5 Ways to Improve Diversity and Inclusion in a Workplace
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by Namratha Ambat
Diversity and Inclusion
How do you go about creating an equitable work environment? It’s one thing to attract a diverse talent pool, but developing a culture that is inclusive and retaining them is a whole other subject.
Being able to successfully build an environment where every individual feels welcomed, supported and heard is incredibly powerful. This kind of atmosphere can only edge the company towards success. It’s a well-known fact that a D&I-focused organisation outperformed other organisations in terms of profitability by 36%.
Outside profitability and success, a diverse and inclusive company is going to resonate with a larger audience. In today’s world, candidates consider the work culture while accepting a job offer. We recently conducted a poll on LinkedIn to capture our audience’s take on this subject and these are the results below:
The results speak for themselves here. These changes start at the very top. The leadership team needs to set the standards for the rest of the company to follow. We have previously discussed what it’s like to be a gender-inclusive leader in an organisation, today we’ll look into a few different ways you can establish and promote an inclusive work culture.
Ways of promoting diversity and inclusion in an organisation:
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Creating programs and forming a council in the organisation to promote inclusion
Having a group of individuals focused on DEI & B initiatives will help keep the entire workforce and the company on track to becoming an inclusive environment.
This council would be in charge of setting up goals that need to be met in terms of hiring plans, event planning, providing support to the wider team and ensuring each individual feels empowered.
Rewarding the team:
It’s great to have these communities set up to provide support, but at the same time, it is also important to acknowledge the effort being put in by the members.
Leaving diversity and inclusion out of compensation is one of the major mistakes that many companies make. Organisations that incentivise managers by adding a specific percentage to their wages to accomplish specific inclusion and diversity goals will help support the objective.
Promote culture inclusion:
Establishing a culture of inclusivity in a workplace will lead to workers interacting with people from different backgrounds (let’s take a moment to acknowledge how amazing this experience might be. The ability to mingle with people from different cultures will most certainly enrich your life). It will build an organisational culture that values open-mindedness, the desire to be vulnerable, and diversity in the organisation.
For example, within the multicultural workplace, you could organise traditional celebrations for each representative from a different culture. Employers might think about traditional food, drinks, or entertainment for those special days. As a result, the atmosphere within the team might build stronger relationships.
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Creating strategies for retaining diverse workers
Various companies with diversity and inclusion policies always establish hiring initiatives to attract workers with different cultural backgrounds. Nevertheless, many companies have always failed to create initiatives that may assist them in retaining diverse workers, promoting them, and even assisting them to achieve their potential.
Employers can partner with a diversity consultant who can play a crucial role in establishing a program to retain and promote diverse employees.
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Provide access to inclusion-focused workshops and training facilities
Every company should have access to a set of tools that can help them achieve the DEI & B goals. A quick Google search will give you access to a list of training platforms that will give you access to a wide range of information on this topic.
Having access to these platforms will only enhance the tone of the work culture and build a safer work environment.
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Encourage open floor discussions on similar topics
Having open floor discussions on inclusion-related topics will be a great learning process for the team and at the same time will give everyone the impression that they can voice their opinions and concerns without worrying about it. Of course, anything said should be mentioned respectfully.
For example: discussing the gender pay gap. Organisations that want a culture founded on conviction and honesty should be prepared to talk about gender and possible pay inequalities and release some of the company's data on payment. This can be done while publishing the job ad, so everyone is aware of the salary offered from the get-go.
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Maintain consistency in your efforts
To achieve anything great, consistency needs to be built into the process. All of the above-mentioned points when dealt with regularly will lead to a shift in the work environment for the better. Your DEI & B initiatives, policies and programmes should be reviewed periodically and improvements made to enhance them even further. Also, see feedback from the workforce on how the company is performing across these areas. Use surveys, town halls or feedback forms perhaps.
Let’s change the world together! If you would like to discuss this topic further get in touch with us. We understand this is a process and there are many steps involved in establishing this change within, take it a step at a time, speak to experts and learn. It’s worked for us and it will definitely work for you too!
