Diversity, equity inclusion and belonging (DEIB) initiatives should be part of every organization. Implementing DEI initiatives helps increase morale, engagement and productivity at work.
Companies with more diverse employees tend to experience higher profits 2.3 times greater than those without. Unfortunately, embedding DEI values doesn’t come easily.
What is DEI?
Diversity is an umbrella term, covering an array of groups. This can include characteristics like age, ethnicity, gender, religion, culture, disability and sexual orientation. Inclusion refers to giving these groups equal access and respect in the workplace whereas equity refers to treating these groups equally across all aspects of a company, from hiring through promotion.
DEI works on the theory that when diverse groups are represented well in an organization’s workforce, creativity and innovation increase dramatically. DEI serves as a business strategy which can attract top talent while better serving customers and clients while increasing profits overall.
Implementing an effective Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) strategy can be challenging. Issues to be faced may include dealing with unconscious bias in recruitment processes and creating inclusive work environments; as well as creating a roadmap that shows employees their efforts are making an impactful difference to company culture overall.
An effective DEI strategy must include both long- and short-term initiatives. These could include conducting targeted talent searches to bring in members from underrepresented groups, educating employees on how to promote an inclusive workplace culture and setting up mentoring programs that help employees advance within the company. Another component should focus on building trust within the workplace by encouraging leaders to be vulnerable with their teams, showing they’re real people with hopes and fears just like anyone else.
At last, attention should be directed toward ensuring every employee feels like they belong in their company and are valued for their unique skills, experiences and perspectives. This is one of the cornerstones of inclusion; to achieve it effectively one could create an employee recognition program which rewards high performers from underrepresented groups.
Companies often rely on surveys to measure their success with DEI, but these can often be vague and don’t truly capture how people truly feel. Plus, not everyone participates in these polls so it may take longer before you know just how impactful your efforts have been.
Creating an Inclusive Workplace
An organization must truly embrace inclusion by creating an atmosphere in which each employee feels they belong. This task begins with leadership teams; leaders must set the example by being open-minded about learning more about different cultural backgrounds and experiences – this may take the form of informal one-on-one dialogue or companywide town hall meetings, among other measures.
One way of creating a sense of belonging for employees is providing them with tools and resources they require, such as employee resource groups, unconscious bias training courses and providing a safe space where employees can express their concerns.
An inclusive workplace requires being adaptable and flexible with changing needs, since each employee holds their own set of social identities that may create obstacles within the workplace. For instance, simply hiring women into more senior roles may oversimplify specific challenges faced by women of color or transgender women; offering unconscious bias training won’t address systemic issues surrounding pay, promotion and more that many employees face.
Building an inclusive culture takes time and requires the commitment of leaders; however, according to research by McKinsey it can also be seen as a business imperative – companies with more gender and ethnic diversity have higher financial performance than those without it.
Additionally, an inclusive workplace brings numerous other advantages. When people can bring all aspects of themselves to work and collaborate towards meeting company goals more easily, their performance increases significantly and so too do team efforts towards their collective success.
Microaggressions are all too prevalent, making proactive inclusion a must. A clear plan must be laid out to bring changes necessary for creating an inclusive workplace and invest the time and resources necessary. Furthermore, showing teams what advantages being part of an inclusive work environment provides for their daily work life is of equal importance.
Addressing Unconscious Bias
Everybody harbors unconscious biases – preconceptions about groups of people which form without our conscious knowledge – which can negatively influence decision making in the workplace, lead to microaggressions and keep employees feeling marginalized at work. Addressing them is essential part of any DEI program.
Unconscious bias training aims to raise people’s awareness of their mental shortcuts when making judgments about people’s character, talents and abilities. It helps reduce bias in decisions made at work such as hiring and promotions decisions as well as interactions with customers and colleagues; it also offers strategies for combatting bias such as considering multiple viewpoints when making decisions.
Unconscious bias training should be provided to all employees within an organization; however, manager involvement is particularly significant. Managers have an enormous power over the culture within their departments and could serve as influential voices advocating for more inclusive workplaces. Self-reflection and open discussion about biases is also vital; providing opportunities to discuss them among peers from socially dissimilar groups may make people feel more at ease opening up about them.
Effective strategies for combatting unconscious bias include education about its presence and making conscious choices about how people interact. This may involve teaching employees about various forms of bias that could negatively impact them personally or the workplace environment, as well as providing tools such as Implicit Association Test or other assessment instruments to identify them.
One key strategy is to promote diversity and inclusion as a top priority within the company, by cultivating a diverse workforce, offering education on related topics, setting clear behavioral expectations, sharing updates on progress made, sharing updates about initiatives underway or proposed, conducting employee surveys/focus groups/surveys to gather feedback and assess what works, doesn’t work and ways of improving; using this data to refine efforts against unconscious bias.
Tracking Your DEI Initiatives
To ensure the effectiveness of your DEI efforts, it’s crucial that they’re tracked and measured regularly. Doing this will foster accountability while creating a culture of transparency – for instance, your team could publish an annual diversity report outlining progress, initiatives and future goals to keep everyone updated – plus it can demonstrate your dedication to an inclusive workplace to prospective employees.
Many companies utilize various metrics to measure their success in promoting diversity and inclusion, including demographic data (e.g. gender, age and race), employee engagement scores and any number of other data points. Leveraging these measurements allows your company to identify any issues it faces and take appropriate actions against them.
Your organization can implement various DEI initiatives to address these challenges, including training managers on the importance and implementation of DEI; mentoring programs designed to support individuals from marginalized backgrounds; as well as more inclusive hiring practices such as blind resume reviews or revising job descriptions to reduce biases and stereotypes.
Enhancing diversity can be challenging, yet essential for maintaining a productive work environment and making all employees feel welcome and accepted. One effective approach to increase diversity in your workplace is encouraging employees to participate in Diversity, Equality & Inclusion events or activities and discuss issues like unconscious bias that affect them openly.
Your leadership team should demonstrate its dedication to DEI and inclusion by sharing personal stories or simply showing empathy towards all employees; doing this helps foster a culture of trust within the workplace. Furthermore, leaders should remain visible rather than remain hidden away on an “island of excellence”, as this gives the impression they don’t care for their staff members.