Companies that embrace diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) in the workplace have an edge. DEI involves policies, practices, and culture in an organization in order to make everyone feel appreciated and included.
Workers ages 18-29 are most likely to say racial and ethnic diversity are extremely or very important in their workplace.
Diversity
Diversity encompasses a range of ways in which individuals differ, including race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, age, socioeconomic status religion and disability. Workplace diversity is integral because it allows employees to view issues from multiple angles while stimulating problem-solving and creativity – leading to higher employee engagement rates overall.
Diversity is critical to any organization’s success; however, diversity on its own won’t do. Without inclusion, diversity can lead to tokenism; where minorities are only tokenized rather than valued and supported by their organization. Inclusion requires organizations to continually evaluate their culture, processes and procedures for potential biases while training employees as well as addressing unconscious or implicit biases which form without their awareness.
Inclusion involves creating an environment and culture where individuals feel valued, respected, and comfortable being themselves. Furthermore, inclusion ensures all employees can take advantage of equal opportunities to reach their full potential in the workplace by breaking down barriers to inclusion and including individuals from diverse identities in all processes, programs and decision-making within an organization.
An example is accommodating religious practices and holidays, such as offering flexible working hours for Muslim holiday shifts or expanding office holidays to include Diwali, Eid al-Fitr and Hanukkah. Furthermore, companies can create opportunities for employees to discuss their backgrounds, beliefs and experiences with peers; creating safe spaces to facilitate difficult conversations.
Organizations should make DEI a top priority and incorporate it into their business strategies such as hiring and training programs, communicating the importance of diversity, equity and inclusion to employees as part of company culture and providing clear anti-discrimination policies. Doing this helps address society’s growing desire for change while creating more diverse communities – employees can play an invaluable role here; according to Harvard Business Review research employees who believe their employers are committed to DEI are 70% more likely to be satisfied with their job satisfaction levels.
Equity
At the core of diversity lies equity, which seeks to ensure equal access and benefits for all people. Companies must consider any obstacles which prevent individuals from realizing the full potential of their workplace – for instance stereotypes, unconscious biases and microaggressions can act as barriers.
Businesses should create spaces that foster an equitable work environment by offering inclusive spaces where employees can connect. Employee networks and affinity groups provide such spaces, offering employees an opportunity to share experiences while developing more holistic understandings of each other – giving employees a sense of belongingness as a result.
Make sure that all employees understand your company’s anti-discrimination policies so they can report any incidents when they arise, and offer training sessions to make employees aware of their unconscious biases and avoid making assumptions about other groups of people that could prove damaging.
Diversity and inclusion are vital for any business, providing more diverse perspectives and improving products and services offered. They can also help a company remain ahead of competitors by drawing a wider range of customers in. Unfortunately, cultivating such an environment takes both time and resources devoted solely to making changes that have an effectful result in hiring practices or team interactions.
Even though diversity is essential to success in business, too often companies lack Diversity & Equality Initiatives (DEI). Slack has taken steps to prioritize DEI goals by having women comprise 45.5 of its workforce and 50 of their managers (employees with direct reports). Beyond gender diversity, Slack also values ethnicity, age, and sexual orientation diversity in its workforce.
Although DEI is increasingly being applied, its meaning can sometimes become confused with affirmative action policies that benefit demographic groups that have historically been discriminated against or underrepresented, such as hiring practices targeted toward minorities or hiring quotas for them.
Diversity and inclusion should not be used interchangeably with affirmative action; each term has different definitions. While affirmative action offers people a chance to showcase their skills, diversity and inclusion are about providing a more welcoming and accepting workplace for everyone.
Inclusion
Diversity is important, but inclusion should be the goal–creating an environment in which everyone feels valued and accepted by an organization. To do this effectively, an organization must provide opportunities for all people regardless of age, gender, ethnicity, religious beliefs, sexual orientation, socioeconomic status or language ability to participate and be successful in all endeavors.
Diversity and inclusion can be achieved by cultivating an environment that recognizes and celebrates cultural diversity. This may mean allowing employees to bring in their own traditions to the workplace, hosting intercultural events or encouraging dialogues about differing viewpoints and perspectives. It could also involve providing resources so employees can accommodate for disabilities as well as religious or cultural preferences.
At the core of inclusion is making sure all employees feel like they belong – this can be challenging without an in-depth knowledge of our differences among people and how systemic barriers such as gender identity, sexual orientation, race discrimination, and disability discrimination can negatively impact marginalized communities. Unfortunately, those in positions of privilege often lack personal lived experience to understand these effects on marginalized groups.
Leaders must ensure that their workplace environments are friendly to employees by sharing more about themselves and demonstrating vulnerability, showing they’re just like everyone else and building trust with employees. Leaders should also avoid appropriated culture from underrepresented communities by making sure their language is inclusive.
Managers must also offer opportunities for employees to share and learn from one another’s experiences, whether through employee resource groups (ERGs), workshops, or social media promoting discussion and awareness. ERGs provide an ideal forum to educate leadership on the various challenges experienced by employees from underrepresented populations while serving as catalysts for actionable change.
Success of any diversity and inclusion initiative rests upon an organization’s leadership team being willing to set an example by leading by example. Hiring diverse executives as well as encouraging mid-level company influencers who serve as bridges between upper management and employees allows for a more comprehensive approach towards building belonging and pushing DEI forward.
Social Identity
At any stage of a team or career building process, it’s critical to acknowledge the diversity of human experiences. Doing so can create more inclusive, engaging and productive workplace experiences for all employees – McKinsey research has found that organizations with greater gender, race/ethnic, cultural and age diversity tend to outperform those without. Diversity Equity and Inclusion (DEI) practices help achieve these outcomes.
Social Identity Theory developed by Henri Tajfel focuses on how group membership influences our perception of both ourselves and the world around us. It explores how different aspects of identity interact, such as whether one identifies as male or female, black or white, gay or straight, disabled or healthy.
At work, social identities play an integral role in our ability to perform well and feel valued by employers. They can also determine how others treat us and our perception of the world around us – including race, gender and sexual identity as well as age, religion, country of origin, language skills, personality traits, education level and life experiences.
Many employees experience discrimination and bias due to their social identities in the workplace, such as microaggressions. These daily slights can have an outsized impact on an employee’s sense of belonging in their workplace environment; such as being asked to speak as though representing all their colleagues or facing discriminatory treatment for being different.
Though systemic blind spots towards diversity, equity, and inclusion may be widespread, they can be overcome through taking small steps to promote workplace culture. Understanding your coworkers’ backgrounds and making sure their voices are heard are ways that you can foster an environment more welcoming for diversity, equity, and inclusion.
As a starting point, assess how diverse your work group and organization are by looking at its makeup. From there, focus on increasing representation across social identities where it may be low; additionally consider ways inclusivity training could enable individuals to perform at their maximum capacity in the workplace.