When Inclusion is an Afterthought, Culture Pays the Price

Well, I’m tired of Inclusion being an afterthought, should I say...

Inclusion has spent over a decade arriving late to meetings.

After the pay gap numbers are calculated. After performance ratings are locked. After bonuses are decided. After succession plans are drafted. And then someone says, “Can you JUST take a look from an inclusion perspective?”

JUST 😅

I once sat in a performance calibration session, brought in just before ratings were about to be announced. A leader looked at the curve and said, “It’s strange that we don’t have any ethnically diverse colleagues in the top quartile.”

Strange...

That’s one word for it.

By that point, the ratings had been influenced by a year’s worth of micro-decisions:

• Who got the stretch project • Who had regular performance conversations 

• Who had a strong sponsor in the room • Who understood what “exceeds expectations” really meant • Who was visible in the right forums

Performance outcomes are not accidental. They are engineered, intentionally or not. And this is where we keep getting it wrong. We treat inclusion as a diagnostic exercise rather than a design discipline, and we often interrogate outputs rather than redesign inputs.

Inclusion doesn’t start when performance has already been measured. It doesn’t start when the gender pay gap report is due, and it starts long before you’re scrambling for a diverse successor.

It truly starts when:

• Stretch assignments are allocated • Performance criteria are written • Talent is mapped • Sponsorship is formed • Recruitment pipelines are built before there’s urgency

I spoke to a leader recently who said they were struggling to attract diverse talent. They told me categorically that there is no talent in their industry. 

I asked, “Where are you looking and WHEN?”

If you only search for talent when you urgently need it, you’ll default to your little black book. I’ve seen it across financial services, and it predominantly happens in real estate.

Time pressure kills intentionality. If you are a revenue-generating business, time is money, and empty seats are a cost. So, of course, you don't have the time to spend an extra 3 weeks widening the pool. 

It takes strategy.

I remember when the board returned from a two-day strategy off-site. Growth plans were clear. Market expansion mapped. Commercial targets agreed.

Inclusion wasn’t mentioned once.

Did I feel left out? Yes.. Did I want two nights in the Cotswolds? Possibly 😌 But that wasn’t the issue...

If inclusion isn’t present when the strategy is shaped, it becomes an operational clean-up exercise later.

Can we ignore inclusion for a year or two? Probably, we are in volatile times, where DEI is being used as a tool to maintain control.

 But here’s what happens technically when you do:

• Engagement gaps widen • Promotion disparities compound • Succession pipelines narrow • Pay gaps persist • Reputational risk increases

Not because people are malicious. But because systems default to familiarity.

What would I advise a high-growth business starting from scratch? I would do three things:

1. Anchor it in strategy. Tell the whole organisation why this matters commercially. Make sure your executive team consistently repeats the same message.
2. Build governance. A council chaired by the CEO. Clear objectives. Measurable outcomes. Inclusion embedded into leadership performance reviews.
3. Redesign the colleague lifecycle. Attraction, recruitment, development, performance management, succession. Link inclusive behaviours to how people are assessed and rewarded.

Inclusion is not a workshop. It’s infrastructure.

And if you’re a leader thinking, “We know we need to do something… we just don’t know how,” Start by asking one honest question:

At what point in our decision-making process does inclusion enter the room?

If it’s after the fact, you’ve found the problem.

Now let’s design it properly. Performance outcomes are engineered long before the spreadsheet appears.

And here’s the part we don’t discuss enough:

Inclusion is a choice… until it isn’t.

For years, organisations have treated it as optional. Cultural. Moral. “Nice to have.” But when inclusion is an afterthought, the risks compound.

Not theoretical risks. Real ones.

Operational risk: When high performers disengage because advancement feels arbitrary. When your succession pipeline narrows because you’ve relied on familiarity, been time-constrained and not widened the talent pool.

Reputational risk: When pay gaps stagnate. When promotion disparities surface. When social media tells the story before you do.

Legal risk: When patterns become evidence.

In the UK, the recent Worker Protection (Amendment of Equality Act 2010) Act 2023 came into force in October 2024, making this painfully clear. Employers now have a proactive duty to take reasonable steps to prevent sexual harassment.

Not react to it. Prevent it.

Reactive measures are no longer enough. The Government itself is signalling that “wait and respond” is not acceptable governance. This is what happens when inclusion has been treated as optional for too long: legislation steps in.

And this won’t stop at harassment. Regulators are increasingly scrutinising culture, fairness, governance and risk in ways that intersect directly with inclusion.

You can deprioritise inclusion for a year or two. But eventually it becomes a board issue. An investor issue. 

A regulatory issue. At that point, it’s no longer about values. It’s about exposure.

So if I were advising a high-growth organisation today, I would say this:

Do not treat inclusion as a compliance exercise. Design it into your operating model.

• Anchor it in strategy, not in HR alone. • Build governance structures chaired at the executive level. • Redesign your colleague lifecycle: attraction, recruitment, performance, succession, with inclusive criteria embedded at the start.

Because inclusion doesn’t start when the grievance lands. It doesn’t start when the pay gap is published. It doesn’t start when your reputation takes a hit.

It starts at the point of decision.

Inclusion is a choice, for now..

The question is: will you choose it now, while you’re in control?

Or wait until the choice is made for you?