Post by icedcoffee on Sept 6, 2023 16:41:31 GMT -5
If you have a DEI director/manager/whatever in your organization, who do they report to? I think my organization is getting this wrong, but I’ll let you all decide.
"Hello babies. Welcome to Earth. It's hot in the summer and cold in the winter. It's round and wet and crowded. On the outside, babies, you've got a hundred years here. There's only one rule that I know of, babies-"God damn it, you've got to be kind.”
I think it really depends on the purpose of the organization and the population the DEI person is supposed to focus on - and the purpose of the position at all. If it's a service organization (like a school or healthcare) they may be mostly focused on students or patients and I would expect them to report to someone like the CEO or provost. But in many other types of orgs the focus would be employees and therefore would kind of have to align with HR. Stuff like training, equitable hiring and promotions, ensuring a diverse workforce, etc. So idk.... I don't think it's necessarily unusual or problematic to report to the head of HR. Also, just like any field, people are likely to follow people they've worked well with to new organizations so I don't think that is sketchy.
But I feel like maybe there are some specific things you are concerned about?
I work in HR and don’t think that sounds fishy. In my experience executives usually bring people they’ve worked with in the past with them to new orgs. And DEI often falls under HR, though it’s also common to have the head of diversity report to the CEO or equivalent. But it sounds like maybe you have reason to not trust the current HR leader?
We have several different DEI roles that report up to different lines. The most senior, a vice president herself, reports to the president. We do have one who reports to the VP of HR, whose role is more in line with ensuring DEI best practices are followed in hiring/recruiting and employee relations, whereas the other roles are more broad/ consider the entire organization or their specific area within the organization.
I think it really depends on the purpose of the organization and the population the DEI person is supposed to focus on - and the purpose of the position at all. If it's a service organization (like a school or healthcare) they may be mostly focused on students or patients and I would expect them to report to someone like the CEO or provost. But in many other types of orgs the focus would be employees and therefore would kind of have to align with HR. Stuff like training, equitable hiring and promotions, ensuring a diverse workforce, etc. So idk.... I don't think it's necessarily unusual or problematic to report to the head of HR. Also, just like any field, people are likely to follow people they've worked well with to new organizations so I don't think that is sketchy.
But I feel like maybe there are some specific things you are concerned about?
Not fishy. Did you have internally qualified applicants?
Also, while it may not be ideal (for several reasons), CEOs often only want so many direct reports.
The person who applied was definitely qualified. I could see maybe why he didn’t get it but the fact that the person who did get it knows the HR director made me a little suspicious.
This is very new to us. Our main DEI person (whose job is still being hired for) will report to our CEO. Our department’s DEI person will most likely report to our director, although she would rather they report to someone else.
Not fishy. Did you have internally qualified applicants?
Also, while it may not be ideal (for several reasons), CEOs often only want so many direct reports.
The person who applied was definitely qualified. I could see maybe why he didn’t get it but the fact that the person who did get it knows the HR director made me a little suspicious.
Got it. I asked because it really is a discipline, and oftentimes people think of it as an “anyone can do it” type of role.