Levi Strauss & Co.

Elizabeth A. Morrison

Elizabeth A. Morrison is the first Chief Diversity, Equity & Inclusion (DEI) officer at Levi Strauss & Co. With more than two decades of experience as a purpose-driven leader in DEI space, strategic communications, and change management, she provides strategic expertise and thought leadership to help the organization make DEI more effective. Also, to create an equitable company with a culture that reflects Levi's global consumer base, her efforts are aimed to make employees feel safe and do the best work for their respective job roles.

What are some of the current pain points within the DEI space?

Making DEI initiatives fruitful is a task easier said than done. It needs out-and-out commitment throughout a long and multifaceted journey. There is also a requirement of the right resources, grit, and strong strategies to be successful. Unfortunately, this often becomes a challenge as organizations embark on the DEI journey without thoroughly understanding or accepting the obligations.

In my role, I face challenges while building DEI capabilities within the HR teams, business partners, leaders, executives, and employees. Moreover, as HR teams and diversity leaders need the right resources for developing efficient training programs, partnership programs, and coaching executives and leaders, identifying and investing in such resources becomes a major concern.  

The other significant challenge is for C-suite executives. They are always under tremendous pressure to make their DEI initiatives more human-centric by equipping everyone with an equal opportunity to grow.

What is your view on the support of gender identity and expression?

Today, the perspective of identity is more fluid and individualized than before. As a result, people are resisting traditional identity boxes and labels and rightfully defining how the world must address them.

At Levi Strauss & Co., we are supporting gender identity and expression through our initiatives on inclusive language learning and training. Such programs are helping our employees learn about the different gender pronouns and references for addressing diverse genders. At the same time, it is creating spaces for employees to define their genders freely. Also, in the U.S. and worldwide, we are acknowledging the different pronouns on employees' signatures and company badges.

How do you envision the future of DEI?

The future of DEI space will have a more nuanced approach to the dimensions of diversity. For example, along with race, ethnicity, and gender, organizations will start recognizing people with chronic diseases, such as disabilities. Also, they will understand the importance of mental health and wellness as a big part of creating a safe environment for employees. Therefore, providing a proper work-life balance and building spaces within companies for supporting mental wellness will be some of the major trends.

What will be your advice to your peers in the DEI space?

Fostering DEI in an organization is a collective effort. So, every DEI executive must reflect on their organization's collective commitment to the initiative. From CEO to all leaders across the hierarchy, everyone must learn from their experiences and invest in critical functions during their DEI inclusion journey. In case certain executives are unable to make any significant progress, they must undergo a self-reflection to identify the loopholes in their strategies. They need to understand and accept the fact that not all their efforts will yield 100 percent results.

“Making DEI initiatives fruitful is a task easier said than done. It needs out-and-out commitment throughout a long and multifaceted journey”

To bring maximum results for DEI initiatives, they must connect the DEI strategies to their company's core values. Building a strong infrastructure is also equally important. Such infrastructure must contain a team of specialists with individual areas of expertise—leading employee resource groups, facilitating training, building strategy, and executing action plans—who will then work together as partners.

From my experience, effective communications and engagement plans are also crucial aspects of launching and driving a DEI strategy. Leaders must shape their narratives, be authentic, and inspire employees from their success stories during any critical situation. And, if some process doesn't work with the employees, they must change it.  

Lastly, DEI executives must drive the accountability of other organizational leaders toward DEI inclusion. Its strategic benefits regarding performance, competitive edge, and brand value must be communicated to board members and all the stakeholders to gain collective support.