In Brief: Optimism Seen in DE&I Space; Trust in Science on the Rise

Optimism Seen in DE&I Space, but Challenges Remain

Senior diversity leaders report an increase in resources, responsibilities and optimism for the future, says a new study by Weber Shandwick and KRC Research. Nearly eight-in-10 senior DE&I leaders (227 total) surveyed say their organizations are equitable and inclusive.

Since 2019, senior DE&I leaders in the United States are 2.6 times more likely to hold C-suite positions and now oversee teams that are 4.5 times larger, the study finds. Eighty-six percent of senior DE&I leaders are satisfied with the resources their organizations invest in DE&I, with 77 percent reporting budgets of over $10 million. In the United States, 39 percent of those surveyed report budgets that exceed $50 million — a 26 percent increase over 2019.

In the United States, 89 percent of respondents say they’re optimistic about the future of DE&I, a 10 percent increase over 2019. Still, just 45 percent of global DE&I leaders strongly agree that their organization’s C-suite considers their role a “must have.” 

In addition, more than half (54 percent) also reported that incidents of discrimination and unfair treatment, harassment, and/or microaggressions have occurred at their current organization in the past year.

Trust in Science on the Rise, Study Finds

Public trust of science and scientists was growing even before COVID-19 vaccines became available in 2021, a new study says. 

As Gallup reports, the “Wellcome Global Monitor: How the World Views Science Amid COVID-19,” finds that in 2020, 41 percent of people surveyed worldwide expressed “a lot” of trust in science and in scientists (43 percent). Both figures are nine percentage points higher than in a 2018 report from Wellcome, a London-based health-research foundation.

Thirty-seven percent said they trust science “a lot” as a source of information, up from 29 percent in 2018. Forty-seven percent said scientists benefit “most” people in their country, compared with 41 percent in 2018. 

Respondents who said they know “a lot” about science were more likely to trust it, but the largest increases in trust were among those who said they know “some,” “not much” or “nothing at all” about science. Increased exposure to science during the pandemic may have influenced public opinion, the report says.

‘Web3’ Would Document Your Online Activity on a Public Ledger 

A new era of the internet may be dawning. Under “Web3, online middlemen such as Facebook, Google and Twitter would be eliminated. Instead, people would move from social media to email to shopping using a single personalized account.

As NPR reports, if the internet’s early days in the 1990s were “Web 1.0” and “Web 2.0” started in the mid-2000s with social media and e-commerce platforms such as Google, Amazon, Facebook and Twitter that went on to amass enormous power, “Web3” will give some of that power to the people, its proponents say.

Under Web3, new social networks, search engines and marketplaces would be decentralized. Users’ actions would be documented on a public ledger, known as blockchain, and searchable by anyone.

Experts say Web3 will operate alongside Web 2.0, not fully supplant it. But true believers argue that there isn’t a place for Facebook in a Web3 world, despite the social network’s attempts to remain relevant for the internet’s next generation.

Even Hybrid-Work Arrangements Need Flexibility, Research Suggests

As the coronavirus pandemic drags on, hybrid-work environments — in which some employees work in the office while others work at home — could become permanent, ComputerWorld reports. 

Amid concerns about work-life balance and other factors, only about 15 percent of employees wish to work full-time in an office, the research firm Gartner has found. Organizations that return to full on-site arrangements risk losing up to 39 percent of their workforce, says Gartner’s “2021 Hybrid Work Employee Survey.”

Up to 85 percent of organizations currently use a hybrid-work model, ComputerWorld.com reports. But even in hybrid environments, organizations should remain flexible and not require employees to work on-site a set number of days each week or on specific days of the week, said Graham Waller, research vice president at Gartner. 

Waller advised employers not to focus solely on the hours employees spend in the office or at home. “Location is a secondary issue,” so try to reinvent work itself based on people, he said. Amy Loomis, research director at research firm IDC, said that whether workplaces remain hybrid will depend largely on their organizational culture.