How Employee Recognition Can Promote Diversity & Inclusion

Over the past year, we’ve seen a seismic shift in our country’s understanding of the state of race relations and racial disparities. We’ve also experienced a shift in our collective willingness to talk about and address these issues head-on.

The workplace has not been isolated from these events, and for the vast majority of business leaders, there’s no longer any question that a diverse workforce is critical for business success. Companies with the highest levels of diversity outperform companies with little diversity by 36%, and they benefit from increased innovation, improved brand reputation, and greater talent attraction and retention.

Despite these benefits, there’s been a lack of progress within the corporate workforce, especially at the highest levels of company leadership. For example, just 15% of top executives are non-white and only 7%?of CEOs at Fortune 500 companies are female.

But diversity is just one part of the equation—fostering an inclusive environment is also key. When employees feel that the workplace is a safe and welcoming space, they’re more productive and more likely to share ideas that can contribute to company-wide innovation. Yet just 36% of employees say that their leaders create empowering environments where people have a sense of belonging.

It’s clear that companies have a long way to go when it comes to their diversity and inclusion ambitions. Formal D&I programs play an important role in advancing these efforts, but real transformation will only happen when the desired mindsets and behaviors are widely adopted at all levels of the organization.

One often-overlooked way to boost these efforts is through the use of recognition strategies that reinforce D&I values. Recognition programs can accomplish this by encouraging managers and employees to recognize each other for:

• Demonstrating inclusive and welcoming behaviors
• Taking an active role in D&I initiatives
• Providing unique ideas, perspectives, and skillsets

But are companies even integrating D&I into their recognition programs and practices, and how much does this really matter when it comes to workplace outcomes? To answer these questions, my firm Workplace Intelligence recently partnered with Achievers, a recognition solutions company, to conduct a survey of 2,000 U.S. employees and HR leaders.

The study revealed that recognition and D&I are closely connected, and companies that integrate these two areas enjoy a wide range of benefits. For example, at companies where recognition incorporates D&I:

• 3 times as many employees are highly engaged
• 2 times as many employees feel a strong sense of inclusion
• 3.5 times as many HR leaders say their company is likely to achieve its D&I goals
• 2 times as many employees and HR leaders say their company financially outperformed its industry peers over the past three years?

Despite these benefits, just 17% of employees and 32% of HR leaders said their company has a recognition program that includes a D&I component. And 6 out of 10 companies don’t have best-in-class recognition programs, which means they aren’t setting themselves up for success in any capacity. As we look ahead to what’s next for recognition and D&I, it’s clear that leaders in both areas should be working in lockstep as they strive to achieve their respective goals for the business.?'

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