People and companies care deeply about diversity, equity inclusion and belonging (DEIB). Candidates, particularly millennials and Gen Z employees, frequently ask employers during the hiring process about their DEI efforts.
DEI is a collection of initiatives designed to foster an atmosphere where diversity is celebrated and people feel they belong; belonging is defined as being accepted, valued and supported.
1. Attract Diverse Talent
Diverse candidates are less likely to apply for jobs when they don’t believe that an employer cares deeply about diversity and inclusion (DEI). When companies only make token efforts toward diversifying their hiring pool, this does more harm than good.
Your company must demonstrate its appreciation of diversity or risk turning away qualified applicants or customers who might otherwise consider you for future career moves or customer purchases. Your organization could also miss out on innovative ideas created from diverse teams with similar cultural touchpoints to those within its target audience.
Attracting and retaining diverse talent requires prioritizing inclusion over diversity alone. Diversity doesn’t foster a sense of belonging; having one without the other creates a toxic culture.
For your company to foster an atmosphere of belonging, inclusive hiring practices must be implemented, unconscious bias addressed and participation encouraged across all employees. Furthermore, policies concerning pay equity and work-life balance as well as healthy workplace environments must also be clearly communicated so as to attract qualified applicants while at the same time helping current staff feel appreciated and supported by your company.
Training all employees within your company to reduce microaggressions and discrimination is also key in order to preventing employee retention issues, particularly among high-powered roles. Without knowing if their boss supports an inclusive and welcoming atmosphere, employees may feel uncomfortable raising any issues or suggesting improvements.
Your organization must make a continuous commitment to diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging. Annual surveys may help measure how effective you’ve been, but if only superficial changes occur they’ll reflect that in their metrics.
To truly make an impactful difference, your company must commit to altering its culture and be willing to do the hard work that goes along with that change. This involves expanding outreach efforts into underrepresented communities, forging partnerships with diversity-related nonprofits and organizations, attending relevant events and conferences as well as supporting employee resource groups that foster diversity equity inclusion and belonging. Furthermore, supporting employee resource groups (ERGs) that focus on shared identities or experiences is also key.
2. Create an Inclusive Culture
Diversity and Inclusion offers many advantages for companies: an expanded talent pool, more effective decision-making, increased productivity, as well as an overall sense of teamwork and belonging. But for organizations to reap these rewards from DEI, they must first establish an inclusive culture in their workplace that ensures everyone feels welcome and their identity valued and accepted.
Studies show that employees who don’t feel they belong are less likely to engage in work and be committed to their organizations, according to research. This trend is especially prevalent for underrepresented groups such as women, people of color and those who identify as LGBTQ+ – who often face more obstacles in reaching a sense of belonging due to microaggressions (small slights based in bias that damage self-esteem) and not being seen as valued assets within an organization.
Organizations seeking to foster an environment of inclusion must implement and monitor DEI policies effectively, which requires open communication and genuine empathy from employees. They should prioritize policies which ensure fairness and support for all employees – such as performance evaluations – as well as policies which address bias issues such as those encountered when hiring token employees just to fulfill diversity quotas. Companies should also be wary of token hiring practices which might create feelings of exploitation from staff that question their competency in the workplace.
An inclusive company can outshone its competitors by meeting the unique needs of each employee and nurturing their full potential. When employees feel they belong within their organizations and communities, their motivation for being successful increases significantly.
However, it’s essential to understand that diversity and inclusion are two distinct concepts. Diversity refers to representation while inclusion refers to feeling welcome and supported; belonging refers to deeper levels of connection that enable people to bring their authentic selves to work. When companies focus solely on DEI without considering inclusion first they risk alienating employees while having negative repercussions for themselves and their business.
3. Create a Belonging Culture
An effective sense of belonging is an integral component of employee engagement and job satisfaction, and crucial in creating an inclusive workplace environment. Unfortunately, organizations may have all of the policies in place but may still fail to create this sense of belonging for employees; doing so requires taking an holistic approach that requires time, dedication and consideration from everyone involved.
Diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging refers to the full range of identities people bring into work, such as racial and ethnic identities, gender, sexuality, language national origin religion age socioeconomic status worldviews – these elements make up our unique selves that contribute to how we experience work connect with others make meaning of what we do – hence why diversity equity inclusion and belonging must be integrated across the workforce in many different ways.
One way of creating a sense of belonging for employees is ensuring they feel represented and treated fairly by their organization. This can be accomplished by providing equal access to opportunities, training, resources and allowing employees to express their differences without fear of judgement or reprisals.
Fostering an environment that fosters trust is another effective means of creating a sense of belonging in the workplace. This can be accomplished by encouraging employees to develop genuine relationships both amongst themselves and with leaders; showing vulnerability through sharing personal stories to create empathy; or even providing employees with opportunities to participate in discussions and workshops about relevant topics.
Measuring the impact of DEIB initiatives within an organization can be challenging, due to all of their variables involving belonging. But using data with an intersectional lens makes it possible to spot where an organization falls short on meeting its goals and take necessary steps for improvement.
4. Create a Culture of Equity
Diversity, equity inclusion and belonging are fundamental business practices. When implemented properly, they create an environment in which everyone feels like they belong at work and can bring all of themselves to their roles. Diversity also plays a key role in recruiting and retaining top talent – here’s why:
Diverse workforces can help your company explore new markets and foster an innovative environment. However, it’s essential that diversity go beyond simply adding individuals from various races, genders, or sexual orientations; diversity refers to creating a combination of people with differing perspectives; while inclusion ensures everyone feels welcome at work.
Equality refers to ensuring all employees have access to resources and opportunities, which includes addressing any underlying factors that contribute to inequities in access. For instance, companies offering workshops on creating professional development plans for women and minorities may need additional support such as coaching or mentoring for those groups to be successful.
One key way of building trust in a workplace is for leaders to demonstrate vulnerability. We often treat our leaders like celebrities, when in reality they’re human beings too. When leaders share both good and bad experiences from their lives while talking about finding balance it shows they’re human and fosters empathy from employees.
Make it a priority for your leaders to connect with employees personally in order to foster an atmosphere of belonging in your workplace. One effective strategy for doing this is hosting informal events like virtual coffee chats that pair two employees at random to have one-on-one discussions; this is a fantastic way for employees from various backgrounds and departments to meet one another and form bonds.
Create an environment of diversity, inclusion, and equity (DEIB) takes time. However, its rewards are obvious: companies committed to DEIB see an impactful effect on their bottom line; as more employees feel included at work they become more productive and satisfied in their jobs – so don’t wait; get creating your DEIB environment today!