DEI in PR: Its Importance and How to Create a More Inclusive Workspace

By Martin Perez

Diversity, equity, and inclusion (also known as DEI) has become a nationwide conversation over the past few years as society grows more and more weary of the pre-existing systems of power which serve to maintain those in the majority in power. While work is being done in many different spheres in order to promote better diversity, the fact of the matter is that a lot of this work is still in preliminary stages. As of 2019, 78% of the U.S. workforce is made up of white people according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor. 

This problem largely affects the corporate landscape of the United States as a whole, and also the public relations field in particular. It is crucial for PR practitioners and communication specialists to promote DEI in order to create a more inclusive work environment and to allow for better and more effective work to be done. Creating diverse and more inclusive spaces in PR will allow for greater client selection and satisfaction, as well as better work being done by professionals with different backgrounds, ideas, and mindsets to produce quality work as a team. 

In order to promote DEI in our industry, there are many different tactics we can take in order to create a more inclusive workplace. 

Involve the entire team

Make sure everyone is involved in the DEI work being done at your workplace and that their voices are heard. This will help everyone feel like a valuable part of the team and that their opinions matter.

Ensure a fair hiring process

Everyone should have a fair opportunity at employment, which often involves recruiting candidates from underrepresented groups in order to diversify your hiring pool.

Set Key Performance Indicators (KPI)

Similar to how we use KPIs to measure the success of our PR campaigns, we can use KPIs to measure how successful our work has been in achieving our goals surrounding DEI. KPIs can include talent acquisition, diversity, retention, etc. 

Open Discussions

Allow for plenty of meetings, seminars, educational opportunities, and other ways to get your team discussing the importance of diversity, equity, and inclusion to make sure everyone has an understanding of the work at hand and so everyone can offer their insight into ways the team can further its goals of DEI. 

Not every approach will work the same for every team, but the important thing is for PR professionals and teams to be working towards achieving greater diversity, equity, and inclusion in their workplaces to ensure that everyone feels welcome and valued in order to provide the best quality work possible.