Setting a New Table: The Secret to Retaining Diverse Talent

I possess a number of marginalized identities. I’m Black, I’m queer, I’m a woman, and I didn’t grow up with generational wealth.?

People like me who grow up with marginalized identities develop a special sense. We can tell immediately when we walk into a space whether we feel safe and welcome or not. Often before an official word is exchanged.?

Leaders are looking for ways to create belonging and inclusion at work. They often commit significant time and dollars recruiting more diverse candidates.?

Logically, this should solve the problem… Except, you can’t attract and retain skilled team members with diverse backgrounds unless you already have the inclusive, affirming, accepting environment they are looking for.?

This catch 22 is the reality for many hiring managers with very good intentions. So, where to actually start??

How do you set a table that diverse talent wants to stay at?

Diverse talent will only stay and contribute the best we have to offer in spaces where we are celebrated, not just tolerated, as alluded to in the common piece of advice, “Don’t beg for a seat when you can build your own table.”

To “set a table” that attracts and retains diverse talent, first you need to uncover the existing diversity on your team.?

Even if everyone in your company looks the same, their lived experiences are completely unique. Your colleagues’ identities already span a spectrum, and you have to figure out what that is and why it is an asset to your organization.?

Then, you need to find ways to celebrate these identities that are meaningful, not just performative (your marginalized employees can always tell the difference).?

1. Employees need to be given support and resources (meaning hours and dollars) to pursue and promote initiatives that are authentic to them in ways that acknowledge and celebrate diversity within your workplace culture.?
2. You need to look at your mission, service, or product for opportunities to utilize the strengths inherent in the diverse identities of your existing workforce and intentionally use these strengths to improve your output.?

When I walk into a place where these two things are apparent, meaning I can see the evidence without being shown, I feel secure and considered. I feel like I can trust this organization to acknowledge and respect my humanity - the most fundamental step to any lasting relationship, professional or otherwise.?

How am I supposed to do all this?

You could invest in team building exercises and company retreats. It’ll cost you both time and money and is often clumsy, confusing, and short lived. Sometimes, people resent having their time spent in this way and leave the experience more resistant and resentful than before.?

You could hire a single consultant to run seminars on DEI topics. It’s probably the cheapest option, but runs the highest risk of being downright harmful if mishandled. Weak facilitation can leave employees with included identities feeling attacked and employees with excluded identities feeling tokenized, ultimately doing more harm than good.?

What you really want is something low-lift, low-risk, and high impact.?

The Culture of Respect has designed a 150 minute seminar, Intersectional Identity and Building Belonging, to uncover the invisible diversity in any group of people, while also setting up the guardrails for safe ongoing conversations on topics of diversity, inclusion, and belonging.?

Our seminars are?

• Remote, yet intimate - we create an online environment that fosters authentic engagement and buy-in.?
• Highly facilitated - our expert facilitators work in pairs representing a spectrum of identities to keep our discussion spaces safe.?
• Highly impactful - participants in The Culture of Respect courses are often referencing our methodologies many years after having engaged with us. The buy-in is real.?

Our experiences are designed to be comfortable, casual, unpretentious, sincere, and authentic. People get more out of them because they enjoy the process and feel understood, empowered, and more connected afterwards.?

Take the first step in transforming your table from a banquet to a potluck. Everyone brings the best of themselves and new flavors are popping up all the time.?

Want to learn more? We would love to hear from you - just send us a message!?