Organizations who want to maximize the effectiveness of their diversity, equity and inclusion efforts need everyone on their team to understand what these terms entail in order to use them properly and address issues as necessary.
Diversity- and EEO initiatives often begin by emphasizing diversity because it’s easier to spot. Yet having a diverse workforce doesn’t guarantee welcoming workplace cultures.
Diversity
Diversity refers to differences among people and acknowledges all of the ways demographic groups differ, including race, sex, age, ethnicity, gender identity, sexual orientation and religious beliefs as well as socioeconomic status and disability status. By welcoming diversity into their business processes and practices, businesses can build stronger teams while creating more cohesive cultures; diversity also enables businesses to discover solutions for issues impacting employees or customers that might arise.
Diversity refers to all the characteristics that make a person unique, such as job, education, family life, hobbies and cultural experiences; also physical appearance and language abilities. Diversity refers specifically to who companies hire and promote. Companies that employ diverse hiring practices will experience greater success overall.
Diversity also involves inclusion, which refers to making everyone feel welcome and valued, regardless of background or identity. It involves creating environments in which individuals can freely express themselves while sharing their perspectives, experiences and values freely with one another – as well as developing systems which guarantee equal treatment of everyone involved.
Businesses seeking to become diverse and inclusive must implement DEI initiatives to ensure all employees are treated equally. This can be accomplished by recognizing and mitigating unconscious biases which form subliminally and microaggressions which involve comments that damage a person’s self-esteem.
Promoting diversity within a business can attract more qualified employees and increase profits. According to research from McKinsey & Company, companies within the top quartile for ethnic and gender diversity were 29 percent more likely to outshone competitors.
However, it’s essential to keep in mind that diversity and inclusion are two different concepts. Although a diverse business may tend towards inclusive practices, not always is. Many diverse workforces fail to create welcoming environments where all feel safe and welcome; this can result in employee turnover as well as diminished innovation.
Equity
Diversity refers to the range of identities in a workplace environment; inclusion refers to how these people feel within this environment. Even if a company employs people of various genders, races, ethnicities and religions; their perspective remains valuable if their employees do not feel included and their voices don’t matter enough for inclusion to take place.
As an example, an organization which employs many women but fails to support them into leadership positions isn’t fully inclusive. A lack of culture of belonging may also result in higher turnover rates that negatively impact productivity and the bottom line – this is one reason it’s crucial that organizations consider all elements that go into creating and implementing a DEI strategy rather than simply counting people who make up diverse workforces.
Assembling an inclusive workplace culture requires having accurate definitions for diversity, equity and inclusion. While it might be tempting to create an overarching definition or list of these three terms – such as an acronym – it is more effective to think through each term individually in relation to your business and consider their possible applications. Furthermore, order of these terms matters greatly: “Inclusion” needs to come before or after “Equity.”
Your language plays an integral role in conveying your goals to employees and clients alike, so be wary when using words that exclude people or exclude cultures that could threaten growth of your business. Inclusive words will foster more inclusive environments.
Companies committing to an inclusive diversity and inclusion strategy often designate one (or multiple) champions as drivers for this effort. Champions may include individuals in your business who care deeply about this issue, have personal lived experiences related to diversity or are committed allies; it is crucial that these champions participate in conversations about new definitions so they can share their personal insights and perspectives; this will help your entire team better grasp what each term represents and its relevance within its context.
Inclusion
Inclusion is the next step toward creating environments in which all members feel welcomed and valued by teams, organizations and workplaces. To do so successfully requires companies to recognize that people differ in many ways including race, gender, age, religion, disability status, sexual orientation and socioeconomic status. Furthermore, inclusion encompasses cultural diversity – which means honoring unique perspectives from every person involved.
In terms of racial equity, inclusion can help address resource disparity in communities. A diverse workforce ensures that underrepresented groups have a voice when discussing community issues that affect them; this may result in more effective solutions that take everyone’s unique circumstances into account.
At work, workplace inclusion ensures all employees feel supported and have access to opportunities to succeed. This can be accomplished by creating environments in which people from diverse backgrounds feel welcome and valued and providing training and development programs designed to build skills and abilities across a spectrum. Furthermore, inclusion also means celebrating and respecting each person’s heritage, beliefs, traditions and values – qualities essential for business success.
Understanding the difference between diversity, equity and inclusion is vitally important, since each plays an essential role in moving society toward justice and creating an equal society. Inclusion can only be realized by creating a system of equality which removes any obstacles to treat people fairly – be they individual, organizational or systemic in nature such as racism, sexism, discrimination implicit bias tokenism and other forms of oppression that arises as barriers.
At its core, diversity must also include systemic issues of equal pay or lack of promotion opportunities for historically underrepresented groups. Furthermore, diversity programs that fail to incorporate inclusive practices may fail miserably – to foster true inclusion a range of policies and initiatives must be put in place, including equitable leadership training culture training processes are needed.
Belonging
Belonging is a subjective feeling that differs depending on who’s experiencing it, ranging from identity and culture to race and ethnicity, gender, religion, sexual orientation, socioeconomic status and physical ability. When employees feel connected with their organization they tend to increase morale while creating a more pleasant work environment – not only can this strengthen brand recognition but it can also build their reputation as being welcoming of individuals from diverse backgrounds who can thrive there too.
Diversity, equity and inclusion all play a crucial role in belonging; each term has a specific definition. Diversity refers to differences within an institution or system while equity addresses accessing resources and opportunities equally for everyone. Finally, inclusion involves creating spaces that ensure everyone feels welcome while simultaneously empowering individuals to make decisions that meet their specific needs and goals.
However, all three terms are interconnected and interact. To foster a sense of belonging among their residents, organizations should take into account how people experience and perceive their environment and social justice issues they face; when people are excluded from decision-making or have limited voice within a community it can result in feelings of exclusion and rejection; conversely when communities embrace inclusive policies to address racial and gender inequity they can foster a feeling of belonging among all residents.
Belonging also encompasses the power to co-create and sustain a community’s structures and systems, including using collective voices to demand action from political and civic institutions that have historically marginalized certain populations, or undo the effects of oppressive structures by breaking down barriers that divide communities or reinforce an “us versus them” mentality.
Establishing a sense of belonging starts with recruiting an inclusive workforce and equipping them with tools they need to thrive within your culture. From leadership training and performance management, to fostering discussions where individuals share their experiences and perspectives freely – this process helps reduce employee turnover while increasing likelihood that employees remain with their employer over time.