Diversity, inclusion and belonging – Are they connected at workplace?

Diversity, inclusion and belonging are key human resource concepts behind every successful organizations today. They are very well interlinked and highly sensitive enough to be managed carefully by the organizations to drive employee satisfaction and business results. Let’s take a deep dive into each of these and explore how they are linked to each other.

Diversity

A diverse workplace is where employees with a wide range of characteristics and experiences work together. Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) breaks down diversity into two - visible and invisible diversity traits. visible traits include age, gender, language, region, race, skills, etc. and invisible diversity traits include religion, culture, education, sexual orientation, socio-economic status, etc. Organizations promoting diverse work culture in its true sense have many competitive advantages.

• Innovation – Diverse people bring in different perspectives and thoughts to solve a problem. Problem solving and opportunity discovery can happen fast and efficient with diverse minds coming together.
• Employee Engagement – Millennial workforce prefer to learn, act and grow fast. They often feel stuck when working with groups where everyone merely follows directions or thinks alike. Diversity in team helps expand the thought horizon, brings new learning opportunities and above all, feel more engaged at work.
• Hiring and retention – High quality talent often understands the value of diversity that brings to their professional and personal growth. So employers who are known for supporting diverse work culture have better chances to get and retain higher quality talent.
• Brand value – Diversity initiatives do bring in reputation and brand value of organizations that work across countries and cultures.

Inclusion

SHRM defines inclusion as “the achievement of a work environment in which all individuals are treated fairly and respectfully, have equal access to opportunities and resources, and can contribute fully to the organization’s success. Employees who feel included are also likely to be more engaged with the teams and organization which drives productivity, retention, satisfaction, etc. Organizations adopt several approaches to bring inclusion to workplace.

Open communication – Leaders and peers need to learn to value each other’s thoughts, opinions and ideas. For this to happen, the working environment should promote open communication and employees should feel confident and safe to communicate openly. Transparency, mutual respect and acceptance is more likely to drive inclusion.

Showcase inclusive culture – Organizations need to sponsor events and activities to promote inclusive culture and showcase the same. Activities like cultural events, potluck, gaming, etc. helps diverse employees know each other better resulting in better collaboration and inclusion.

Leadership training – Leaders have the biggest influence in creating an inclusive workplace. Enough training and support must be given to new leaders to build this skill into their leadership style.

Grievance management – Organizations need to have a centralized and efficient mechanism as well as published policies to address any diversity and inclusion related issues . Delayed or unjustified grievance redressal will cause employees to lose confidence in the organization’s ability to maintain diverse and inclusive work culture.

Belonging

Cultureamp, a leading employee feedback and analytics platform, describes belonging as “the feeling of security and support when there is a sense of acceptance, inclusion, and identity for a member of a certain group or place. It’s the fundamental drive to form and maintain lasting, positive, and significant relationships with others”. Belonging has a strong correlation to commitment and motivation at the workplace, directly influencing employee satisfaction, performance and retention.

Image source: LinkedIn Talent Blog

A LinkedIn survey in 2017 reveals some concrete insights on what employees say they need to feel like they belong. Another research by Gartner in 2020 shows that organizations with sustainable D&I initiatives demonstrate a 20% increase in inclusion, which corresponds to greater on-the-job effort and intent to stay, as well as high employee performance.

Conclusion

Diversity is the aggregation of diverse minds for a common purpose.

Inclusion is a critical enabler to effectively manage a diverse work force.

Belonging is a feeling generated out of well-balanced inclusion.

All three are interconnected and critical for the sustainable success of any organization. As companies are moving towards a “new working normal” after the COVID-19 pandemic related disruptions, all three are critical for the recovery, resilience and re-imagination of their businesses.