From Vision to Reality: Creating a Culture of Belonging in the Workplace

In today's rapidly evolving landscape, businesses are not merely judged by their profitability or market share. Stakeholders, employees, and consumers increasingly scrutinize organizations for their workplace culture and commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI). These pillars of workplace culture are not just buzzwords; they represent essential values that profoundly impact the success and sustainability of any organization.

Conversations surrounding diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) have gained significant momentum in recent years. From boardrooms to break rooms, organizations recognize the importance of fostering environments where individuals of all backgrounds feel valued, respected, and empowered. However, the journey toward true DEI is not just about ticking boxes or meeting quotas; it's about fundamentally reshaping the culture and practices within our workplaces to reflect the rich tapestry of humanity.

At the heart of DEI lies the acknowledgment that every individual brings unique experiences, perspectives, and talents to the table. Embracing this diversity not only enriches organizational culture but also drives innovation and creativity. When employees from different backgrounds collaborate and share their insights, they bring fresh ideas to the forefront, challenging conventional thinking and driving positive change.

Defining Workplace Culture, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion?

Let's begin by understanding what each of these terms entails:

Workplace Culture: Forbes defines workplace culture as "the shared values, belief systems, attitudes, and the set of assumptions that people in a workplace share.” Establishing a safe workplace environment that promotes growth and teamwork is crucial for any aspiring organization.

Diversity: Diversity encompasses the range of human differences, including but not limited to race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, age, physical abilities, religious beliefs, socioeconomic status, and more. It's about recognizing and celebrating the unique perspectives, experiences, and backgrounds that individuals bring to the table. ?

Equity: Equity involves ensuring fairness and impartiality in treating all individuals and acknowledging that different people may require different resources or support to achieve equality. In contrast, equality promotes fairness assuming that everyone begins at the same starting point. Equity addresses systemic barriers and strives to level the playing field to provide everyone with equal opportunities for success.

Promoting equity within the workplace is essential for dismantling systemic barriers and ensuring fair treatment for all employees. It involves examining and addressing disparities in hiring, promotion, pay, and access to opportunities. By implementing equitable policies and practices, organizations can create pathways for advancement that are accessible to everyone, regardless of their race, gender, ethnicity, or socioeconomic background.

Inclusion: Inclusion is the glue that holds diversity and equity together. It's about creating a workplace where every individual feels welcomed, valued, and empowered to contribute their unique perspectives. It's about fostering a sense of belonging and actively embracing diverse perspectives, ideas, and contributions.?

The Impact on Organizations?

Embracing diversity, equity, and inclusion isn't just a moral imperative; it's also a strategic business decision with far-reaching implications for organizational success. Leaders must set the tone from the top by championing DEI initiatives, allocating resources, and holding themselves and others accountable for progress.?

Here's how:

Innovation and Creativity: Diverse teams bring together a variety of viewpoints, experiences, and approaches to problem-solving. This diversity of thought fuels innovation and creativity, driving organizations to develop more innovative products, services, and solutions that resonate with diverse markets and meet consumers' evolving needs. ?

Strengths-based leadership has long been one of my guiding principles of leadership. It's a place to work from what we do well rather than work from what we can improve. We don’t force great electricians to learn plumbing and we don’t force great plumbers to be electricians. If we did, we’d end up with interesting construction, so why would we force this in an office setting? We need to figure out what our teams do exceptionally well and have them do more of it. Hiring a diversity of strengths furthers your team’s ability to innovate and create.??

Our small team recently reviewed our Clifton Strengths , an exercise every new employee goes through to understand their talents and abilities better. Through that exercise, our team of eight discovered that we collectively own 24 of the potential 34, further solidifying and exemplifying why I know we are an unstoppable force. As we look to grow our team and review new projects, I will be considering how to use this tool to continue to grow our collective skills and bring exciting new talent to our organization.??

A Sense of Belonging: ?

Retaining employees hinges on creating an atmosphere of belonging. No one enjoys being an outsider. Feeling valued and appreciated for what you contribute to the workplace culture can go a long way toward establishing an environment where employees thrive. This is more than just a pat on the back for a job well done; it is about a culture shift that values employees for their full experiences and encourages them to bring their life and humanity with them in the workplace. This shift can often seem daunting to leadership, and many of us fall short of what we try to implement. However, those failures are part of learning the skills needed to create a safe and inclusive environment where colleagues can belong.

