What can we do to encourage equality, diversity and diversity in the workplace? |

Since employees' psychological, emotional, and environmental demands have grown more evident, employers have realized they need to do more in order to assist their teamsotherwise, they lose their employees. This includes more interests and investments in diversity, equity and diversity (DEI) initiatives within the workplace.

Though this change is promising however, it's been the subject of a lot of confusion. We talked to DEI experts and thought leaders to help clarify what DEI is, what it means, the tenets of building a strong DEI strategy, as well as tips to make it profitable.

Dive into DEI How to learn

•    What is diversity, equity, and inclusion in the workplace?
•    The effect of equity, diversity and inclusion
•    What can you do to create an equitable, diverse, and inclusive work environment
•    Six tips for promoting equality, diversity and diversity in the workplace

What exactly is diversification, equity and inclusion at work?

One of the most costly mistakes I've witnessed companies commit in the 15 years I've worked in DEI has been treating diversity as a box-checking exercise. The focus of companies is only on the numbers -- such as the percentage of their workforce which is Black, Indigenous, and people of different races (BIPOC) or the amount they've given to causes but overlook the granular, organic details that actually directlyimpact the employees they employ.

Because DEI is so much bigger than it is.

In reality, DEI does not just mean making sure you've checked boxes when hiring practice. It is always helpful to begin by breaking diversity, equity, and inclusion into smaller pieces in order to understand what each of these terms means.

Integrating DEI within your organization means critically advocating for diversity, equity, and inclusion across every aspect of your business. This means taking a look at every action within every department through the DEI perspective -- whether it's the partnership you select for support, to the ways you advocate for your employees outside of the office.

DEI concerns the things we can see however equally significant are, the things we can't: how supported the employees feel, especially if they feel like they have a sense of belonging to the company, and whether they feel like they are able to communicate freely with their supervisors.

The impact of equity, diversity and the inclusion of all people

It's impossible to underestimate the effect of equity, diversity and inclusion on both your business and the employees you employ.

It's clear why diversity, equity and inclusion matter for employees. Employees want to feel comfortable and at in their workplaces: they desire to work with people that have similar characteristics to them, be able to fail without fear, speak up safely and be confident you don't need to conceal their personality at work.

In the beginning, I didn't envision how I could become an executive since I was a Black and single mother of three. Earlier on in my professional life, I believed I must have an answer to any question, and ensure that my hair wasn't at its natural condition in order to succeed. It was only after I made the decision to join organizations that met me exactly where I was and I realized that the things that I thought didn't belong to me weren't actually my strength. In fact, I've heard many others have the same experience.

The data supports these stories about how a strong DEI culture impacts employees. Based on the research done by BetterUp and BetterUp, those who experience a high feeling of belonging to the workplace show, on average:

• An increase of 56 percent in job performance
• A 50 percent reduction in the chance of loss
• A 75 percent decrease in the number of employees who use sick days
• Employer Net Promotion Scores (eNPS) that are 167% more

These are clear benefits for employees. However, they're invaluably beneficial to the firms that are a fan of DEI. Beyond the many benefits that come from an engaged workforce, lower unemployment, better job performance, and reduced absenteeism, companies with higher diversity are more likely to achieve above-average profitability and an greater return on investment as well as a greater percent of revenue from innovation.

This is the kind of results that come not just from ticking boxes, but from putting in the effort to ensure employees are psychologically secure. When employees feel they can be risk-averse and yet feel supported or that they are able to safely speak with the manager with concerns or suggestions, businesses reap their benefits.

Employers get to learn about their teams' brightest, boldest ideas and provide the kind of feedback that is able to transform the performance of an organisation.

What can you do to create a diverse, equitable, and inclusive workplace

If you're looking to figure out a DEI plan that goes far beyond ticking boxes, we'll explain the steps you'll have to start taking note of your priorities and then implementing them.

Review where you are now

The first thing you'll want to do is get an understanding of what DEI currently looks like at your company. It can be an intimidating process if you're not starting the DEI journey yet, since it's hard to determine where the gaps lie. But, it's crucial since if you don't collect fundamental data, it's impossible to monitor the changes you've made in time.

