Mac Alonge, aged 38, is the Founder & CEO of The Equal Group, a data-driven diversity and inclusion consultancy, which helps companies and organisations identify bias within the workplace and advises them on the actions they can take to eliminate it. Mac’s world focuses on E.D.I. (Equality, Diversity and Inclusion). He and his team are hired by organisations, including many large ones with thousands of employees, and he tells us that businesses sometimes engage in “Diversity Washing”, a well-known term in his world equivalent to “greenwashing”. When Mac encounters “Diversity Washing”, he says, companies often try to “earn the badge” saying they’ve gone through the process. “There’s all sorts of badges & charters you can sign up to, but no checking whether you have committed to doing what you pledged. People put these badges on their website to say they are diversity inclusive, and will flood their websites with images of diverse individuals or those with disabilities. The idea is to give the impression they engage widely in ethnic diversity. Usually, the images used with the same person featuring on every page, photographed at a number of different angles, to give the impression there are loads of culturally diverse employees. This diversity washing can lead to some difficult conversations with leaders.”
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