Diversity, equity and inclusion (DEEI) frameworks focus on people’s differences to promote an inclusive work culture that’s free from bias, discrimination and microaggressions.
However, it’s essential to distinguish equity from equality. While equality involves providing everyone the same rights and opportunities, equity means addressing inequalities which unfairly disadvantage some groups.
Definition 1: Diversity
Diversity equity and inclusion definition is defined by its emphasis on people’s differences, rather than on representation from different groups in a workplace or other environment. This may include age, gender, sexual orientation, religion, socioeconomic status, education marital status physical appearance national origin language disability intellectual traditions perspectives etc.
Diversity efforts at any organization aim to ensure all employees feel welcomed and secure to bring all aspects of themselves to work, without fear of reprisal from colleagues. If employees don’t feel they can express themselves freely at work, they may become disengaged and perform at lower levels – potentially costing businesses billions each year in disengagement costs alone.
Diverse teams enable companies to better understand their customers and meet their needs. According to research, employees from underrepresented communities tend to have greater market knowledge and are better at recognizing trends, needs and opportunities than colleagues from dominant community groups. Therefore, companies should prioritize hiring from these underrepresented groups while continuing to invest in DEI programs.
As is true of any organizational framework, diversity, equity, and inclusion definitions are always evolving. Their nature makes them hard to pin down definitively; nevertheless, having a comprehensive understanding of them helps reduce confusion and disagreement that prevent progress toward meeting their respective goals.
Diversity initiatives provide businesses with many tangible and lasting benefits. Employees who feel appreciated in their efforts tend to be more engaged, productive, and loyal towards their organization; this can lead to higher performance results, lower turnover rates, and improved customer retention rates.
Diverse workplace environments have an enormously positive effect on a company’s image and reputation; one study even demonstrated this fact by showing how highly-regarded companies tend to prioritize diversity and inclusion practices.
Building an inclusive culture may be challenging, but senior leaders and managers must prioritize creating one in their businesses. This should show itself in terms of team language and tone as well as meetings or events held within the business. It can be done by providing training, creating best practices for conversation and creating a safe space for discussion. In addition, it is crucial to communicate the significance of these conversations among your team members and encourage regular participation in these dialogues. This can be accomplished through company town halls, anonymous surveys, team-building activities and periodic check-ins. Regular communication of their value can help establish new norms. Diversity should not be seen as separate and competing initiatives with inclusion; diversity should rather be prioritized over both.
Definition 2: Equity
Equity can often be neglected when developing a diversity and inclusion program, since many organizations focus only on diversity while neglecting to include all groups that feel included, respected, and valued for an truly inclusive workplace. That is why inclusion definition is so vital – as it ensures that diversity extends beyond representation to provide all employees with a sense of belonging in their organization.
Diversity, inclusion and equity are concepts which must be examined together. Due to their widespread usage, however, it can be easy for these terms to become confused; believing them interchangeable. Each term means something slightly different: for instance inclusion is defined as being inclusive; equity refers to addressing disparate access issues relating to resources and opportunities.
Increased diversity without regard for equity can have little to no lasting effect on an organization’s culture and performance. A successful diversity initiative should not simply measure by how many identities it represents but how well individuals are included and engaged with work activities.
Organizations may employ many women at entry-level jobs but still struggle to retain them at higher levels, due to gender stereotypes that reinforce inequities among leaders and underrepresent women as leaders. This inequity can be addressed with programs like blind resume screenings, unconscious bias training and employee resource groups which address and promote diversity within an organization.
Equity is also essential, as it aims to remove structural barriers that oppress traditionally marginalized groups. Equity differs from equality as equality distributes benefits equally across individuals while taking individual differences into account such as needs, experiences and opportunities into account.
An equity lens would consider how funding decisions could impact different groups of researchers or community partners, for instance. Social capital plays an integral part in creating an inclusive environment which fosters innovation and productivity, giving all members of a community an equal chance to contribute their ideas and expertise. Doing so creates an enabling space where innovation flourishes more freely. Prioritizing equity can ensure that all community members can reach their full potential. This will ultimately result in more sustainable and productive businesses as well as improved work quality from new perspectives that bring a wider array of solutions to the table.
Definition 3: Inclusion
Inclusion refers to creating a sense of belonging and value within an organization, and requires changing mindsets and daily practices in order to achieve. While diversity and equity initiatives may play a part, inclusion is one of the cornerstones of building an inclusive culture.
Diversity initiatives without proper implementation risk creating even greater division within an organization. For example, if a brokerage firm starts hiring more women but still has a culture dominated by men, female employees may struggle to feel supported and included within the workplace – leading them to leave and potentially undermining goals of gender diversity for good.
Key to creating an environment of inclusion is making sure everyone feels they can bring their authentic selves to work and that there are policies in place that support that. This includes encouraging employees to celebrate their cultures and heritages at work as well as speaking about marginalized identities they’ve encountered. Furthermore, training leaders on psychological safety is necessary so they can facilitate conversations among diverse perspectives.
One of the greatest difficulties associated with inclusion is that it’s an emotion rather than an objective reality. This perception depends on how employees are treated within an organization’s values and policies; if someone feels isolated from community life and feels they don’t matter to an organization they will become less engaged with their work and consequently less productive – possibly leaving behind productivity gains for an alternative place they feel valued more strongly.
Ideal work environments would be neutral and all employees would feel equally valued and appreciated, yet this rarely occurs in real organizations. Different groups are affected differently by their working environments – including people of color and people with disabilities who experience higher stress levels as a result. As a result, disengaged employees may leave more quickly.
A majority of workers view diversity, equity and inclusion as being important for businesses to prioritize. Although opinions on definition vary slightly, most accept that diversity, equity and inclusion concepts should be prioritized within organizations. If you would like to initiate conversation on this topic, Pigeonhole Live offers town hall meetings or facilitated workshops to spark dialogue about inclusion – helping identify any blind spots or assumptions in your workplace that need addressing in order to create an truly inclusive workplace culture.