The best approach to start is to start by creating the engagement questionnaire as well as collecting self-identified diversity statistics about your current employees.

Remember that data that you collect tells a story -- not just regarding the results of your DEI initiatives, but also about what's happening in the world and more broadly. In other words, it's impossible to compare employee engagement in the year 2019 with employee engagement in 2020 without talking about how the pandemic affects employees. In the same way, keep in mind the context of the events happening both locally and internationally each year to help you better understand the influences on people's lives.

Go on a listening tour

A survey might provide you with an excellent initial impression of how employees are engaged within your company, don't end there. Surveys can provide a wealth of information. However, If you don't engage with people directly, you'll miss crucial insights and feedback.

I generally recommend approaching this through coordinating sessions directly with CEO. Most of the time, employee opinions do not make it to the top management team, as they are filtered through managerial chains. It is a chance for the CEO to engage in direct conversations with a particular group and to truly listen to their thoughts on their thoughts, worries, and concerns.

I start by asking members to join organizations based on the diversity dimension (such such as BIPOC as well as LGBTQIA organizations). There's never a cap to the number of participants that can be a part of the group since we want everyone to be heard. I chat with each group in the beginning and inform participants know that, during the event, there will be an opportunity for the CEO to pose questions, and then a amount of time to ask input and suggestions from the group.

In the next step, I train the CEO on the types of questions they should ask employees in order to garner useful feedback. They will create his own questions obviously, but I suggest that they also ask questions such as:

• "What is the most important thing that you believe will benefit this company?"
• "What do you think are the most important things you would suggest would assist me to be a better leader?"
• "What do you believe will help us achieve our goals as a company?"
• "Here are the most important objectives I'm working towards. From your position, consider what you believe could harm or aid this goal?"

Prioritize needs

Conducting the listening tour as well as the launch of an engagement survey will typically uncover dozens of DEI aspects for an organization to potentially work on. This is totally normal -in the end, when it comes to DEI work there are always methods that an organisation will continue to improve its employee experience.

The reality is that most companies have the resources and time to carry out DEI initiatives. According to the research conducted through 2022, by Culture Amp, only 34 percent of Human Resources and DEI practitioners feel they have sufficient funds to fund their DEI initiatives.

The obvious answer is to prioritize. However, how can you tell which projects to focus on first?

Begin by sorting through every piece of data as well as feedback and information you've collected through your audio tour or engagement survey as well as gathering data. It's generally my experience that I can bucket the information into three main areas:

• Initiatives, tasks or projects that should be completed (but aren't)
• The current needs
• Goals for the long-term

After you've categorize the information, go through and analyze the risk factors for each. Which needs are currently putting the business at risk in a legal sense? Anything that's putting the company or its workers at risk is a must-have.

Then, you can take a look at the initiatives that might be small-hanging fruits or might be more pressing. Make sure you are realistic in what is able to be handled in each quarter. Next, you can sketch your plan of action out on a roadmap.

Keep in mind it is true that DEI work is a continuous process. A company's DEI demands will be constantly shifting, and that's fine to leave some room on your roadmap Don't be scared of having your needs for the future evolve.

Get involved with managers and leaders in DEI training

According to James K. Harter, Gallup's chief scientist for work-related management, managers are responsible for at least 75 per cent of the elements that cause employees to leave. Yet, just 41 managers have attended classes or seminars that focus on DEI.

Fortunately, explicit training can tackle these issues, helping managers apply an DEI lens to everything they perform, from onboarding, interviewing and hiring to arranging effective one-on one meetings.

Don't stop at managers when it comes to training neither. The leaders of your company may not get the same amount of one-on-one interaction with their teams, but a true determination to DEI must begin at the high levels. Leadership must participate with DEI rather than simply making a public statement on a website, and training through videos, live or joint hybrid sessions can help them ensure they are bringing a DEI lens to every choice they make.

Assess your accomplishments and then make it available to others.