We describe our lives in transitions: a new job, a new home, when a child is born. If you tell your life story, it would most likely look like this: I was born in ____ and moved to ____. I went to college _____. We don’t talk about all the in-between things that happen. We must honor life transitions to help our employees feel seen, heard, valued and appreciated. When life happens, recognize life. If you can help your employees feel like they can share the good and you celebrate it with them, they are far more likely to share the bad, the moments someone will remember. We somehow forgot how to be humans when we became supervisors, so while it’s not my expectation that we all invite each other to celebrate Christmas or our birthdays, at the very least, we need to think about how to bring back some humanity to the simple moments in our everyday lives.

Employee Engagement and Retention: When employees feel valued, respected, and included, they are more engaged, committed, and loyal to their organizations. Inclusive workplaces foster a sense of belonging, which enhances employee morale, satisfaction, and retention. Conversely, organizations that neglect DEI may experience higher turnover rates and need help attracting top talent. Has your company reviewed your HR policies through a DEI lens? Even something as simple as blind-resume screening to reduce name and racial bias is not widely adopted, though it’s been shown to reduce bias. DEI growth can be uncomfortable, but it can also help our organizations find and retain the best talent.?

At CAAP, we use this staff favorites tool to capture our new staff members’ favorite things. We train our managers to use this questionnaire to get to know new staff members better, introduce them to others and feel a part of the team.

But too often, an organization has a new team member fill out a form like this and never use it.

If we help our team members feel special, they will question if they should leave when presented with another opportunity. More often than not, how we feel on a hard day on the job matters more than the job we do. There’s a saying that goes: “We quit jobs, we don’t quit people.” As a leader, it’s our job to ensure our workplace is safe and people feel valued, as their opinions matter. When we feel this as employees, when we feel our voice is reflected in our goals and strategic plans, it reinforces our sense of belonging. When one manager in a group doesn’t embrace this, that team will struggle. And if that grows unchecked, I guarantee you will see constant turnover in that team compared to the others. If your organization is facing a team that has high turnover, institute a 360 review. Do a stay interview, or better yet, do anonymous exit interviews and see what the data tells you. Is that manager meeting with their team daily? Does the team understand why decisions are made? Those moments matter. ?

Market Competitiveness: In today's global marketplace, diversity is not just a moral imperative; it's also a strategic advantage. Organizations that prioritize DEI are better positioned to understand and serve diverse customer demographics, resulting in increased market share, brand loyalty, and profitability.?

Beginning in early 2021, the United States saw the Great Resignation, during which employees voluntarily resigned from their jobs en masse after the COVID-19 pandemic. Reasons for resignation included wage stagnation amid the rising cost of living, limited opportunities to advance, hostile work environments, lack of benefits, inflexible remote work policies, and job dissatisfaction.

When we buy or sell a house, we talk about it being a buyer's or seller's market. Today, it’s an employee’s market. It’s a job seeker’s market. There is no shortage of jobs.? There is what feels like a shortage of talent. But I would argue that part of our challenge is snagging talent at the critical moment. We have to be prepared to showcase, quickly and effectively, how our place of employment is better. Otherwise, your organization will find itself taking too long, and that talented fish will swim away. Think about how long it takes to respond to applications via email or on Indeed and Linkedin. What’s the first impression of the interview? How do you showcase your value as an employer to potential employees? Would you work for you at face value alone? ?

Risk Mitigation: Ignoring DEI can pose significant risks to organizations, including reputational damage, legal liabilities, and financial losses. Discrimination, harassment, and bias in the workplace can lead to costly lawsuits, tarnished brand reputation, and diminished investor confidence. Prioritizing diversity, equity, and inclusion is not just the right thing to do; it's also an intelligent risk management strategy. As businesses and organizations, we are uniquely positioned to mitigate poverty in future generations through thoughtful DEI policies now and, in the meantime, grow our organizations as thoughtful leaders of the future. ?

Building a Culture of DEI?

Creating a diversity, equity, and inclusion culture requires more than just implementing policies or launching initiatives; it requires a concerted and sustained effort from all levels of leadership, managers, and employees.?

