“If we want to include everyone, we have to help everyone develop their talents and use their gifts for the good of the community. That’s what inclusion means– everyone contributes.” –Melinda Gates on inclusive workplaces.
Inclusivity in the workplace is all about creating an environment where every employee not only gets to work freely but also becomes a part of the community. It involves crafting policies that guide the company in making that environment possible.
What Inclusivity Brings
Being inclusive is not just about being “politically correct” out of a requirement. It brings more to your company and employees.
Fostering Respect
Respect is a basic human concept, but it can be challenging to foster especially in organizations with diverse populations. The myriad differences of backgrounds and opinions can make it difficult for everyone to come together and work towards one goal.
Image from LTEN.
Creating an inclusive workplace helps better foster that mutual respect. Employees enter a work environment that welcomes them openly. This encourages them also to show respect to other members of the workplace community.
Company Growth
Inclusivity goes beyond just creating a more suitable place for your employees. It also paves the way for the company’s growth. This is because a more inclusive workplace encourages employees to do their best.
According to data from LinkedIn, companies with a more gender-diverse and inclusive culture outperform their competitors by 25%. Furthermore, a more inclusive company can be up to 35% more productive.
Image from The Yellow Spot.
These numbers highlight the overall business value of inclusivity.
But building it is not an easy feat. You will encounter several roadblocks that can affect your efforts.
The Common Roadblocks To An Inclusive Workplace
These roadblocks can be varied. Stemming from different sources, these roadblocks are, unfortunately, still seen in today’s workplaces.
It doesn’t mean though that there is nothing we can do about these. Let’s go over them individually.
Unconscious Bias
We all know how bias can have a significant effect on how we interact with others, and it’s not always that we are aware of these biases. Unconscious bias can have a significant impact precisely because people are unaware of it.
According to the 2024 Gitnux Market Data, 59% of HR practitioners believe such biases prevent their companies from hiring the right people. Meanwhile, a similar number believes that it impacts how promotions are made.
Some instances of unconscious bias showing up in the workplace include:
- Conformity bias: The tendency to follow group opinion.
- Affinity bias: The tendency to favor people with similar traits.
- Contrast effect: People might unconsciously compare colleagues with each other.
- Gender bias: Preference for employees of a certain gender group.
- Attribution bias: Making assumptions about people based only on actions.
Because these biases are often ingrained in a person’s mindset, it usually takes a long time to unlearn them.
Lack Of Diverse And Inclusive Leadership
Company leaders have a vital role in developing their workforces.
Beyond drafting policies, they also serve as models for employees to emulate in their actions. A diverse leadership can do a lot in supporting employee development.
Image from Linkedin.
In a 2020 study, McKinney & Co. observed that employees in companies with diverse leadership are 1.5 times more likely to feel that they belong to the community. This sense of belongingness boosts their desire to contribute to the company’s success.
Thus, a lack of diverse leadership affects employee engagement.
But why does it happen?
This goes back to the company founders’ and leaders’ mindset. Their biases will affect the kind of leadership they establish for the company.
Communication Barriers
Members of a diverse workforce come from a wide variety of cultural backgrounds. Such differences can make it challenging for them to work together. Instead, this can encourage tribalism, as employees interact only with people with the same culture.
The situation can be worsened by a lack of opportunities to interact in and outside work.
For instance, departments might not be able to meet up outside of projects due to schedule conflicts. The company might also not have enough out-of-office events to facilitate engagement.
Disconnect Between Personal And Organizational Values
Employees’ values can also impact efforts to create a more inclusive workplace.
Image from Culture Works.
For instance, their religious beliefs might inhibit them from joining certain activities. While they do not mean it, such limitations can affect a company’s effort to make them part of the community.
There may also be feelings of inadequacies on the employee’s part. This is often due to them not having the competencies they think the company values the most. Those feelings can make them feel left out of company efforts.
Breaking Through The Roadblocks To An Inclusive Workplace
To overcome these roadblocks and foster a more inclusive workplace, you need to be strategic in your approach. Treat each roadblock as a component you solve to complete the process.
Dealing With Bias
The first step you need to do is to help employees and leaders become more aware of their respective biases.
Encourage everyone to study their actions and see what influences them. Assist them in identifying whether these influences stem from particular biases.
Creating a bias awareness training program also helps the process. The program should have the following components:
- Regular training: The program’s effectiveness relies on how often the company can implement it and help employees adopt the lessons.
- Follow-up training: Employees should have resources to help them better understand new situations and determine how to approach them.
- HR training: You need a program to address hiring biases and ensure diversity is an integral part of the process.
By setting the program right, you help employees more proactively deal with biases.
Creating Company Role Models
The above bias awareness training lays the groundwork for creating company role models.
Take it a step further by building a leadership program that emphasizes diversity and inclusivity.
Image from EHS Daily Advisor.
Beyond that, create more leader-employee engagement opportunities.
The idea is to help your company leaders better see what the employee community is like. This gives them greater insights on how to approach issues of diversity and inclusion.
Bringing Together Different Values
Open communications plays a crucial role in bringing together employees with differing values.
Create opportunities where they can discuss their thoughts on different matters freely with each other.
In particular, you want to open up discussions on diversity and inclusion to help employees better understand how these matters to them and their colleagues.
Mixing teams also helps bring employees with differing values together.
Create opportunities for employees to work with people they don’t interact with regularly. Be there to guide these mixed groups into gelling together and overcoming barriers.
This openness should also extend up to upper management. Employees need a clear pathway to send their thoughts to their leaders and leaders should also have the means to respond quickly and address these concerns.
Maintaining Diversity In The Inclusive Workplace
Once you have established the grounds for a diverse and inclusive workplace, the next move is maintaining it.
Effective policy-making plays a role in making it happen and helping everyone fully embrace the ideal.
Image from Faster Capital.
The key here is creating a more transparent policy-making process.
Report the progress of every new policy to employees so they understand what’s happening.
Employee participation is also essential. Organize regular sessions with them to get input on enhancing these policies.
Responding To Gender Issues
A specific area you want to focus on is developing policies for responding to gender issues. A gender sensitivity committee will help you better craft these.
Some essential things to consider for that committee are:
- A clear charter: Outline everything from objectives to committee size and roles.
- Committee composition: Ensure a diverse representation, with members representing the actual demographics within your workforce.
- Expertise: Bring in people who know about handling these issues.
- The right chairperson: Appoint a leader who advocates for gender issues.
With the right committee in place, you can guarantee a fair process when dealing with gender issues. You should also actively participate to help the committee achieve its purpose.
Be MORE Inclusive And Achieve Success With A Diverse Workforce
A more inclusive workplace will go a long way in helping your business harness all of the talent it has.
And that includes talents working remotely from all over the world.
Virtua believes in inclusivity too and is ready to bring a diverse crew of remote workers for your needs.
Learn more about us and our commitment to diversity and inclusion.