While you work on initiatives that are that are on your agenda be sure to track and evaluate the outcomes of each. For instance, if you want to see a higher percentage of BIPOC employees working in leadership positions Keep the track of your progress and your successes. You should consider identifying and measuring the following:

• How much have you increased your percentage of BIPOC applicants that are in your pipeline?
• What ways have you diversified the job boards that you place ads How have you diversified the job boards that you advertise
• Which BIPOC employees are you promoting to senior positions?

After you've written down the steps the company has made and shared that information with your entire team through a town hall or video update synchronously. This lets employees see the fact that you're actually implementing their feedback during the listening tour while also communicating the progress that you've achieved.

Six tips for promoting equity, diversity, and inclusivity at work

There are many methods to drive DEI in the workplace each organization's approach is different. There are however a couple of tips that you could use in order to discover ways to increase your DEI.

1. Lean in to difficult moments

Another example of this can be seen by the hiring freezes that numerous companies are experiencing. The hiring freeze is complicated to negotiate, but it could also give you the time and space needed to re-evaluate what your recruiting and hiring processes will look like. Lean into this moment to ask yourself:

• What can we do to diversify our Careers page and our panel of interviewers?
• How can we ensure that our candidates from all walks of life can envision their potential employers prior to their arrival?
• How can we ensure our interviewing process -- whether remote or in person -- is inclusive of people with disabilities?

In every challenging moment it's possible to make improvements.

2. Do not solely focus on the outcome

When you are planning your DEI projects, it may be easy to set targets that only focus on outputs. Don't forget that inputs can also be a powerful driver of change.

For instance, your output goals could be to increase employee diversity by one percent. This is an essential goal you should define, however it'll be affected by many less important actions you can take for example:

• In the event that you are unable to fill your hiring pipeline with at least 50% minorities
• Ensure that 75 percent of postings on job boards are geared towards minorities.
• Re-examine your benefits program in order to ensure transgender women and female employees are protected

Make sure you are focusing on this level as you develop the DEI plan, and you'll discover a myriad of positive improvements that are implemented across your organization.

3. Design spaces that foster connection

We've set up Employee Community Groups (ECGs) to promote an atmosphere of community within our employees. Hundreds of employees are part of six ECGs and each group receives all year-round funding, a mission, as well as executive sponsorship to run workshops and occasions.

ECGs and similar group discussions (whether they are held in Slack as well as in person or via video chats) are a great way to create safe and secure environments for employees to communicate and de-stress. As we've witnessed, that's invaluable for the health of your employees' minds of your employees, their happiness, and the belonging of your team.

4. React to social justice events

Companies today are increasingly global. This implies that at any time -- there will be people who are affected by global problems. Whether that's the war in Ukraine as well as the loss of abortion rights or the quake in Haiti leaders must respond to moments that matter to their employees.

Every social justice issue will require a public statement from your CEO, obviously. They can have a huge impact and uplifting, however when we think of responding to these moments it is primarily about being aware of the affected employees. Ask yourself:

• How can you handle the situation to employees who have a death in the family?
• What can you do to help employees who lose access to some rights?
• How do you provide spaces and help for people who have experienced a trauma in their city?
• What are your ways of acknowledging employees' experiences?

When you address social justice moments with support and understanding, people are aware that you care about them and care about them. What happens when that moment is not appreciated? Employees leave.

5. Don't ignore smaller opportunities for change

When carrying out the DEI strategy, it can be really easy to focus solely on your goals. However, really adhering to DEI is a matter of looking at every decisions by looking through an DEI lens. When you do that it will be easier looking for smaller, low-cost strategies to boost DEI within your organization.

For instance, at , we've been taking a closer look at our partnership. There is no cost to join with an organization for the purpose of making an impact. So how can we expand that program? What can we do to better utilize it to support more Black-owned businesses or folks improving their lives in the prison system?

The majority of companies are so busy watching their North Star that they miss opportunities like those. Slow down and notice the lesser possibilities.

6. Make sure you remember to purchase the product you are selling

At the end of the day, your employees are hard at working to deliver a product or service to clients. Make sure that you include DEI as part of that. Is your marketing inclusive? Are you supporting diverse needs? Does your software take all users' needs into account, or do they exclude people who aren't?

They are huge components that will determine the overall success of your business Make sure they're an integral part of your plan.

Start the beginning of your DEI journey