Religious awareness and inclusion will be a larger component of DE&I strategy moving forward, SAP’s chief diversity officer predicts

As global unrest and political divisiveness persists, DE&I leaders’ roles are changing. That’s according to Supriya Jha, chief diversity and inclusion officer at SAP.

Jha predicts 2024 will bring even more DE&I changes: from religion becoming a larger component of DE&I, to AI’s impact on diversity initiatives.

Time of change. “The role of DE&I professionals is morphing not just into organizational psychology positions, but also more as conduits of communication, almost ambassadors, to an extent, within the organization,” she said.

Jha also said that diversity leaders will have to focus more on empathy as external events affect employees in the workplace. “What they [employees] see outside impacts them every day. And they bring that internally, and you have to cater to that sentiment.”

Outside forces will put pressure on DE&I pros, too. Even before the Supreme Court decision that rejected affirmative action in college admissions, there had been lawsuits claiming reverse discrimination. Jha believes that diversity leaders in the US may feel demoralized—but not deterred.

“What I’ve observed is even post-decision from SCOTUS, we’ve [SAP] gone ahead…and continue to think very inclusively about hiring practices,” she said. “The challenge might become a little harder because we need to scout differently. But the intention or the commitment has not come down, not at all.”

Faith in the workplace. The Israel-Hamas war has made religion a popular topic of conversation at companies. Jha noted that SAP chose to directly address the war following Hamas’s Oct. 7 attack on Israel. The internal communications and HR teams partnered with the executive board and Interfaith Alliance ERG to craft messaging and resources for employees impacted by the war.

SAP has more than 100,000 employees globally, with many different viewpoints on the situation, so HR had a listening session with employee representatives from both the Jewish and Muslim faiths to understand any challenges their communities were facing in the organization.

Moving forward, Jha predicted that religion will become a larger part of DE&I initiatives, and that companies like SAP will partner with external organizations, like religious advocacy groups, to fight prejudice and educate employees.

“For instance, even Satanism is emerging in our company,” she said, explaining that companies need to create space for religions that many might not understand. “We need to create that environment where opposing beliefs do have a place but with full context of respect.”

Artificial intelligence comes in. Finally, Jha predicted that generative AI will become a larger part of the DE&I conversation.

In addition to training those from underrepresented populations in generative AI as a means of providing more career opportunities—something SAP has been doing in partnership with community organizations—she said older workers could need to be reskilled, as their younger colleagues may be learning to use the technology at a faster pace.

“We need to do a lot of reskilling and bridging the generational divide in that context.”