Often, organisations centre the recruitment process in their strategies to create diverse, equitable and inclusive (DEI) workplaces. Recruitment is visible and measurable, and it can be an essential place to start, but it’s not the whole solution. 

Trans and gender diverse inclusion is often reduced to visible signals. Pronouns in email signatures. Awareness sessions. A line in a policy.

Those things are not meaningless. But on their own, they don’t make workplaces safer.

While diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) work is often present in organisations, sometimes it’s only fueled by good intentions and no real movement. 

To get the needle moving, organisations need to move away from compliance ticks and start taking accountability for meaningful change. 

This month in Australia, with Mardi Gras and Midsumma in full swing, we see a lot of corporate support for parades and events. 

Don’t get me wrong. I love a rainbow. I love a Pride party. Symbols of inclusion matter. Safe spaces matter. They can tell someone, “You belong here. In this society. In this community. In this workplace.”

If you’ve worked in DEI for more than five minutes, regardless of what side of the desk you’re on, you’ve probably heard it or said it yourself.

“We can’t focus on everything.”
Or the classic: “Let’s just get compliant.”

Good intentions are not enough. Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) needs to be a collective responsibility from leadership to all levels of the team.

“I don’t want the job because I’m a woman. I want it because I deserve it and can do it.”

I hear this sentiment often—from women, from people of colour, from members of the LGBTQ+ community. And I get it.

I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve heard a well-meaning DEI leader proudly say, “We’re starting our inclusion work with employee resource groups (ERGs)!”

My internal response? Somewhere between a supportive smile and a silent scream.

One of the most common myths I come across is that diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) work belongs only to the person with “DEI” in their title. The DEI manager, the inclusion officer, or whatever title your organisation has landed on. Too often, they’re positioned as the sole owners of change. But meaningful change doesn’t happen that way.

We’ve all seen it. A company changes its logo to rainbow colours in June, posts a generic statement about “valuing diversity,” and maybe hands out lanyards. And then? Business as usual.

Gone are the days when a DEI plan could be deemed best practice simply by aiming for 50% women in leadership roles.

Today, meaningful DEI measurement goes beyond gender and surface-level representation targets. But what should we be measuring—and what pitfalls must we avoid?

I’m excited to share something new with you: my podcast, DEI Will Not Die.

This show has a clear message: while the language and tactics of DEI may change, the need for inclusive, equitable workplaces never goes away.

“I didn’t mean it like that.”

You’ve heard it. I’ve heard it. We’ve all heard it. So. Many. Times.

In my early days as a DEI practitioner, I regularly witnessed well-meaning people shut down, lash out, or retreat entirely after being called out for saying or doing something exclusionary.

If you’ve been doing DEI work for more than a minute, you’ve likely come up against some form of resistance. Maybe it’s a leader brushing off inclusion efforts as “just not a priority right now,” or a team member muttering, “Why do they have to shove all this stuff in our faces?”

As a DEI consultant who’s worked with organisations across regions and sectors, I’ve seen a familiar pattern: teams reaching for US-style “best practice” in the hope it will shortcut their way to inclusion. But what if some of those best practices weren’t actually that effective to begin with?

In today’s corporate landscape, Employee Resource Groups (ERGs) have become standard fixtures of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) initiatives. These groups have also been at the centre of broader conversations about workplace inclusion approaches and effectiveness.

Supporting trans colleagues isn’t about hosting a one-time event or making a well-meaning policy update—it’s about creating a workplace where trans people feel valued, respected, and safe every single day.

Burnout isn’t just a buzzword—it’s a reality many DEI professionals face. In a field driven by passion and purpose, how do you balance the weight of systemic challenges without letting it crush you? Spoiler alert: It’s not about working harder or longer hours. It’s about working smarter and more sustainably. Let’s break down how.

Here’s a controversial opinion: DEI folk are scared of tackling disability. Over the last few decades disability was often separate from other work around inclusion and equal opportunities.

Last week, I had a DEI practitioner client frantically juggling three separate initiatives: a pay equity review, an update to a recruitment policy, and an International day of disability event. “I’m doing everything,” she sighed, “but sometimes it feels like I’m achieving nothing.”