Leaders in the human resources industry are in the vanguard of building effective DEI initiatives in the workplace. Below, 15 Forbes Human Resources Council members share strategies for managing and achieving true diversity and inclusion in the workplace.

1. Standardize the interview experience.

Digital, structured interviewing is a solid strategy for building authentically diverse teams. By asking the same questions in the same way and in the same order to all job candidates, you minimize the dangers of hiring bias and ensure a fair, standardized interview experience for all. This strategy helps you objectively hire people who are more representative of the human race as a whole. – Sean Fahey, VidCruiter

2. Reward the desired behavior.

We have to move beyond training, reporting and analytics and enable people to work differently. In addition to using emerging tech to detect, prevent and eradicate bias, rewarding new behavior is critical. This means updating enablement and MBOs for managers and individual contributors. – Dr. Patti Fletcher, PSDNetwork, LLC

3. Think in terms of ‘culture add’ versus ‘culture fit.’

“Culture fit” describes how well a candidate can conform to the organization, which can lead to bias and a homogenous culture. Conversely, “culture add” is a philosophy that consciously embraces individuals from different backgrounds, communities and demographics to foster a culture of inclusiveness. This leads to more innovative and creative teams. – Jeff Carr, Inkling

4. Commit to developing high-potential diverse candidates.

It is possible to have both diversity and performance without tokenism. This requires strategic intention and action. For example, identify high-potential diverse candidates. Ensure there’s a commitment from leadership to providing mentorship, coaching and development for those high-potential performers who may be missing a couple of the requisite skills, or consider moving those candidates to a stretch role. – Victoria Pelletier, IBM

5. Build programs that provide access to development.

Tokenism is easily avoided by those organizations that authentically have a diverse workforce and that have built programs, resources and opportunities that provide access to mentorship and leadership development. This ensures you don’t need to rely on a small population of diverse talent to represent your workplace. You have to do the real work to get the real results. – Keri Higgins Bigelow, LivingHR, Inc.

6. Audit your recruitment system.

Diversity, equity and inclusion cannot be “add minorities and stir.” Evaluate job descriptions so groups of people are not eliminated from consideration. Ensure recruitment tactics engage a diverse network of candidates. Offer blind reviews of applications where possible to remove bias. Welcome new perspectives as being key to your company’s success. Help your current team purge itself of biases. DEI must start on the inside. – Courtney Pace, FedEx Employees Credit Assoc.

7. Partner with a resource group.

Find the C-level executive sponsors with personal connections and partner with your employee resource group or business resource group. Start small with a plan for a big rollout. To make this work, the combination of top-down and bottom-up is a must. – Nish Parikh, Rangam Consultants Inc.

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8. Focus on inclusion and belonging.

You avoid the tokenism trap by focusing on inclusion and belonging. Diversity and representation are necessary to ensure you have the right voices on the team. But people need to feel included to know that their voices are heard. When every team member feels valued, supported and heard, they bring their whole self to work. That’s when your diversity becomes more than a number or a token. – Ben DeSpain, Velocity, a Managed Services Company

9. Monitor the strength of your collective networks.

A leading indicator of DEI progress is the strength of professional networks. By using network theory and advanced analytics, companies can monitor the strength of their employees’ internal and external networks. This ensures that DEI talent pools are making the meaningful connections they need to break into key projects while also allowing “people teams” to adjust policies to drive collaboration. – David Swanagon, Ericsson

10. Review all aspects of HR that impact diversity.

To defeat the easy peril of tokenism, think in terms of systems, not gestures. Review all aspects of HR affecting diversity, from recruitment to pay scale to career mobility and financial wellness benefits. By addressing the core system, we can impact all related actions and create sustainable long-term equality and a more diverse and inclusive workplace. – Neha Mirchandani, BrightPlan

11. Start with your senior leadership team.

A key strategy in achieving workplace diversity and avoiding tokenism is for senior leadership to sponsor diverse, mid-career, high-potential talent. This will drive inclusive behaviors, better leveraging the increased diversity of talent that can typically be found at the middle and frontline management levels. Additionally, it will help establish a robust internal pipeline of diverse future senior leaders. – Bradley D. Soto, Anthem, Inc.

12. Give everyone a voice.

A large part of managing diversity is to make people feel that they belong and are included in activities—to create an environment where they feel that their voices are heard and what they have to say is important. People do not want to be treated differently; they want to be treated fairly, according to their merit. – Tasniem Titus, Dentsply Sirona

13. Ensure leadership commitment and buy-in.

If your leadership team does not truly believe in creating a more diverse, equitable and inclusive culture, efforts in this direction will inevitably fail. To ensure that empty “tick the box” actions are avoided, spend time with your leaders to ensure they are fully bought in and committed to cultural change. You’ll be rewarded with slower but more lasting and meaningful change. – Tracy Cote, Zenefits

14. Communicate the benefits of diversity.

Ensuring your C-level leaders understand the benefits of diversity will mean it becomes a part of your values rather than just a matter of optics. Culture is top-down—how your leaders view diversity is essential. Even better, working on establishing a diverse group in your leadership team can help with this, too. – Karla Reffold, Orpheus Cyber

15. Start measuring your efforts.

Diversity is really important for improving business outcomes. To ensure you are moving the needle, start measuring—once you start measuring, you will know how you are moving the needle. If you don’t have metrics that you look at and review, you will not know how you are making a difference and moving forward. Define the metrics, communicate them and then measure progress. – Rohini Shankar, CIOX Health