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Celeste Warren leads Merck's Global Diversity and Inclusion Center of Excellence, where she works with leaders in more than a hundred markets to make diversity and inclusion a strategic input to business performance rather than a side project. She has spent her career raising the questions most companies prefer to leave unspoken, and the result is a body of work that pushes for ownership instead of compliance.
On this episode of Reimagining Company Culture, Celeste shares the case for what she calls an inclusion ownership mentality. The core idea is that DEI cannot live with one team. Every leader, every manager, every employee owns a piece of it, the same way they own revenue, quality, or safety. The conversation moves through measuring inclusion, an unapologetic approach to equity, and how to build belonging at scale. We have pulled the practical lessons together with patterns we see across AllVoices DEI solutions for People teams.
What an Inclusion Ownership Mentality Actually Means
Most companies treat DEI as a function. Celeste argues it has to be a competency. Functions get budgets and headcount. Competencies show up in every job description, every performance review, and every leadership conversation. The shift sounds rhetorical. It is not.
The data supports the framing. SHRM's BEAM framework for inclusion and diversity repositions inclusion as a performance-driven strategy that improves business outcomes, fosters innovation, and strengthens culture. Companies that read the data and respond by distributing ownership see better outcomes than those that centralize it inside a DEI office.
Equity in 100+ Markets: What That Looks Like
Working across more than a hundred markets means sitting with the discomfort that no single playbook works everywhere. Celeste's team designs frameworks, then localizes them with regional leaders.
How does global DEI strategy avoid becoming a one-size-fits-all program?
By giving regional leaders a clear set of non-negotiables and broad latitude on the rest. The non-negotiables are the company's stance on harassment, discrimination, and pay equity. The latitude covers the cultural specifics: which holidays matter, how feedback is given, how disagreement gets named. The framework holds. The expression localizes.
What is an unapologetic approach to DEI?
Celeste describes it as refusing to soften the work in response to political pressure. Companies that cycle their public DEI language with every news cycle teach employees that the values are negotiable. The unapologetic approach is to stay clear on the why, even when the language gets harder to defend in public.
What Actually Works in Distributing Inclusion Ownership
Principle 1: Bake inclusion into the performance rubric
The clearest signal that inclusion is real is when it shows up in compensation decisions. Celeste recommends specific behaviors in every leader's review: do they sponsor underrepresented talent, do they correct bias when they see it, do they run inclusive meetings. Workplace inclusion becomes a measurable behavior rather than a value statement.
Principle 2: Equip managers to lead, not just to comply
Compliance training does not change behavior. Skill training does. Managers need to practice the conversations they will have when bias surfaces, when an employee raises a concern, when a team conflict turns personal. The investment in skill is the difference between an inclusion strategy that lives in policy and one that lives in practice.
Principle 3: Listen continuously and act visibly
Pulse surveys, focus groups, and anonymous reporting need to feed each other. The AllVoices employee survey platform gives People teams the cadence to catch shifts in real time, and the analytics to spot trends across regions. Concepts like psychological safety in the workplace show up in the data when the system is working.
Where Employee Relations Fits in Global Inclusion
Inclusion strategy fails the moment ER infrastructure does. Employees report a concern, nothing changes, and the inclusion narrative loses credibility. Celeste's frame implies a tight coupling between DEI and ER, with shared data and shared accountability.
That is why centralized HR case management for global teams matters so much in international DEI work. ER teams need to see case patterns by region, demographic, and category, then feed that data back into the global DEI strategy. The work is iterative. The infrastructure has to support iteration.
How does case data inform global DEI priorities?
Three ways. Volume by region shows where the system is straining. Category breakdowns show whether the issues are bias, harassment, or policy gaps. Resolution times show whether managers in each region are equipped to act. The combination drives the next quarter's investment.
Frequently Asked Questions About Inclusion Ownership
What is an inclusion ownership mentality?
It is the operating principle that every leader, manager, and employee shares responsibility for inclusion outcomes, the same way they share responsibility for revenue or quality. Celeste Warren describes it as the antidote to DEI fatigue, because it removes the assumption that someone else owns the work.
How do global companies measure inclusion across markets?
The strongest programs combine global benchmarks with local interpretation. Engagement scores, attrition by demographic, and case data are tracked centrally. Local DEI partners interpret the data inside their cultural context and run programs that fit. The reporting line stays global. The execution stays local.
What is the difference between equity and equality at work?
Equality treats everyone identically. Equity gives each person what they need to succeed. The distinction matters in benefits design, accommodations, and promotion processes. Equity is harder to operationalize because it requires the company to see employees as individuals rather than as identical inputs.
How can HR leaders make DEI sustainable through political shifts?
By tying the work to business outcomes the company already cares about. Retention, engagement, customer satisfaction, and innovation are all moved by inclusion. When the case sits on those numbers, the strategy survives political cycles.
Why is anonymous reporting important for inclusion?
Because the employees most affected by exclusion are often the least safe to speak up identified. An anonymous employee hotline creates a documented, fair channel for those concerns to surface. The data it produces is some of the most accurate signal a People team can get.
The Bottom Line for HR Leaders
Celeste Warren's argument is simple to state and hard to execute. Inclusion has to be owned everywhere, not stored in one office. The HR leaders who build the infrastructure to make that ownership real are the ones whose programs survive contraction, leadership change, and political pressure.
The starting move for most People teams is to audit where ownership lives today. If your DEI office is the only place inclusion shows up in reviews, calibrations, or business decisions, the strategy is fragile by design. Distribute the ownership, and back it with shared data.
Book a walkthrough of AllVoices to see how People teams use case management, surveys, and analytics to make inclusion a shared, measurable competency.
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