How Growing organizations can adopt diversity and inclusion in their everyday work practices. This is where we can start.

Understanding Diversity at workplace

Diversity at workplace is not just race, religion, or ethnicity differences, but exists in the variety of perspectives, ways, ideas and needs that arise from different work experiences, parental status, educational backgrounds, geographic locations, age, gender, cultural differences, mental or physical abilities, heritage, and many other characteristics of employees. 

Not just an HR tactic

Actively promoting and managing diversity effectively is a business necessity that helps in promoting fair treatment and good employer branding, attracting wider talent pools and in maximizing the ability of teams to successfully contribute towards organizational goals.

Organization’s leaders, managers and peer groups must learn to embrace diversity and value the unique competencies and outlooks of different team members, encouraging all have an independent voice that’s heard, to boost team health and performance.

Creating an Inclusive environment must be intentional

Organizations need to work deliberately to create an environment where people with diverse human qualities can coexist and work as one team working towards a common company goal, having diverse viewpoints for improved decision making. We must also understand that well managed diversity in workforce positively leads to improved morale, outside-the-box thinking, greater camaraderie, and an atmosphere of mutual understanding and respect.

Organizational values must reflect DEIB (Diversity Equality Inclusion & Belongingness) commitment

Build the organization’s core values system to ensure that no one engages in discrimination against, or harassment of any person employed or seeking employment with the Company based on race, color, religion, sex, gender identity, pregnancy, ancestry, marital status, age, or sexual orientation. This policy must apply to all employment practices, including recruitment, selection, promotion, transfer, merit increase, salary, training and development, demotion, and separation.

Active diversity in Recruitment

Hire based on desired knowledge, skills and experience required for the position and not for employment gaps or other non-controllable elements on the resume. Look for people who share organization’s core values and forward-thinking ethos. Make efforts to allow diverse pool of candidates to apply for open positions. It will help to explicitly mention in all Job Ads that the organization supports DEIB as all candidates aspire to work in inclusive and healthy workplaces.

Train your managers to model inclusive behavior at workplace

Encourage managers to work effectively with a diverse workforce and be aware of their unconscious biases. Here are some techniques you can share with them:

-         To not stereotype people or make generalized assumptions or decisions based on personal preferences or categorize people basis their one-off experience. This must particularly be checked during interviewing and hiring decision making.

-          To believe that there are several valid ways to accomplish the same goal and not just one right way of doing things.

-          To have honest relationships and be comfortable with each staff member they supervise and take genuine interest in knowing what motivates them, what their goals are, how they like to be recognized.

-          To not only explain job responsibilities and expectations clearly to new hires but orient the person to the organization and department culture and unwritten rules. Buddy system helps.

-          To be willing to give as well as listen to constructive feedback from the team about ways to improve the work environment, implement employee suggestions and acknowledge their contribution.

-          To take immediate action with people you supervise when they behave in ways that show disregard for others in the workplace, such as inappropriate jokes and offensive terms.

-          To ensure that assignments and opportunities for advancement are accessible to everyone.

Lead by example

-          Celebrate festivals of varied cultures, religion and underrepresented communities, like Women’s Day, International Pride month. Holidays of the year must include major festivals of diverse cultures.

-          Have a comprehensive Prevention of Sexual Harassment at workplace Policy. This is mandatory.

-          Assess the current workplace climate and how different groups feel about diversity and inclusion. Set action plans to improve on these scores in the next survey.

-          Include inclusive behavior skills as part of your Leadership performance assessment matrix.

-          Provide equal opportunities for promotion and leadership positions. They must be based on merit and performance alone.

-          Create safe and welcoming spaces for all employees, partners, and clients.

-          Examine company’s existing policies, practices, and procedures to ensure that they do not differentially impact different or underrepresented groups.

-          Train and sensitize people on diversity, equality, and inclusion nuances.

-          Company’s professional behavior guidelines can encourage employees to speak in one common language that everyone around can understand.

To conclude, managing diversity really means acknowledging people's differences and recognizing these differences as valuable, where leaders are encouraged to follow good management practices by preventing discrimination and promoting inclusiveness.

If your goal is to create a successful multicultural organization, then your commitment to diversity and inclusion agenda must be an ongoing one with continuous and conscious action towards achieving the same.