DEIB are integral concepts to creating an inclusive workplace and society. Diversity encompasses many attributes that distinguish individuals, such as race, gender, sexual orientation, religion/spirituality, age, socioeconomic status, language culture national origin.
Inclusion means providing equal access to opportunities and resources; belonging refers to feeling accepted and connected.
Attracting Diverse Talent
Companies that prioritize diversity are more likely to attract and retain top talent, adapt quickly to changing business conditions, and serve customers across the country and world more efficiently. Diversity, equity inclusion and belonging aren’t simply morally beneficial practices – they can lead to higher revenues, reduced turnover costs and an expanded customer base.
But building a diverse workforce takes time and effort, with organizations often struggling with how to make their culture more inclusive. While initiatives to bring in more diverse candidates may help, success requires leadership support for this initiative to work properly. Leaders must learn to be more empathetic towards team members with different needs and backgrounds while being open to hearing perspectives about diversity and inclusion as part of trainings that support it.
To increase diversity within your workforce, it’s essential that you have a well-conceived plan in place. Your strategy should include goals for attracting and retaining employees as well as strategies for addressing unconscious biases. Unconscious biases are stereotypes formed without conscious awareness that can negatively influence how one interacts with others. Your plan should also identify and mitigate microaggressions – negative behavior directed toward individuals based on identity or marginalized groups – by setting out ways of recognizing and mitigating microaggressions within your workforce.
Establishing an employee resource group (ERG) is an excellent way for companies to bring new hires on board while hosting discussions about diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging. Companies can extend these efforts by building diversity and inclusion into their hiring practices; recruiters using Findem’s search function to type full phrases such as “previously led an ERG,” to quickly locate candidates passionate about similar issues as themselves.
DEIB can help your company build an inclusive culture and ensure that its workforce reflects our diverse population. But DEIB must go beyond simply recruitment and retention strategies–it should become part of all aspects of company operations, including policies, systems and products.
Retaining Diverse Talent
To fully leverage your diverse talent, it is necessary to foster an environment in which employees feel welcome and valued as unique individuals. When employees feel they don’t have to ‘check part of themselves at the door’ they tend to give more, leading to higher employee engagement levels that contribute towards greater productivity.
Establishing an inclusive environment may be challenging, yet crucial to your company’s success. By prioritizing diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging (DEIB), your company can attract and retain top talent, positioning it for long-term growth and prosperity.
DEIB goes beyond simply allocating women or minorities quotas; it encompasses your policies, systems and products as well. A recent McKinsey study showed that companies with more ethnically diverse workforces achieved 36% better financial performance than those without such diversity in their workforces.
Newcomers to D&I may feel lost and overwhelmed, with so many unfamiliar terms, acronyms and concepts being used throughout. But don’t despair: D&I experts are on hand to guide newcomers through this field!
We can help simplify the complexity so you can start to create an inclusive workplace quickly.
DivCom has extensive experience designing, creating and implementing diversity and inclusion programs and initiatives at colleges, universities and corporate clients. Our teams collaborate closely with your teams to devise custom strategies that support existing goals while providing the infrastructure required for implementing an inclusive DEIB strategy across your entire organization.
At First Step Group, we start by conducting an evaluation of your current state and identifying any gaps that must be filled for successful diversity and inclusion initiatives. Next, we create measurable, attainable, relevant performance goals to track your progress and hold yourself accountable – goals which align with company values can make meeting them much more motivating – creating a culture of inclusion that benefits all.
Developing Diverse Leaders
Finding more diverse leaders within an organization is of vital importance for companies. Studies have revealed that teams led by more women and people of color tend to deliver greater results. To encourage and foster more diverse leadership development within an organization, organizations must focus on diversity equity inclusion and belonging strategies such as hiring practices, inclusive leadership training courses and creating supportive work environments.
Diversity encompasses various social identities such as race, gender, sexual orientation, disability status and socioeconomic standing. Diversity creates an inclusive workplace in which employees feel accepted, valued and connected – two things which allow your employees to bring all aspects of themselves into work environments.
Measureing how well a company embodies DEIB can be challenging. Many organizations rely on annual employee surveys as a barometer of progress; however, these only touch upon how candidates feel and do not address all aspects of DEIB.
Companies who use DEIB metrics and benchmark themselves against others can identify areas for improvement. For instance, an employer might wish to find out how well its hiring practices perform, how long people remain in roles they have been given and if promotions have been given for outstanding work done by individuals in those roles. These metrics help businesses establish whether their workplace culture has an inclusive atmosphere that helps retain talent.
Employees who feel included and empowered to express themselves at work can achieve amazing results. Employees will experience greater ownership and engagement which in turn creates better customer experiences while increasing productivity. Customers also seek assurances that a company shares similar values.
Businesses that embrace diversity, equity and inclusion demonstrate to both employees and consumers that they value all views and experiences equally, leading to more innovative and creative businesses that all people can rally behind regardless of background or beliefs. It is therefore imperative for every business to incorporate DEI into its culture.
Creating a Culture of Inclusion
Diversity refers to the demographics of your workforce and inclusion refers to making people feel welcome in it. A company’s DEI strategy can include employee mentoring programs, cultural celebrations and setting measurable and attainable goals aimed at DEI success – this allows employees to track their own progress while holding leaders accountable.
Diverse workforces offer many advantages, including improved financial performance and greater market agility. Diversity has also been shown to foster innovation; teams with greater diversity can quickly identify customer needs while creating products and services which fulfill them more efficiently.
Companies must prioritize the inclusion of diverse workers if they hope to reap these advantages. A company that relies solely on demographic data won’t be successful at creating an inclusive culture or retaining and recruiting top talent.
Companies seeking to foster an inclusive culture must prioritize diversity, equity, and belonging (DEIB) strategies as the cornerstone for building an enjoyable workplace environment and making all employees feel welcome in the workplace. A good DEIB plan can also increase employee engagement, enhance communication and collaboration, improve decision-making capabilities and facilitate a meaningful work process.
At work, creating a sense of belonging is also crucial; only 30 percent of employees report feeling this way about their job. To create this sense of belonging for employees regardless of background or identity, companies can include them in important decisions, host conversations on community issues that impact them directly, and offer flexible working options as ways of making employees feel included and appreciated.
Though these benefits exist, many companies struggle to create an inclusive workplace culture. Black employees frequently report feeling their employers do not value or allow them to be true to themselves at work; this may be caused by inadequate training on supporting a diverse workforce or unconscious bias during hiring and promotion processes.