Top-Down, Bottom-Up DEI System
Combine leadership accountability, employee ownership, wider sourcing, and metrics
- Difficulty
- Expert
- Time to result
- ~ongoing to results
- Steps
- 6
- Confidence
- 98%
The system treats diversity, equity, and inclusion as a sustained organizational change program rather than a recruiting slogan. Senior leaders begin by examining bias and visibly sponsoring the effort, while volunteer ambassadors create grassroots initiatives that build awareness and participation. Recruiting then expands beyond familiar elite institutions through partnerships with community colleges, historically Black colleges and universities, and community organizations. Job descriptions are rewritten to emphasize relevant skills instead of rigid credentials that may unnecessarily deter qualified applicants. Candidate experience is also redesigned so applicants meet a visibly diverse cross-section of the organization. Finally, leaders establish representation and hiring metrics, inspect them regularly, and adjust the system. The mechanism combines cultural inclusion, broader talent access, reduced screening barriers, and measurable accountability.
Origin
Lisa Jones and Amundi US built this framework with the executive team and HR beginning around 2017-2018 to improve diversity across the organization.
Core principles
- 01Treat diversity as a source of better thinking
- 02Combine executive sponsorship with grassroots ownership
- 03Remove unnecessary barriers from job requirements
- 04Build recruiting relationships beyond traditional institutions
- 05Create an inclusive candidate experience
- 06Measure representation to manage progress
How to run it
- 1
Create Executive Accountability
Put senior leaders and operating committees through bias training and make them responsible for supporting the change. Treat leadership participation as the foundation, not the complete program.
Pro tip Connect inclusion to culture and decision quality rather than presenting it only as compliance.
Watch out A purely top-down mandate will struggle to generate durable employee ownership.
- 2
Build Grassroots Ownership
Recruit volunteer ambassadors who care about making the organization more inclusive. Give them responsibility for recurring awareness and participation initiatives.
Pro tip Invite ambassadors from different roles, locations, identities, and levels of seniority.
Watch out Do not use volunteers as a substitute for executive accountability or funded HR work.
- 3
Expand Talent Sources
Develop sustained partnerships with community colleges, HBCUs, and organizations serving communities outside traditional industry pipelines. Proactively create access instead of blaming a limited applicant pool.
Pro tip Build relationships before a vacancy opens so outreach is continuous rather than transactional.
Watch out Posting the same vacancy in the same places will reproduce the same candidate pool.
- 4
Remove Artificial Requirements
Review job descriptions for narrow experience ranges, degree requirements, and credentials that are not essential to performance. Replace them with the skills and capabilities the role truly requires.
Pro tip Use ranges such as seven to ten years when an exact threshold is unnecessary.
Watch out Removing genuine safety, legal, or technical requirements would weaken selection rather than broaden it.
- 5
Diversify the Interview Experience
Ensure candidates meet interviewers who reflect different backgrounds and perspectives. Use the panel itself to demonstrate that inclusion is present inside the organization.
Pro tip Audit panels before interviews are scheduled rather than trying to correct them afterward.
Watch out A diverse panel should contribute substantively, not serve as visual tokenism.
- 6
Measure and Adapt
Track workforce representation, candidate pipelines, interviews, hiring, promotion, and retention. Use the findings to identify where qualified people are being lost and revise the intervention.
Pro tip Break aggregate metrics into stages so a healthy application pool cannot conceal a promotion or retention problem.
Watch out Metrics without action become reporting theater.
In the wild
An asset manager replaces a prestigious-degree requirement with demonstrable analytical skills, shares the opening through community-college and HBCU partners, and assembles a varied interview panel. It measures progression from application through offer instead of counting resumes alone.
→ The company reaches qualified candidates previously excluded by sourcing and credential conventions while learning where its selection process still creates barriers.
Common mistakes
Treating Training as the Program
Bias training can create awareness, but without recruiting, process, cultural, and measurement changes it produces little structural movement.
Blaming the Pipeline
Saying diverse candidates did not apply avoids responsibility for where and how the organization recruits.
Measuring Only Representation
A single workforce percentage cannot reveal whether sourcing, interviewing, promotion, or retention is the actual constraint.
Is it for you?
Best for
It is best for established organizations seeking to improve representation, inclusion, recruiting reach, and decision quality over time.
Not ideal for
It is not ideal for leaders seeking a one-off training event or an immediate numerical transformation without structural change.
From the transcript
“You can't necessarily have success when something is topped down. So we needed this, this movement, if you will, this journey to be both top…”
“Instead of recruiting just at the best and the brightest um you know, the all of the named schools, we've created partnerships with different community…”
“you can't manage what you can't measure”
From the episode
Lisa Jones on Investing With a Purpose (Podcast)
Lisa Jones