Most companies have a public commitment to amplifying marginalized voices. The number that have built the operating infrastructure to back it up is much smaller. Matthew Grimes, Head of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion at the Cleveland Guardians, has spent more than a decade on the front lines of social justice work as a teacher, trainer, administrator, and systems leader. His conversation on Reimagining Company Culture is a working leader's guide to making the commitment real.
Matthew's framing is direct. Amplification is not the same as inclusion. A company can amplify a few voices without changing the underlying systems that produced the marginalization in the first place. The harder, longer work is the systems work, and that is what HR teams sometimes skip.
Why Amplification Without Systems Change Backfires
The most common pattern is the symbolic event. A panel during heritage month. A spotlight in the company newsletter. The visibility is real; the systems are unchanged. Employees who are amplified once and then return to the same broken systems leave.
McKinsey research on diversity, equity, and inclusion consistently shows that companies with strong inclusion practices produce different outcomes than companies with strong representation but weak inclusion. The financial outperformance is correlated with both, but the gap between intent and impact is largest when companies amplify without changing systems.
Building Inclusive Coaching Inside an Organization
Matthew's work in education and now in pro sports has taught him that coaching is the lever most companies underuse. Coaching is where managers learn to handle the moments where their default response would not serve everyone in the room. The companies that invest in coaching at scale see different manager behavior. The ones that do not see exactly the behavior the manager came in with.
DEI work that includes coaching tends to compound. Employee engagement is the downstream signal. The two functions reinforce each other when coaching is treated as the operating layer.
What Does "Amplifying" Actually Mean in a Daily Operating Sense?
It means redirecting credit, asking the quiet voice for input, citing sources from people in the affinity, and putting marginalized leaders in the rooms where decisions get made. None of those is dramatic. All of them require intention.
How Do You Tell If Amplification Is Working?
Look at the patterns underneath the headlines. Promotion rates by demographic. Retention by demographic. Engagement scores in affinity groups. The headline event tells you nothing if the patterns underneath have not moved.
Translating Commitment Into Operational Practice
Matthew's argument is that commitment without infrastructure dissolves. The infrastructure includes documented sponsorship, clear escalation paths for exclusion, and ER capacity that can handle the cases when someone's amplification is met with backlash. Unconscious bias training without those structural pieces produces almost no change.
Five Operational Habits Worth Borrowing
First, sponsorship goals tied to manager performance. Second, calibration sessions that include demographic analysis as a default. Third, an ERG funding model that pays leaders for the work. Fourth, a working anonymous channel for the reports that will not come through formal HR. Fifth, public accountability for outcomes by quarter.
What Actually Works for Equity Programs in Practice
Make the Goals Specific and Time-Bound
Vague goals produce vague outcomes. Specific goals like "increase representation in director-and-above by five points within eighteen months" produce targeted action. The companies that hide behind aspirational goals tend to under-deliver against them.
Track the Patterns ER Sees
ER cases reveal the gap between commitment and culture. The cases stack around specific managers, business units, or career stages. A purpose-built case management platform turns the patterns into evidence the leadership team cannot ignore.
Pay ERG Leaders for the Work
Volunteer-only ERG models burn out the leaders inside two years. Stipends, formal performance credit, and exec sponsorship produce sustained programs. The cost is small compared to the cost of replacing a burned-out senior contributor.
Where Employee Relations Fits
ER is the function that catches the failures of inclusion in real time. A DEI hotline creates a low-friction, anonymized path for reports that the formal HR channel will not capture. The data feeds back into the equity program in a way that closes the loop between commitment and outcome.
How AI Helps Without Replacing Judgment
Vera, the AllVoices AI co-pilot, classifies incoming reports, drafts responses, and surfaces patterns. The DEI lead and ER specialist make every judgment call. The AI removes the drudge work that crowded out the analytical work.
Frequently Asked Questions About Equity Programs
What is the difference between equity and equality?
Equality treats everyone the same. Equity treats people according to what they need to succeed in a system that has not historically been built for them. Most workplaces require equity because the systems have not been built for everyone.
How do you measure DEI program impact without performative metrics?
Use a balanced set: representation by level, promotion rates by demographic, retention by demographic, engagement in affinity groups, and ER patterns. No single metric is enough.
What is the role of an executive sponsor for an ERG?
To unblock funding, vouch for outcomes in executive committee, and shield the ERG leaders from political pressure. A sponsor who only attends events without doing the unblocking work is a figurehead.
How do you handle backlash to equity initiatives?
Document the case in operational and outcome terms. The companies that defend equity programs with values language alone struggle. The ones that defend them with retention data, business outcomes, and case-pattern evidence hold the line.
Should DEI sit inside HR or as a standalone function?
It depends on size. In smaller companies, embedded inside HR. In larger companies, a standalone DEI function with strong HR partnership. The structure matters less than the operating cadence.
How Sponsorship Outperforms Mentorship for Equity Outcomes
The most overlooked structural change in equity programs is the shift from mentorship to sponsorship. Mentors give advice; sponsors put their reputation on the line for someone in the rooms that person is not in. Companies that build sponsorship into manager performance metrics see promotion rates move within two years. Companies that rely on mentorship alone often see the relationship form without the career outcome.
Matthew's view is that sponsorship has to be deliberate, documented, and reciprocal. Sponsors commit to specific advancement goals for the sponsee, with timelines and review points. The reciprocity comes from the sponsor receiving credit for the outcomes, which keeps the program from becoming charity work that nobody actually delivers on.
The Bottom Line for HR Leaders
Matthew's framing of amplification as systems work is the right altitude. The companies that produce sustainable equity outcomes do not amplify louder; they change the systems underneath. The amplification is the visible part. The infrastructure is the work.
EEOC data on workplace sexual harassment shows that 90% of people who experience workplace harassment never file a formal complaint, which means the absence of formal complaints does not mean the absence of issues. The companies that build real equity infrastructure take that gap seriously and design for it.
The work of equity is operational. Track the patterns, run the calibrations, fund the ERG leadership, and back it up with a real reporting infrastructure. The companies that build this stack produce outcomes that survive leadership transitions and tough quarters. The ones that skip the operational work end up rebuilding from scratch every time a new executive arrives, which is far more expensive than the prevention.
See how AllVoices supports HR teams who want to amplify with real systems behind the commitment.
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