Many companies utilize varying terminology when discussing diversity and inclusion initiatives, making it easier for employees and visitors to grasp your company’s stance regarding DEI.
Diversity refers to accepting differences and creating equal opportunities for all individuals, while inclusion means providing a welcoming workplace for all employees. A great way to showcase your company values is through setting clear, well-defined goals and communicating progress toward meeting those goals.
1. Invest in Training
Companies that prioritize Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) in their business will reap significant dividends in terms of improved performance, higher employee morale, increased revenues and a stronger customer base. Implementing DEI successfully is crucial no matter their industry or size of operation.
Training and education on these issues for your employees are also critical, and an ideal place to start would be with an online diversity and inclusion training course that you can tailor specifically to the needs of your company. Such courses help break down terms used when discussing diversity, equity and inclusion work such as age, ethnicity, gender, physical abilities/qualities religion sexual orientation as examples.
Inclusion refers to providing access for marginalized groups to opportunities equally, which requires eliminating barriers and decreasing inequalities as well as creating a culture which welcomes all regardless of background or identity.
Key to this strategy is ensuring that everyone can participate in meetings and discussions without feeling excluded or marginalized, by regularly updating compliance policies to reflect changing standards, as well as including more members from underrepresented groups in decision-making processes. Senior management must show its dedication to diversity by publicly supporting DEI initiatives while encouraging their teams to do the same; additionally, companies should make it clear that progress on diversity should be viewed as a key performance indicator for leaders.
2. Listen to Your Employees
An effective way to foster a diverse and inclusive workplace is through employee input. This could take the form of surveys, meetings or one-on-one conversations. Asking employees for their thoughts on Diversity & Inclusion goals and initiatives is crucial in measuring success; employee responses also give employees confidence that management listens and cares about them as individuals.
According to the CNBC|SurveyMonkey Workforce Survey, over half of workers overwhelmingly or extremely value working for companies that prioritize diversity, equity and inclusion efforts. Workers who believe their company does not do enough in this area report lower levels of job satisfaction.
Young people today are choosing organizations that reflect their core values of equality and social justice, particularly millennials and Gen Z who value purposeful employment with organizations that value them as an individual. Furthermore, this generation brings a sense of activism into the workforce that needs leaders who will guide and support its efforts.
Recent studies have indicated that millennials are less likely to work at companies which don’t prioritize diversity and inclusion within its leadership ranks, perhaps as a result of previous experience of discrimination or just the overall workplace climate.
Leaders should demonstrate their dedication to DEI through various actions. First and foremost, this means demonstrating an awareness and sensitivity toward intersectionality – the intertwining nature of different identity markers like race, gender, age, religion and sexual orientation for an individual – but also by supporting policies which encourage pronoun use and respect as well as encouraging open-mindedness and empathy within their organization.
3. Encourage Feedback
As a leader, you can foster an inclusive culture by seeking feedback from employees. Listening is key in order to understand our own biases and blind spots as well as get an accurate sense of how everyone feels about diversity initiatives. Engaging your employees by discussing their concerns shows you care and are working toward making their future better for all.
As well as conducting regular feedback sessions, another way you can promote diversity and inclusion is by embedding it into company culture. If your goal involves increasing female representation in leadership teams or permitting floating holidays for religious purposes, be open about these goals and report back regularly so everyone stays up-to-date.
Use company-wide events to educate employees on ways they can be more inclusive in their day-to-day work and interactions. For example, consider holding discussions about LGBTQ+ workplace issues during June; celebrating Dia de Muertos during November; or holding a Black History Month event in February. Offering your employees such opportunities will allow them to feel supported and valued by their employer, leading to higher employee retention rates.
Another effective way to foster inclusivity in business is hiring diverse workers. Your business doesn’t require exact duplicates of those already on its team – instead, it needs different skillsets, perspectives, and personalities in its workforce to be truly effective. By recruiting from various backgrounds, hiring more diverse staffers allows your company to reach new markets faster while creating a stronger team dynamic – in fact companies who hire more diverse workers tend to outperform those that don’t hire as many different types of people!
4. Encourage Allyship
An ally is defined as someone who provides assistance and support to marginalized groups in achieving their goals. Allies play an essential role in workplaces that embrace diversity equity and inclusion; leaders should encourage allyship as part of their leadership style – they can be found anywhere within any organization, from new employees all the way up to CEOs.
Leaders who embrace allies can help foster an inclusive culture and even the playing field for underrepresented employees, including actions such as acknowledging privileges, yielding opportunities, listening to others’ perspectives, and continuing learning about diversity, equity and inclusion issues. Allies also play a pivotal role in making change happen by taking necessary actions on behalf of one or more underrepresented groups.
Allyship is an ongoing practice that demands commitment and awareness. Allies should be willing to learn, challenge their perspectives and beliefs and take action when necessary. Leaders can facilitate allyship in their workplace by providing ongoing training on diversity, equity and inclusion (including unconscious bias) while helping teams build relationships through open discussions between leaders and team members.
As an employee, an outstanding example of allyship occurs when one employee goes the extra mile to uplift a colleague from an underrepresented group. This could range from using their place of privilege in meetings to elevating ideas or voices of underrepresented colleagues to offering mentorship programs or mentorship sessions. Allies should seek to understand the unique experiences of underrepresented groups through reading credible digital resources, consulting trusted friends for advice or perspective, or learning about specific identities such as pronouns used, ethnicity, religion socioeconomic status status disability of their colleagues colleagues – these steps could all constitute acts of allianzance.
5. Encourage Interaction
Prioritizing diversity, equity and inclusion isn’t only morally right; it’s good business. Diverse teams bring fresh ideas and perspectives that lead to improved decisions. Furthermore, according to McKinsey research from 2020, companies that fail to prioritize these aspects are likely to lose talent to competitors who promote them instead.
Your leaders play an essential role in cultivating an environment of diversity and inclusion within your company. Therefore, it’s crucial that they receive training on anti-discrimination policies as well as how to report incidents. You should encourage employees to interact with various people so they can get used to different ways of doing and thinking; this will enable them to develop empathy and understanding that are vital components of an inclusive workplace environment.
Implementing diversity and inclusion initiatives is often made more challenging by getting leadership support for such efforts. Without leadership support, changing attitudes and behaviors may prove more difficult – particularly when existing habits and traditions don’t support your efforts.
For example, it can be challenging for employers to be inclusive if one employee’s religious views don’t align with those of their company or policies, or if breastfeeding mothers don’t have safe space where they can work comfortably.
As part of your diversity and inclusion goals, it’s also crucial that they are measurable, attainable and relevant to company performance. Doing this will make the goals more comprehensible and easier to communicate. For example, including targets for female representation or minority quotas in job descriptions could make these goals even more relevant and easier to communicate; employee surveys could also help pinpoint areas that could use improvement.