When employees sitting around the table come from different backgrounds, generations and gender, opinions and approaches tend to vary. Those differences can spur creative conversations, unique solutions and lead to a competitive advantage.

However, it is often difficult for any company to create more diversity when they have not actively pursued it in the past. HR can help address this need from the front line up to the boardroom — here’s how.

Obligations

HR is at the center of two important pieces of board diversity: workplace regulations and recruiting. States and companies across the country and around the world are embracing requirements as the way to ensure women are present in the boardroom. HR can be on top of this trend for its location or industry and leverage the landscape to get the organization on the right path.

Recruiting is also a natural fit within HR, and HR leaders can use that opportunity to source potential board candidates. Arguably, no one understands the culture of the organization, including the current board, better than HR.

It is easiest for and incumbent upon HR leaders to create a picture of the ideal candidate for the organization and find her. While current or recent internal executive searches are a great place to start, simply providing this profile to our recruiters can result in a nice list of potential candidates for when we are ready to take that next step.

Reality sandwich

Similarly, armed with our valuable insider perspective of our board, HR is in a unique position to understand which members will challenge the issue and for what reasons. I choose to believe that few organizations are purposely discriminating against women.

However, it can be challenging to take that first step because doing so may feel like an admission of previous wrongdoing — which is rarely easy for anyone. Most people, even leaders, fear change, the unknown, and often even more so, dislike being told what to do. It is up to us as HR leaders to harness our diplomatic skills to address the underlying politics in our organizations.

Once we find a way to navigate that minefield ourselves, we can use the map to set our potential candidates up for success. Candid conversations with board members and the candidates will help both sides get beyond the past and to the point where they at least have the opportunity to determine if they are right for each other.

Finally, HR can and must take these steps all while thinking about system instead of one-and-done. In other words, the first seat will be the hardest, but it should not be the last. HR can use the knowledge gained in this first process to set up a system for continued diversity-focused recruiting. Doing so is more sustainable and represents a genuine, long-term commitment to diversity.

The bottom line is that organizations benefit from diversity at all levels. Diversity at the top makes it easier to achieve diversity throughout the organization. And via unique insight into organization culture and our power over the recruiting process, HR is in an excellent position to affect change.