An inclusion and diversity statement outlines your company’s commitment to diversity as part of its overall mission and values, while also outlining your efforts and accomplishments in this area.
Your DEI statement should demonstrate your dedication to making academic communities more equitable and welcoming for all members.
1. Start with Your Core Values
Your Diversity Equity and Inclusion Statement should serve as the cornerstone of your company culture, reflecting its underlying values in all that you do. A diversity statement can demonstrate to both your employees and outsiders alike that your organization is dedicated to creating more inclusive environments; additionally it can set you apart from similar organizations.
First step to creating an effective diversity statement is identifying your organization’s core values. To do this, ask yourself and survey employees and customers what matters most to you and collect a list of these core values – use this list as the foundation of your diversity statement!
Alongside identifying your organization’s core values, it’s also crucial to engage diverse voices in crafting your diversity statement. Doing so will ensure it aligns with employees and the communities served, as well as give an improved understanding of how best to support underrepresented groups within your company.
As part of your diversity statement, it’s also crucial that you consider its broader ramifications. One effective way of doing this is incorporating various statistics and data, like percentage of women or people of color in leadership roles or how much is spent with diverse suppliers; etc. into your statements.
Make your diversity statement easily accessible. By posting it online, your organization can demonstrate their commitment to diversity by including it on your website and linking it back to its mission and values so visitors can see that you truly support an inclusive culture that embraces differences.
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2. Involve Diverse Voices
Integrating diverse voices into your diversity equity and inclusion statement can help broaden understanding of issues surrounding diversity equity and inclusion, while creating a sense of urgency about this topic as many may still not have engaged with it yet.
However, it’s essential to recognize the various forms of diversity. Equity differs from equality by taking into account how systems continue to oppress marginalized groups and addresses these barriers through equitable resource distribution.
Diversity refers to demographic characteristics like gender, age, ethnicity, religion and sexual orientation; inclusivity refers to multiple perspectives, ideas, and values. Both terms can play an integral role in workplace environments where diverse employees bring fresh, innovative solutions that improve processes.
An inclusion and diversity statement can also help build trust with employees, which in turn boost morale and satisfaction levels in the workplace. Studies show that when employees feel included they tend to be emotionally invested in their work and stay for an extended period of time.
As such, it’s crucial that your diversity and inclusion statement clearly articulates your plans to foster an inclusive culture that empowers individuals. Mastercard’s statement acknowledges this fact by noting “fostering a workplace and global environment of equal access starts with our people”. This demonstrates your company’s dedication to welcoming a diverse workforce while striving towards equality for all.
Adobe’s DEI statement also emphasizes how diversity is the cornerstone of their work and emphasizes respect and inclusivity as essential components to creating an inclusive workplace environment. Likewise, this concise statement highlights tangible benefits associated with being part of an inclusive workplace while admitting there’s always room for improvement, showing transparency and an eagerness to evolve their approach as needed.
Having difficulty engaging your staff and colleagues with diversity and inclusion initiatives? Seek advice and inspiration from community leaders – this will give you a greater insight into the underlying issues, as well as effective strategies that will have real effects.
3. Link It to Your Mission & Values
Diversity equity and inclusion statements for businesses must reflect their core values and mission statements, and creating an engaging statement that resonates with employees is the first step in realising changes to DEI within an organisation. According to Deloitte research, only 37% of employees would perceive that company leadership had made public promises regarding DEI improvements without following through with them – with many employees feeling disengaged from this work when promised promises weren’t kept by management.
Linking your company values with their support for DEI can encourage more people to join your team and contribute their time and talent to its efforts. Veterans United Home Loans’ DEI website showcases its core value of “respect for all,” showing how this ideal is practiced every day by their staff. Booz Allen Hamilton’s DEI webpage opens with an emphasis on empowering voices, detailing four goals for DEI advancement and outlining key metrics pertaining to its advancement as well as offering links to additional resources – such as its Environment, Social and Governance Report – providing further evidence to support its statement. Employee testimonials provided additional credence.
Include your DEI statement on your website and distribute it through internal channels. Ideally, this should appear in either the “About Us” section or as a standalone link – this way both current and prospective employees have easy access. Be sure to include this statement when listing jobs or sending company newsletters out – this makes sure it reaches everyone.
Alongside providing an impactful diversity and inclusion statement, it’s also crucial that your company substantiate its efforts with data. Include details regarding workforce demographics and leadership composition or spending with diverse vendors as evidence that your company truly embraces DEI efforts.
Your DEI statement should go beyond describing your company’s values and initiatives; it should serve as a powerful motivator that draws in new talent to join and support the organization in creating an inclusive workplace environment.
4. Highlight Your Target Audience
Your Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) statement is an integral component of your company’s marketing efforts. It illustrates your commitment to cultivating inclusivity worldwide while showing stakeholders that you want to have an impactful contribution by eliminating biases and injustices in society.
Implementing diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives into your marketing strategies is good not only for business but also for customers. A study by Campaign Monitor and Environics indicates that 54% of customers prefer companies which prioritize inclusivity over ones which don’t.
However, it’s essential to remember that diversity is complex; rather than simply being about demographics such as age, gender, race or ethnicity it involves people’s identities, experiences perspectives and abilities – therefore it’s vital that your target audience’s distinctive factors are prioritized as this will enable you to develop strategies to promote inclusive marketing strategies.
When creating your diversity statement, it’s essential that you avoid using overly simplistic language or generalizations that might offend your audience. Achieve an accessible statement is also key – use non-sexist language and clarify any unfamiliar terms for clarity.
Ideal DEI statements should be integrated into all marketing deliverables as this will demonstrate that diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) is integral to how your company conducts business. Furthermore, doing so can keep employees engaged and motivated by creating an inclusive culture – as such an approach promotes productive work environments.
Adobe has an inclusive culture. Their DEI statement states, “Adobe believes in respect and inclusion as drivers of innovation”, showing their company values inclusivity. Furthermore, this statement includes specific goals and measures for how Adobe will achieve this goal in the future, such as hiring underrepresented groups for leadership roles; reviewing pay rates regularly; providing diversity training to all employees; etc.