?? Championing Diversity and Inclusion in the Workplace ??

STRATERGIES FOR BUILDING A DIVERSE & INCLUSIVE WORKFORCE

??“When we listen and celebrate what is both common and different, we become wiser, more inclusive, and better as an organization.” - Pat Wadors

?“A diverse mix of voices leads to better discussions, decisions, and outcomes for everyone.” - Sundar Pichai

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DIVERSITY AT WORK

When a work culture practices the quality of inclusion or involves people from a range of different social and ethnic backgrounds and of different genders, sexual orientations, etc., heading towards a common organizational goal, we can safely say, diversity is at play.

?INCLUSIVE WORKFORCE

Inclusion is about embracing a workforce that make an organization different,?and celebrating the mind-altering ideas that diversity can bring to a work environment.??Such a space gives equal access and opportunities to its human resource and emphasises on getting rid of discrimination and intolerance. By doing so, one succeeds in eliminating barriers, which in turn, acts as a swift edging factor towards its organizational goals.

?MINDFULLNESS - A NECESSITY

Being aware of thoughts, emotions, and actions that enables the organization’s objective, and following a collected approach to accomplishing one’s tasks, is being mindful at work. I feel there is a necessity for any successful working environment to imbibe the core concepts of; having a focused awareness, an open attitude, being non-judgemental and carrying compassion on one’s sleave. Organizations that adopt D&I practices see huge gains in the form of business results, innovation, and decision-making as they are able to establish a sense of belonging among employees, making them feel more connected and productive.

?WHAT DIVERSITY & INCLUSIVITY BRINGS TO THE TABLE

Diversity focuses on the make-up of an entity. A functional environment, where many different genders, races, nationalities, and sexual orientations and identities are present and perspectives of all groups are equally valued and may have an influence, is considered diverse. Diversity brings in a bigger talent pool, an increased employee engagement and trust, a new perspective and innovation, better decision-making and improved performance. All of which, results in a business, reflecting a steady growth and impressive profits.

?Inclusion at work aides in retaining and engaging employees. This is achieved when an environment of comfort is created at work. Inclusivity encourages opinions and contributions of all, to be important enough to be heard, included, and valued. And when leaders, managers, and employees are all on the same page and prioritize building a sense of belonging, teams and organizations thrive.

?Inclusivity along with diversity, is critical to any organizational success. They?unlock individual potential, enhances the collective power of teams, and support the organization’s ability to innovate, grow and contribute to the economy.

?CONSEQUENCE OF ABSENCE OF D&I

Lack of a diverse workplace may cause?communication issues, which may result in unintended offense, murky procedures, and mistrust among employees. When individuals are excluded from a team work, they may feel resentment, withdrawal, and even a negative self-image or lack of confidence. Once an employee starts feeling isolated or misunderstood, it can result in a loss of faith in the leadership. Additionally, when employees feel that their ideas, presence or contributions are not being truly valued or taken seriously by their organization, they eventually decide to leave.

?BUILDING STRATERGIES

To attain the benefits that D&I brings to any working environment and avoid its vices, an organization’s efforts, have to rest upon four strategic pillars – community, growth, education and engagement.

?Implement changes in the hiring process

Hiring processes should be infused with diversity and inclusivity. This can be done through having a diverse panel of interviewers whose selection criteria should be solely based on the candidate’s skills and experiences. As the existence of gender, race, and other biases becomes more widely acknowledged, many organizations are “blinding” their talent selection systems. Whether in a hiring process or an application for funding or other opportunities, there is some suggestions that anonymizing details about the applicant - removing their name, for example, leads to the selection of more candidates from underrepresented groups.

?Educate Leaders & Employees

Diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging aims to highlight areas where people might hold bias or outdated beliefs. Organization should have training sessions for leadership and employees from time to time to provide information to help counter those biases. Emphasis must be laid of treating fellow employees with respect and dignity.

