A Wren Says

Diversity, or rather the lack of it, has been a major across industries. Neiman Marcus, the luxury department store, just may have cracked an effective strategy to get there. In an interview with Vogue Business, Eric Severson points out that companies need to have strategies to reach their diversity and equity goals. As the Neiman Marcus Group’s chief people and belonging officer, Severson calls out the typical approach of diversity training: “You can’t just train your way to [a culture of inclusion and belong], you have to change the way you operate.” Having already reached their 2025 targets a year early, they might be on to something.

The way NMG changed was to focused on the three key areas: Hiring, Developing, and Retaining. While they did incorporate training into this system, these modules were focused on how to do things differently. Leaders learned new inclusive hiring practices, that started with how they wrote their job posts, how they would interview, and how to strengthen their talent pipelines. Then they focused on how to make their internal pathways more inclusive and how to better retain that talent. I could recount all of the tactics, but it has been written about elsewhere and better. What I want to call attention to is the approach.

Rather than simply getting a larger, more diverse applicant pool, the brand’s new approach has been to reconsider how to retain those candidates and how to ensure that internal job opportunities are meted out in a more equitable way. Those two pieces are a lot trickier than just getting a diverse talent pool. It requires looking deeply within the organization’s way of doing things and being willing to make changes. It is that key piece that will drive success in diversity and inclusion.

How can organizations start to do things differently to better meet the needs of the people they want to attract and retain?