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Diversity, Equity & Inclusion

Build and empower a diverse workforce
Research shows that diverse organizations are more successful at attracting and retaining talent, making high-quality decisions, and pursuing successful innovation. But the value of diversity is only fully captured when an organization is equitable and inclusive—when systems, leaders, and peers foster a welcoming and fair environment for all—ensuring no opportunity, talent, or potential is missed.
We help organizations maximize performance through the power of a diverse, equitable, and inclusive workforce. With proprietary tools, we measure inclusion with precision, providing insights into different experiences across employee groups. To inspire commitment, we draw on our industry-leading research and align leaders around the organization’s specific business case for diversity. And we support action at every level of the organization to create a workplace where everyone is empowered to make meaningful contributions.

What we do

Assess the baseline and set strategy

Lead a comprehensive diagnostic to identify and share insights on the current state; support clients to establish specific, bold, and achievable DE&I goals and a prioritized roadmap for how to achieve the aspiration.

Build capabilities and shift behavior

Design and lead programs to build DE&I capabilities at every level, empowering people across the organization to apply new skills and adopt inclusive behaviors.

Guide transformational change

Deliver multi-year DE&I programs that include a tailored portfolio of initiatives for sustainable improvements, help actively manage implementation, and track and celebrate impact.

1,000+

organizations

across 15+ countries included in DE&I benchmarking databases

152%

more likely

that employees try new ways of working when organizations are diverse

47%

more likely

to retain employees at an organization seen as inclusive

Featured capabilities

Building on our expertise and research, we employ proprietary assessments, analytics-powered digital solutions, and facilitated programs to help establish and empower a diverse workforce:

Connected Leaders Academy: Advances racial equity by offering tailored programs to equip leaders with the capabilities, mindsets, behaviors, and network needed to achieve their professional aspirations, including Black Leadership Academy

DE&I Maturity Assessment: Evaluates the maturity of an organization’s DE&I strategy and programs across five key dimensions to identify opportunity areas

Inclusion Assessment: Provides a data-driven approach to measure workplace inclusion and build targeted, actionable plans to mitigate inequity

Inclusion Incubator: Offers a multi-faceted capability-building program, designed to meet learners where they are in their DE&I journey and support them in creating a more inclusive organization

People Process Debiasing: Analyzes sources of bias in people processes, resulting in a set of tailored interventions to make debiasing efforts impactful and sustainable

Sponsor Match: Provides actionable information on current and potential sponsorship relationships that can provide greater support to high potential employees

Talent Pipeline Analytics and Scenario Modeling: Maps an organization’s talent landscape by dimensions such as gender, race, and ethnicity, across functions and levels; generates insights and models to inform goal setting that is both bold and feasible

Examples of our work

Engaging leaders to support transformational change

A US-based hospitality company wanted to engage top leaders to increase gender and racial equity in senior roles across the entire organization. We developed and implemented a multi-year action plan that gave executives new DE&I tools, insights and support. Within the first year, the organization saw a 5 percent jump in women in senior roles.

Pursuing diversity, boosting competitiveness

A global healthcare company needed to set a new long-term strategy to attract and retain the diverse talent required to stay competitive. After rolling out customized initiatives, the company saw a 40 percent decrease in attrition while increasing the number of women in leadership roles by 30 percent.

Increasing workplace inclusivity

An advanced materials company needed to address pervasive behaviors that were suppressing innovation and idea sharing, putting business performance at risk. We launched a comprehensive program that inspired leadership commitment, engaged a broad employee base, and made key process changes—all resulting in a dramatic, measurable increase in workplace inclusiveness.

Featured experts

Kweilin Ellingrud
McKinsey Global Institute Director and Senior Partner, Minneapolis
Leads insights and discussions on future of work, gender equality, racial equity, and productivity. Serves clients across strategy...
Diana Ellsworth
Partner, Atlanta
Leads McKinsey’s diversity, equity, and inclusion work; directs initiatives focused on establishing inclusive, productive workplace...
Neel Gandhi
Partner, New York
Advises leading organizations on how to strengthen their talent-management capabilities and build an HR function that operates...
Claudy Jules
Partner, Washington DC
Counsels CEOs, senior executives, and government and investment leaders to enhance their impact by increasing leadership capacity...
Alexis Krivkovich
Senior Partner, Bay Area
Managing Partner of our Bay Area office. Advises senior executives, helping them drive change at scale, while building capabilities...
Michael Park
Senior Partner, New York
Coleads the People & Organizational Performance Practice and partners with leaders to shape strategy, improve performance, and...
Sara Prince
Senior Partner, Atlanta
Helps clients reset and sustain new commercial capabilities to deliver step-change growth
Julia Sperling-Magro
Partner, Frankfurt
Serves private- and public-sector clients on large-scale organizational transformations, strengthening performance and health...
Monne Williams
Partner, Atlanta
Brings deep expertise on organizational health and design during transformations, helping clients drive mindset and behavior change,...

Featured interview

Article

‘Making the world a better place never feels like work’: An interview with chief DEI officer Indhira Arrington

– Ares Management’s first global chief diversity, equity, and inclusion officer is building the company’s DEI strategy from the ground up. Here’s how she’s doing it.

Featured insights

Article

It’s (past) time to get strategic about DEI

– Companies have committed to being more diverse, inclusive, and equitable, but many struggle to make significant progress in these areas. Here’s how they can meet DEI ambitions—now and in the longer term.
Article

Unlocking the potential of chief diversity officers

– Demand has boomed for heads of diversity in the United States—but so has turnover. Here’s how companies can reshape... a role vital to navigating today’s turbulent social and economic climate.
Article

Women in the Workplace 2022

– Women leaders are switching jobs at the highest rates we’ve ever seen, and ambitious young women are prepared to do the... same. To make meaningful and sustainable progress toward gender equality, companies need to go beyond table stakes. That’s according to the latest Women in the Workplace report from McKinsey, in partnership with LeanIn.Org.
Article - McKinsey Quarterly

Hybrid work: Making it fit with your diversity, equity, and inclusion strategy

– New research details what empowered employees love about hybrid work models and the risks to diversity, equity, and inclusion... if managers get the evolving flexible workplace wrong.
Survey

Understanding organizational barriers to a more inclusive workplace

– Survey results show that many employees do not feel fully included at work and want their organizations to do more to advance... inclusion and diversity. To do so, companies can address four factors.
Report

Race in the workplace: The Black experience in the US private sector

– Advancing racial equity in the workplace is a system-level challenge—ranging from the structural inequities of geography to underrepresentation... in industries and jobs that could create additional opportunity to the behaviors of the workplace itself.
Interactive

Diversity wins: How inclusion matters

– The business case for inclusion and diversity is growing stronger than ever.

Featured blog posts

Blog Post

Inclusion doesn’t happen by accident: Measuring inclusion in a way that matters

– In order for a diverse workforce to flourish, companies must also enhance inclusion.
Blog Post

How people—not just policies—make or break inclusive workplaces

– Recent and urgent reckonings about race and sexual harassment have brought diversity, equity, and inclusion (DE&I) front of... mind for employers.
Blog Post

Inclusive workplaces focus on management practices that matter, not fluff

– When done consistently well, these practices drive workplace inclusion and equity for all employees.
Blog Post

Personal experience of inclusion: Critical to win the war for talent

– These seven practices can improve personal experiences of inclusion and help diverse teams thrive.

Connect with our People & Organizational Performance Practice