To help individuals and businesses incorporate inclusivity and diversity into their organizations, IMA^® (Institute of Management Accountants) recently unveiled a new Diversity and Inclusion (D&I) Toolkit, a free resource available to members and nonmembers alike.

Created by IMA’s Diversity and Inclusion Committee and supported by IMA staff, the toolkit features: 

• Best practices and a continuum to assess a company’s current efforts in D&I
• Key questions to ask before embarking on a D&I initiative
• Rules of engagement for D&I initiatives
• KPIs and metrics that can be used to measure D&I efforts. This can be used at any point in an organization’s D&I journey to assess its current state and where it wants to be.

“Diversity and inclusion should be ongoing at organizations and continue to innovate and evolve,” said Karmin Bailey, member of the IMA D&I Committee and primary author of the D&I Toolkit. “The D&I Toolkit is designed to be a starter pack or a checkpoint for companies looking to take the next step in not only recognizing the importance of diversity and inclusion, but making it a larger part of its strategic plan as well.”

The building of a D&I Toolkit was the next step in IMA’s D&I initiatives, which began with the creation of the D&I Committee and a D&I Statement. This then evolved with the appointment of Linda Devonish-Mills as IMA’s first director of D&I in July 2018 and the changing of IMA’s D&I Statement into a D&I Commitment. 

D&I has become a central initiative at IMA, which has taken a robust approach to developing webinars, research, and other thought leadership for members and nonmembers to learn more about creating bias-free workplaces and managing diverse teams. IMA’s D&I Commitment reads as follows: “Fundamental to our core values, IMA is committed to creating and nurturing a diverse and inclusive member community, accounting and finance profession, organizational workplace, and partner network, and to fostering mutual respect between individuals. IMA embraces a culture of open-mindedness and encourages multiple perspectives to enhance our collaborative solutions, drive innovation, and create and deliver value in all that we do.” As just one example of this commitment: For the first time in its history, IMA’s Board of Directors for FY21 will be more than 50% female.

IMA recently used a D&I assessment tool from the American Society of Association Executives (ASAE) to assess its progress and identify areas of improvement.

“ASAE’s assessment tool helped us to evaluate how to incorporate D&I into various areas of operation,” said Mills. “It also inspired us to put together our own D&I Toolkit to serve both the larger management accounting community and business professionals in all industries. Our hope is that organizations take advantage of this free resource and make positive changes in the D&I space.”

IMA’s D&I Toolkit is available for download on the IMA website.