When we sat down with Lois Castillo, Head of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion at Basis Technologies, for this episode of Reimagining Company Culture, the conversation moved through the operating challenges every DEI leader recognizes. Where should the function sit. How should responsibility be distributed. How does transparency work when the news is uneven. Lois has proven expertise in finding common ground among diverse individuals at every level of an organization, and her advice was unusually pragmatic.
Her core argument was that DEI works when responsibility runs top to bottom rather than concentrated in one office. The CEO has to own outcomes. Executives have to model behaviors. Managers have to do the daily practice. Employees have to participate in the work. Each layer has a role, and the function holds the strategy together rather than carrying it alone.
Why Top-to-Bottom Responsibility Outperforms Concentrated DEI Functions
DEI strategies that depend on a single executive sponsor tend to wobble when that sponsor moves on. SHRM research has shown that the programs that produce measurable change are the ones with distributed ownership across the leadership team and accountability that persists across leadership transitions.
Lois described the structure as a network rather than a hierarchy. The DEI function holds strategy and infrastructure. The CEO and executive team hold visible accountability. Senior managers hold team-level outcomes. Employees and ERG leaders hold the participation that makes the strategy real on the ground. documented that this kind of distributed responsibility is what makes culture work durable.
What Transparency in Communication Actually Looks Like
What does transparent DEI communication mean?
Transparent communication means sharing the data, the goals, the progress, and the gaps with employees on a regular cadence. The data includes representation by level, voluntary attrition gaps, promotion velocity, and pay equity findings. The communication is honest about what is working and what is not. The transparency is what builds the trust required for sustained progress.
How do you communicate uneven progress?
Some metrics will move faster than others. Some leaders will have stronger results than peers. Strong programs share the uneven picture honestly rather than averaging it into vague summaries. Employees recognize the honesty and engage with the work. Vague summaries produce skepticism that erodes trust over time.
What Actually Works When You Build a Top-to-Bottom DEI Practice
Principle 1: Make the CEO visibly accountable
CEO accountability sets the ceiling for the rest of the organization. When CEO behavior aligns with stated DEI values, employees take the signal seriously. When CEO behavior diverges, the rest of the organization absorbs the divergence as the real culture. The signaling effect operates regardless of how strong the formal program is. Strong programs include CEO-level metrics in the regular operating reviews, hold the CEO accountable to the board for DEI outcomes, and make the CEO's commitment visible in employee communications. Without that visibility, the rest of the executive team has permission to deprioritize the work.
Principle 2: Resource the DEI function as a strategic team
DEI functions that are resourced as compliance offices produce compliance outcomes. DEI functions that are resourced as strategic teams with budget, headcount, and access to senior decisions produce strategic outcomes. The investment level signals what the company actually expects from the function.
Principle 3: Build feedback systems that catch what surveys miss
Standard engagement surveys often miss the experiences of underrepresented employees who do not feel safe sharing publicly. Strong programs add focus groups, listening sessions designed for specific identity groups, and confidential channels through tools like anonymous reporting. The combination produces the qualitative texture surveys cannot capture.
Where Employee Relations Fits Into Top-to-Bottom DEI
Distributed responsibility requires consistent operating discipline when patterns surface. Employee relations is the function that turns DEI patterns into specific interventions at the team or manager level. Without ER, accountability remains rhetorical. With ER, the data produces real consequences.
How ER reinforces accountability across the organization
The right ER function applies the same standards to every leader regardless of seniority. Investigations management tooling that captures cases consistently is part of how ER becomes a credible accountability mechanism. DEI programs that operate without strong ER are running half the operating system.
Honoring and Celebrating Communities Without Performance
Why authentic Pride and identity celebrations matter
Identity celebrations matter when they are paired with year-round support for the communities they celebrate. Pride that funds ERG leaders, supports LGBTQ employees, and shows up in policy and benefits is real. Pride that is a marketing campaign without underlying support reads as performative and damages trust faster than no celebration would have.
The role of inclusion in authentic celebration
Authentic inclusion is what gives celebrations meaning. The companies that celebrate identity well are the ones whose policies, benefits, and daily operating decisions already reflect genuine commitment. The celebration becomes an extension of the work rather than a substitute for it.
Frequently Asked Questions About Top-to-Bottom DEI
How should DEI responsibility be distributed?
Useful structures include a small central DEI team that holds strategy and infrastructure, executives who hold visible accountability, senior managers who hold team-level outcomes, and ERG leaders who hold community participation. Each layer has a role, and the structure holds the work together.
How do you measure DEI progress over time?
Useful measures include representation by level, voluntary attrition gaps, promotion velocity by demographic group, pay equity audit results, and inclusion sentiment by team. Strong programs track progress against the company's own historical baseline rather than against external benchmarks.
What is the difference between DEI and DEIB?
DEI focuses on diversity, equity, and inclusion. DEIB adds belonging, the felt experience of being able to bring full perspective into a team without paying a social tax for it. Belonging is the metric that ties DEI to retention.
How does employee feedback support DEI strategy?
Employee feedback informs the strategy. Pulse data captures sentiment over time. Confidential channels catch the issues that surveys miss. Listening sessions surface the texture. Together they describe whether the experience matches the company's stated values.
How do you celebrate Pride authentically?
Useful practices include funding ERGs as strategic teams, supporting LGBTQ employees year-round in policy and benefits, paying ERG leaders for the work, and avoiding marketing-led celebrations that lack underlying support. Authentic celebration is what employees recognize.
How Companies Build Sustained DEI Progress Across Cycles
Surviving leadership transitions
DEI work needs to survive the changes in leadership that every company faces. Strong programs build the strategy into operating dashboards, performance reviews, and compensation calibration so the next leader inherits a system rather than a slide deck. The system is what protects the work from leadership transitions.
Investing in the long-term capacity of the function
DEI capacity takes years to build. Strong programs invest in the function across multiple years rather than treating it as a project that should resolve in a quarter. The companies that invest sustainably see the dividends in senior representation that competitors cannot match through hiring alone.
The Bottom Line for HR Leaders
Lois Castillo's framing of top-to-bottom DEI responsibility is the structure that produces sustained progress. The function alone cannot move the work. Distributed responsibility across the CEO, the executive team, the manager population, and the employee body is what makes the strategy real.
HR leaders who want their DEI strategy to compound across years should invest in three things. Make the CEO visibly accountable for DEI outcomes. Resource the DEI function as a strategic team with the budget and access it needs. Wire in the listening and employee relations infrastructure that turns accountability into action. With those in place, DEI moves from a campaign that depends on one sponsor into a discipline the whole organization owns.
See how AllVoices supports the listening and ER systems behind sustained DEI progress.
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