You must remember that DEI initiatives within organizations happen from the ground up; starting with the basics of DEI so you have a strong foundation for the more difficult conversations. I coach on this topic fairly often and ask, Do you have workplace values? How do you live up to those in everyday interactions if you do? If you go to a restaurant and order a cheeseburger and never tell your server that you are a vegetarian and wanted a veggie burger, can you be angry when you don’t get your veggie burger? The same is true for workplace values. You must provide clear, concrete examples about what to expect when you say, “We work from a place of trust.” Or “We value clear communication.”? That expectation means different things to different people. Your managers won’t know how to hold team members accountable in evaluations if they haven’t been taught (and led by example) how to show up, support one another and provide feedback.

Consider a workplace value like the one we have at CAAP, “Excellence.” We are responsible for “cultivating, creating, and facilitating exceptional resources and experiences that meet the needs of our member agencies.” Our interaction examples state, “We own problems but also work collaboratively with other team members with greater expertise than us. We welcome feedback from each other and our members. We have integrity in that we do what we say we are going to do and admit when we don’t have capacity.”

We can create a framework where those qualities are upheld at the same level of performance as a sales goal. In the example of CAAP’s “Excellence”, we have created a system where people can be congratulated for providing a supportive and safe environment. Today, our performance goals are weighted equally with our values. This serves as a critical element to DEI conversations and challenging discussions that otherwise leave someone feeling exposed or unsafe.

As you know, I’m passionate about poverty and its effects on generational cycles. This sort of sustained DEI effort from organizational leadership is crucial to interrupt the stress that not belonging can have on our people. Your efforts to unpack and implement DEI strategies at every level of your organization are one of the keys to successfully improving the health and well-being of every person in your organization.?

That’s powerful.?

Here are some strategies to foster DEI in the workplace:

Leadership Commitment: Leadership must demonstrate a genuine commitment to DEI through their words, actions, and decision-making. They should prioritize DEI initiatives, allocate resources accordingly, and hold themselves and others accountable for fostering inclusive environments. It is uncomfortable when we get it wrong. And it is powerful when we get it right. ?

Education and Training: Providing DEI education and training for employees can increase awareness, empathy, and cultural competence. Training programs should address unconscious bias, microaggressions, inclusive communication, and other relevant topics to promote understanding and respect among team members. ?

Diverse Recruitment and Hiring Practices: Organizations should implement recruitment and hiring practices that attract diverse candidates and mitigate bias in the selection process. This may include using diverse interview panels, adopting anonymous resume reviews, and establishing partnerships with diverse professional networks and organizations. Look at the simplest ways to remove barriers and move forward from there. Here at CAAP, I’m still finding the ways in which we fall short of our goals and have to continually work to weed out our biases and improve. ?

Inclusive Policies and Practices: It is essential to review and update policies and practices to ensure they promote equity and inclusion. This may involve implementing flexible work arrangements, accommodating diverse needs, and providing equitable access to resources and opportunities. Balancing budgets may seem daunting in the face of implementing new resources, but this work is crucial to sustainability as we move forward into a more diverse future. ?

Employee Resource Groups (ERGs): Establishing Employee Resource Groups (ERGs) can provide support, networking, and advocacy for underrepresented groups within the organization. ERGs empower employees to share their experiences, address common challenges, and drive positive change.?

DEI Today

March is Women’s History Month, a time in which we reflect and celebrate the contributions and special achievements women have made in a variety of fields. At the Community Action Association of Pennsylvania , there are 43 local community action member associations, and of those, 26 have women in executive positions. This is a direct result of decades of advocacy and passion to continually move equality forward. It also points to much more work to be done to increase the diversity of our leadership and provide paths of ascension to our more diverse employees and members.

Ultimately, diversity, equity, and inclusion are not just moral imperatives but essential drivers of organizational success and sustainability.

As an organizational leader with work to do in my own organization, I challenge you to be open-minded about DEI in your workplace. Face your discomfort when your organization has fallen short, and commit to looking internally and identifying at least one area where you can directly influence its culture.?

Ultimately, this leads us to greater resilience and growth in our individual markets and areas of influence.?

Frankly speaking, it’s the smart thing to do, and it's the right thing to do.

To get started or continue your organization’s path with diversity, equity and inclusion, register for the Community Action Association of Pennsylvania’s DEI Summit on Thursday, May 16, 2024 .

Beck S. Moore (He/Him)

CEO @ Community Action Association of Pennsylvania