact Codeathon 2021: Solving Challenges for the Atlanta Community
category1

At BlackRock, You Can Change Career Paths Without Leaving the Company

March 15, 2022

BlackRock encourages career mobility at the firm. Hear from employees who share their own stories of mobility.

Read more →
https://cdn-static.findly.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/1182/2022/02/25180327/Untitled-design-3.png 225 384 jacklyn.apostolik@blackrock.com https://cdn-static.findly.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/937/2019/07/blackrock-careers_logo_black.png jacklyn.apostolik@blackrock.com2022-03-15 21:15:372022-03-15 21:15:37At BlackRock, You Can Change Career Paths Without Leaving the Company

See all stories

category1

"There Are Seats at the Table for Everybody" – How This FinTech Is Championing Women Leaders

May 3, 2022

Read about the Associates Development Program that champions women and supports their professional development.

Read more →
https://cdn-static.findly.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/1182/2022/04/22185457/ADP-blog-post.png 225 384 aleelaguerre https://cdn-static.findly.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/937/2019/07/blackrock-careers_logo_black.png aleelaguerre2022-05-03 21:10:412022-05-03 21:10:41"There Are Seats at the Table for Everybody" – How This FinTech Is Championing Women Leaders
category1

Sharing in the Future of Innovation: A Glimpse into BlackRock's 2021 Innovation Forum

April 22, 2022

Innovation has always been at the heart of BlackRock – in part because of the seamless way our teams work together to continuously deliver on our purpose.

Read more →
https://cdn-static.findly.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/1182/2022/04/20191531/Copy-of-Blog-Featured-Image.png 225 384 jacklyn.apostolik@blackrock.com https://cdn-static.findly.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/937/2019/07/blackrock-careers_logo_black.png jacklyn.apostolik@blackrock.com2022-04-22 15:48:522022-04-22 15:48:52Sharing in the Future of Innovation: A Glimpse into BlackRock's 2021 Innovation Forum
category1

Social Impact Codeathon 2021: Solving Challenges for the Atlanta Community

April 21, 2022

BlackRock Atlanta hosted the Social Impact Codeathon to help local nonprofits create technical solutions to support their missions.

Read more →
https://cdn-static.findly.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/1182/2022/04/21160251/Social-Impact-Codeathon.png 225 384 aleelaguerre https://cdn-static.findly.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/937/2019/07/blackrock-careers_logo_black.png aleelaguerre2022-04-21 20:08:202022-04-22 15:05:20Social Impact Codeathon 2021: Solving Challenges for the Atlanta Community
category1

At BlackRock, You Can Change Career Paths Without Leaving the Company

March 15, 2022

BlackRock encourages career mobility at the firm. Hear from employees who share their own stories of mobility.

Read more →
https://cdn-static.findly.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/1182/2022/02/25180327/Untitled-design-3.png 225 384 jacklyn.apostolik@blackrock.com https://cdn-static.findly.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/937/2019/07/blackrock-careers_logo_black.png jacklyn.apostolik@blackrock.com2022-03-15 21:15:372022-03-15 21:15:37At BlackRock, You Can Change Career Paths Without Leaving the Company
PreviousNext

See all stories

Learn more about BlackRock

  • About us
  • Leadership
  • Responsibility
Blackrock Logo As a global investment manager and fiduciary to our clients, our purpose at BlackRock is to help everyone experience financial well-being. Since 1999, we've been a leading provider of financial technology, and our clients turn to us for the solutions they need when planning for their most important goals.
Corporate
Careers Newsroom Investor relations
Legal
Terms & conditions Privacy policy Business continuity FINRA BrokerCheck Rule 606 Disclosure

BlackRock is proud to be an Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action Employer. We are committed to equal employment opportunity to all applicants and existing employees and we evaluate qualified applicants without regard to race, creed, color, national origin, sex (including pregnancy and gender identity/expression), sexual orientation, age, ancestry, physical or mental disability, marital status, political affiliation, religion, citizenship status, genetic information, veteran status, or any other basis protected under applicable federal, state, or local law. View the EEO is the Law poster and its supplement, and the pay transparency policy.

BlackRock is committed to working with and providing reasonable accommodations to individuals with disabilities. If you need a reasonable accommodation because of a disability for any part of the employment process, please send an e-mail to Disability.Assistance@blackrock.com and let us know the nature of your request and your contact information.

Individual investor dropdown desktop

Leave the BlackRock careers site to explore other content
Advisors

I invest on behalf of my clients.

Institutions

I consult or invest on behalf of a financial institution.

General Public

I want to learn more about BlackRock.

Choose language dropdown desktop

Change location
Americas Offshore Australia Austria Belgium Brazil Canada Chile China - 中国 Colombia Denmark Dubai (IFC) Finland France Germany Hong Kong - 香港 Hungary Israel Italy Japan - 日本 Korea - 한국 Luxembourg México Netherlands Norway Poland Portugal Saudi Arabia Singapore South Africa Spain Sweden Switzerland Taiwan - 台灣 United Kingdom United States Location not listed

Individual investor mobilee menu

  • Advisors
  • Institutions
  • General Public

Choose language mobile menu

  • Americas Offshore
  • Australia
  • Austria
  • Belgium
  • Brazil
  • Canada
  • Chile
  • China - 中国
  • Colombia
  • Denmark
  • Dubai (IFC)
  • Finland
  • France
  • Germany
  • Hong Kong - 香港
  • Hungary
  • Israel
  • Italy
  • Japan - 日本
  • Korea - 한국
  • Luxembourg
  • México
  • Netherlands
  • Norway
  • Poland
  • Portugal
  • Saudi Arabia
  • Singapore
  • South Africa
  • Spain
  • Sweden
  • Switzerland
  • Taiwan - 台灣
  • United Kingdom
  • United States
  • Location not listed
How BlackRock Prioritizes Career Growth MBA Summer Associate Program Spotlight
Scroll to top