Once again, an well-meaning executive told me that they had met all their diversity metrics for the year. When I asked her what she meant, she told me that they had hired a Black woman as head of HR, and a Hispanic male as senior director. When I asked her, how this was going to help her organization be more successful, or how they were going to integrate diversity into their business strategy, she had no idea.

Just hiring people so your organization looks good is not enough. These two people can be immensely talented, and bring new ideas and innovation to the organization. but if you don’t know how to use diversity of thought, and skills to your business advantage, you’re wasting employee genius.

Have you considered what you’ll do differently in order to create a more inclusive culture? If not, some of your best people may leave and take their brilliance to one of your competitors.