?Promote flexible & remote working arrangements

Informal interactions that promote employees of different divisions or departments to reach out to each other, will aide in building meaningful relationships at work and create a culture of belonging. Further, infusing flexibility like, remote working,?removes geographical barriers and enables organisations to eliminate location bias and relocation costs from hiring and retention. Remote work options allow recruiters to cast a wider net and hire and retain candidates from different ethnicities, geographies and cultures.

?Re-evaluate the workforce

It’s important to look hard at the workforce at hand and re-evaluate it from time to time. This is to ensure that the work environment being created, covers all?demographics such as gender, race, age, and ethnicity. Diversity at any workplace can only be achieved, if there are people from different backgrounds, speaking different languages, possessing varied skills and experiences, working together, towards the organizational goal.

?Initiate diverse referral programs

Diversity employee referral programs, or “diverse referrals,” are?incentives from employers to employees who refer qualified and diverse candidates.? The benefits of this strategy is immense, like - faster hiring, faster learning and on-boarding, more loyalty and lower turnover.

?Set diversity goals

Diversity goals may be specific, by?bringing leaderships from underrepresented and diverse groups to your board of directors. It can be made measurable, by identifying the key traits and qualities of various positions and it can be achievable, by creating a leadership team and identifying the top talent. While striving for diversity goals an organization must strive to open enough positions to ensure varied representation.

?Document policies and practices

A company must maintain an up-to-date employee handbook. which must record, its code of conduct, latest policies and company’s practices. An e-copy of the same should be easily accessible to all employees, for reference. The company’s approach to diversity and non-discrimination should also be outlined in the same. In case of any discrimination, internal recourse available to employees must be clearly stated. Company’s stances on compensation and benefits, and employment conditions and termination must also be indicated.

?IMD RESEARCH- TOOLS FOR INCLUSION

A study conducted by the Swiss business school, International Institute for Management Development (IMD), found that while?diversity?in the workplace has improved over the last couple of years, however, inclusion?is still a challenge.

The first issue, according to the research, is the definition of inclusion. For some, inclusion means the feeling of belonging. For others, it means being able to be their true selves at work and with coworkers. Different operational models and definitions make it nearly impossible to find a common approach to defining inclusion.

The research highlighted the need for a deeper measurement that examines six key dimensions of inclusion: authenticity, belonging, fairness, participation, psychological safety, and uniqueness. The research, therefore, recommended a new pulse tool, the Inclusion Net Promotor Score (iNPS), wherein a question such as, “How likely are you to recommend our organization to a friend or colleague from an underrepresented group as an inclusive place to work?”, is rated.

Additionally, to source richer, more detailed information, research suggests, supplementing quantitative surveys with qualitative methods such as face-to-face open-ended conversations with employees, focus groups, anonymous feedback channels, and more.

?CHALKING THE FUTURE – UNTESTED WATERS

Gauging the trends of D&I is rampant and will continue to be so as it gives companies, a glimpse of the kind of workforce that will be most productive. There have been improvements but many more vacuums are yet to be filled.

Post covid remote working has become the new normal and it is here to stay. This brings in the dynamics for the need to create a work-life balance. Remote working means different people with different working conditions. Hence, access to facilities vary depending on geographical locations. There could be a scenario where there is a lack of dedicated and quiet space for employees to focus on their work. In such situations, organization and leaderships need to figure out a way to bridge these gaps, so that diversity and inclusion is productive in such a working model too.

Organizations can adopt inclusive practices such as giving people access to gender-neutral restrooms, including?employee health benefits?for transitioning individuals, creating awareness around using inclusive language for gender non-binary and transgender employees, etc.

Employers need to be mindful of the challenges, barriers, and advantages at play for everyone at any given point in time. Equity is the reminder that not everyone starts at the same level playing field, and so swift and vigilant action is paramount to building a fair workplace.

Last but not the least, companies need to set transparent goals, and D&I initiatives. This will not only increase accountability of people in leadership positions but also encourage honest conversations among employees and their superiors. If diversity and inclusion strategies are progressive, then, organizations will succeed as long as they are ready to mould their workforce culture and practices, in an orderly manner.

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By Aparna Menon

For ? Metasearch Recruitment Services, 2023

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