Tokenism manifests when a company employs individuals from diverse cultural, racial, or gender backgrounds, yet it becomes apparent that their presence serves the company’s superficial image. These individuals may find a lack of career outcomes, poor psychological safety, and isolation. This is issue is multifaceted and complex.
What can leaders do to help prevent tokenism bias?
- Consider the images (photography) you use to represent your business. Is it a true representation of your workforce or customers? Are these images giving false impressions?
- Measure diversity. There are a lot of dimensions such as recruitment, retention rates across groups, salaries, engagement, exit interviews, and more. These can all be analyzed to get a better idea of the success of diversity & inclusion efforts. Review measurements on an ongoing basis
- Set goals around the chosen metrics. Be sure that the metrics are specific. For example, if a goal is to have 50% of employees as female, but within the lowest paid positions they constitute 80% of employees, the way you analyze or set your goals should account for that.
- Have a vision for what diversity, equity, and inclusion mean to your business. Analyze what you are currently doing to meet this goal. What are the gaps?
- Create clear communications channels with employees belonging to a marginalized group. It’s important for marginalized individuals to have a voice and that their feedback is truly heard.
- Establish a culture of inclusivity with clear messaging and actions from all levels of leadership.
To find out more about this topic, check out this article, by Taniya Sonko.
The Biz Cache 
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