There are many examples of diversity and inclusion in the workplace but we often get caught up in two areas—hiring and leadership. While representation in both areas is necessary to build an ideal work environment, the majority of employees are more likely to be affected by the day-to-day attitude towards diversity that the company prioritizes. If after a robust hiring cycle that focuses on diversity as one of the metrics, the employees’ psychological safety at work is put at risk anyway, then the entire point of the hiring cycle is defeated as these employees are unlikely to stay on at the organization for long. For a genuine focus on diversity and inclusion in the workplace, there need to be many layers to diversity planning.
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What Are Examples of Diversity and Inclusion in the Workplace
An ideal work environment is one that is filled with passion, creativity, and a union of multiple perspectives and experiences that respect each other. With a homogenous selection of employees, you might feel the safety in uniformity to be preferable, but there will still be conflicts among them no matter how similar they are. With a more varied collection of employees in your organization, you are probably likely to get more unique insights than ever before and also understand your target demographic of clients a lot better. A study by Harvard Business Review discussed two-dimensional diversity in leadership, which referred to leaders with at least three inherently diverse traits that they are born with and three acquired diversity traits gathered through their lived experience.
“Employees at these companies are 45% likelier to report that their firm’s market share grew over the previous year and 70% likelier to report that the firm captured a new market,” the study states, and we are inclined to believe they are right. Not only do diverse leaders inspire growth but they have the insight necessary to find a new market as well.
If you’re looking at it solely from the viewpoint of profit, a Global Human Capital Trends study found that 78 percent of respondents believed that diversity and inclusion gave companies a competitive advantage. Employees who feel secure are employees who are motivated to work. Respect towards them can inspire respect back from them. To build a good work culture where everyone feels welcome, here are a few examples of diversity and inclusion in the workplace.
Equal Access to Opportunities
While you hire carefully and use blind recruitment practices and other techniques to ensure that employees with different backgrounds are hired for each role, it is essential to ensure this continues during their work at the company as well. Due to managers with personal biases or coworkers who refuse to cooperate with these employees, many often lose out on opportunities that they could benefit from professionally. Regularly check your performance assessment metrics and feedback systems to verify that they are free of bias and ensure that employees who volunteer for a promotion or to represent the company on any platform are selected on the basis of merit.
Employees who don’t feel like they fit in will also likely be reluctant to volunteer themselves for any role or speak out to represent themselves, so it might be up to the HR team to ensure their work is acknowledged and their feedback is heard.
Focus on Social and Cultural Inclusion—Improve Employee Relations
When it comes to reviewing how things are proceeding in your organization, it is useful to keep an eye out for the social and cultural inclusion details as well. Do your employees get along with each other? Are there cultural nuances that often get lost during communication? Do you have each community separated into their own little groups? These are some examples of where we fail at ensuring diversity and inclusion in the workplace because they are rarely addressed and employees continue to focus on their in-groups instead of socializing with everyone.
Your employees’ social lives may not strictly be any of your business, but when it comes to their relations within the workplace, it might fall to the employers to sometimes introduce opportunities for cultures to mix, for different groups to socialize, and for employees to attend trainings that give them some insight into cultural difference they’re unfamiliar with.
Voice at Different Decision-Making Tables Makes for an Ideal Work Environment
Employees might have a lot of insight into why a plan isn’t working or what the company can pursue next, but they are often silenced by managers who prefer them to stick to the existing agenda and do what is asked. So much critical insight is lost in the process and the entire benefit of having a diverse workforce is quickly lost. Giving employees an opportunity to voice their ideas, thoughts, and opinions can ensure that they feel heard while also giving the company some more direction.
Conduct regular round-table discussions and brainstorming sessions with different groups of employees or allow them to sit in on discussions every once in a while, even if it is “above their pay grade,” so you can listen to any insight they might have. It won’t always be critical nor will it be feasible to follow through with their opinion every time, but there may be occasions where you find something useful. You could even incentivise employees to build on their input and come back with a more structured plan, giving them the room to lead and feel like an active part of the organization.
Flexibility as an Example of Diversity and Inclusion in the Workplace
When people with different backgrounds come together, they often arrive with different needs, desires, and expectations. Becoming aware of these and making adjustments might be very helpful in establishing diversity and inclusion in the workplace. An employee who might be fasting during a particular period might have a harder time keeping up with the workload just briefly during that time. If there is a way for them to schedule their tasks in advance to ensure that the workload during that period is not as intensive, then why not consider working with them to make it happen? This way the employee is satisfied and the employer doesn’t have to fret about work being held up. There is always a solution waiting just a few discussions away.
Try to be open to suggestions and consider what adjustments you can make for workers to be able to do their jobs. You can obviously have some firm boundaries on what you will and will not allow, but rigidity in all areas will only be counterproductive.
Responding to Microaggressions Ensures Psychological Safety at Work
Something you should be rigid about is standing against discrimination and aggression within your workforce. Allowing such behaviors can easily allow a toxic work culture to flourish and once it seeps into all areas of work, it becomes too difficult to get rid of. An ideal work environment is one where everyone feels safe and comfortable and ensuring this is one of the most basic responsibilities of an employer.
Establish strict policies on what behaviors are unacceptable and when such actions do come to light, take action quickly. Give each person involved a fair chance to represent themselves but the response should be such that it dissuades anyone else from following in line with similar inappropriate behavior.
Acknowledging Culture Rather Than Ignoring It
One of the mistakes we make with diversity and inclusion in the workplace is to do our best to ignore cultural differences instead of acknowledging them. While in some places it might be beneficial—to give every candidate a fair chance to secure an opportunity—in other places, it can be quite counterproductive. Different employees might have different communication styles and work practices solely due to the differences in their past experiences or where they are from. It can be easy to just assume they are rude or arrogant instead of considering that their background experiences have normalized something different for them.
It can be better to understand your employees and what their experiences are and create a workspace that understands it as well, in order to create an ideal work environment. There are many examples of diversity and inclusion in the workplace that you might find around you so it is important to look out for these signs and practices and encourage more of it within the rest of your organization. Your employees often find ways to work in harmony even without your interference so try to study these success stories and duplicate how they make it work.