5 Effective Ways To Build Inclusion Habits At Work

We've seen many different demographics within the workforce. The diverse demographics include women, people of all ages, people with disabilities, Black people, other people of colour, and people with various sexual orientations, all combining in workplaces more than ever before.

Therefore, a workplace with embodied Inclusion Habits is crucial for the health, productivity and success of organisations through the business and a human viewpoint.

Here Are Five (5) Ways To Build Inclusive Habits

Proceed with the understanding that communication and involvement matter most when?promoting workplace Inclusion Habits.

1. Start from the top.

As with creating and encouraging a sense of belonging in your workplace, it must begin with leadership. The company’s team at the top needs to have the desire to build a diverse culture and hire people who are open to working with people of all different nationalities, ages, abilities, skin colours, genders, and sexual orientations.

If diversity and inclusion are not a company goal, it just won’t happen.

A healthy business begins with a healthy company culture that is welcoming and demonstrated by leaders.

It must be the goal of the organisation, to strive to provide your employees with the right tools and skills necessary to do their best. If you have invested in hiring them, then you must be willing to support them so they can thrive and succeed. Anything less will be letting them down, and it also starts with accepting them for who they are while also being willing to support their growth.

2. Communicate Goals and Measure Progress

Establish and communicate specific, measurable, and time-bound goals as you would with any other strategic aim. Because of what we benchmark as an organisation, we are more likely to invest in and work towards achieving the outcome we want, and in this case, it is the culture of inclusion.

For example, we may decide to achieve racial and gender equity in our hiring process in 3 years; we will increase racial and gender representation on the executive team by 50% in 3 years; and we will audit for and achieve equity in salary and promotions in 2 years.

It is highly recommended that the following actions be taken when cultivating workplace Inclusion: a full audit of your people processes—from recruiting and hiring to developing and retaining employees. Couple the data with engagement and other workforce survey data to gain a full measure of what your company is currently doing and where you want to go, with your goals.

For example:

• Identify any shortcomings and measurable discrepancies around inclusiveness in your organisation.?
• Instill rigour into inclusion strategies with data-driven plans, and measure the results.?
• Establish a clear business case for how the company will benefit from having a more inclusive culture by asking:?
• What are our inclusion goals?
• What are the reasons for those goals?
• How do we quantify inclusion??
• How will inclusion impact our mission, brand, or bottom line?

3. Focus on inclusive recruitment strategies.

Once your company’s leadership sets the tone, it’s critical to extend that attitude throughout the organisation in communication and actions.

When you communicate your intentions throughout your organisation, it allows you to get support and buy-in, creating a culture of belonging that is fostered peer-to-peer, bottom-up, and top-down in the entire organisation.

It is recommended to take a close look at your company’s recruiting processes, from how jobs are advertised to who sits on the interview panel, to ensure your hire is imbued with practices that facilitate a diversity and inclusion culture.

This will ensure that, from the start, you are intentional about diversity and inclusion as an integral part of your organisation’s present and future workforce.

4. Provide safe spaces for employees.

Research tells us that inclusion is the first step in achieving psychological safety. So, cultivating inclusive workplaces means considering the safety and comfort of all employees.

These days, a company offering unisex bathrooms in your office is said to be progressive and inclusive for employees with various sexual orientations.

Spending time with one another and providing employee networks can be safe and spark open communications.

Safely guide your brand. Providing a safe space for your employees also means that if they have any issues, they are more likely to come to you than go outside to places like social media, to voice their frustrations about your company.

5. Give employees multiple ways to provide feedback.

This may sound like a cliché, but give employees an outlet for connecting with others, sharing their stories, and getting to know your people and what they have to offer. It may surprise you, as a company, the talent, skill, and people capacity you may have right under your noses.

When you do those employee surveys, work to drill down on engagement and Inclusion issues. Conduct a comprehensive assessment of your organization’s demographics and people processes to develop specific strategies to promote inclusiveness

So whatever medium you are using, be it employee surveys, company all-hands discussions, or campaigns, giving your employees multiple ways to share their feedback, their perspective, and their stories will create an open dialogue and true connections that can lead to more positive outcomes.

An inclusive culture is a work in progress, and you must constantly revisit your policies and programs to create a more agile and diverse environment.

There is always something that can be improved upon, the key is to make it your company’s priority to take action to close any gaps so that all employees feel like they belong and are supported to thrive.

At the end of the day, it is about the culture you want as a company and how you can create it in ways that are authentic to your brand while at the same time meeting the needs of your employees.?

And we know businesses that invest in creating workplace inclusivity will reap the benefits of a positive culture and a healthy bottom line too.

This quote is on point: “Your employees know that life is not fair, but they do expect their boss to be fair.”

About the author of this article:

Gloria Tabi's family consists of white and Black ancestry by marriage, which gives her a broad understanding and lived-experience of both sides of the spectrum. She brings well-grounded knowledge and experience of the impacts presented by race and gender identities.

Gloria is a high-degree researcher specialising in social analysis on race, racism, inequalities, anti-racism, and Gender within Humanities, Communications and Arts at Western Sydney University.

Gloria is the author of Inclusive Teams & Workplaces: Everyone Wins!! She wrote this book to help leaders become aware of the unique racial barriers faced by some of their staff and how to fix them.

Gloria established EVERYDAY INCLUSION to work with leaders to achieve diversity, equity, and inclusivity in their workplace.

Gloria is also Co-founder of VoiceEverydayRacism which gives a platform for those on the receiving end of workplace exclusion to voice these issues for leaders to learn about.

Gloria is passionate about helping businesses reach inclusivity by supporting people and future-proofing their businesses.

Gloria curates these articles to generate discussions about how to be strategic with your workplace DEI efforts and achieve anti-racism. They are?FREE to subscribe.?Visit her website to learn more about services that can be tailored to your specific needs, or book a FREE 30-minute consultation call to see how Gloria can help you elevate your workplace diversity, equity, inclusion, and Anti-racism efforts.

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Gloria's?utmost and real desire is to see your business succeed in inclusivity. That comes before anything else, and that’s her promise to you.

Download FREE Anti-racism FACT SHEET for leaders. https://www.everydayinclusion.com.au/antiracism-factsheet-downloads and circle back with your feedback and tell us how we can support you.