Organizations seeking to improve their diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility (DEIA) face the challenge of identifying underlying barriers and developing effective strategies to overcome them. Unfortunately, many companies rush into implementing training programs and initiatives without first understanding the situation. To address this issue, organizations need a partner that can help them identify the underlying causes, strengths, and areas for improving DEIA.

As a management consulting firm, CIDIS (which stands for Collaboration, Impact, Drive, Innovation, and Strategy) works with clients break down barriers to create high-performing, diverse, and inclusive environments. “We are trying to help organizations see diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility more broadly…helping them focus on all areas of DEIA and not just Diversity,” says Dr. Joy Papini, president of CIDIS. The company takes a broad approach to DEIA and works with organizations to assess their current diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility landscape, and creates targeted strategies to make progress in those areas.

CIDIS understands that no two clients are the same and tailors its approach to meet each client’s specific needs. It begins by meeting with the leadership team and key stakeholders to understand where the organization is in their DEIA journey, their goals, and pain points to drive the assessment methodology. CIDIS uses a variety of data sources and methods, such as workforce demographics, culture surveys, focus groups, and interviews to establish the current DEIA landscape and identify barriers and root causes to get at the heart of any DEIA issues. It analyzes quantitative data, qualitative data, and policies from across the human capital lifecycle to determine where barriers to DEIA exist within the organizations. Once it has identified the DEIA strengths and areas for improvement, CIDIS provides longterm support to clients, helping them prioritize recommendations, develop strategic plans, and implement and track metrics to identify the progress and impact of initiatives towards making positive DEIA changes.

CIDIS’s expertise in DEIA consulting has earned it a diverse clientele that includes the federal government, state and local government, and commercial clients. While some see DEIA as an individual area of focus, CIDIS looks at DEIA and its impacts across all areas of the organization to facilitate an engaged workforce and inclusive culture at all levels. CIDIS has a solid background in human capital management, data analytics, and DEIA best practices. Its team can create datadriven recommendations and strategies for clients to meet their current and future DEIA need.

One example of CIDIS’s successful work is with a client that was facing issues with accessibility across their written documents. The company had many customers from diverse backgrounds and was uncertain whether their documents were as accessible as intended. CIDIS worked with the client to review around 50-60 documents used for internal and customer-facing purposes and identified areas that did not meet best practices for equity and accessibility. It provided recommendations to adjust the documentation and helped the client develop a framework for assessing equity and accessibility across written documents. The client implemented all ten recommendations, making changes to over 100 different documents used for customers in their business.

CIDIS offers experienced consultants devoted to providing clients with solutions designed to mitigate their organizational challenges and determine an effective path forward towards creating a more diverse, equitable, inclusive, and accessible workplace environment.