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How Inclusive Is Your Workplace? A Business Leader’s Guide to Diversity

As business leaders take active measures to incorporate Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DE&I) initiatives into daily processes, workplace inclusivity is on the horizon, but we’re not quite there yet. Aside from human bias, organizations must continuously evaluate elements like internal practices, hiring processes, and messaging so they can identify room for improvement and come up with a plan of action.

Inclusivity is recognized as a significant driver of positive business outcomes, so these changes are worth pursuing. With a diverse workforce, companies stand to benefit from new perspectives and more engaged employees, all while gaining the opportunity to work with the best talent in the labor market. So, how does your organization stack up when it comes to inclusivity? Check out this overview of the top five characteristics of an inclusive workplace to see where your business shines and where there’s opportunity for improvement.

Employees Feel They Belong

A sense of belonging drives employee loyalty and satisfaction, but it means more than having their photo on the team’s wall. “The only way for companies to create a sustaining sense of belonging is to really listen,” explains Sanquinetta Dover, founder of DoverSolutions.

When employees feel that their employer values their opinions and knowledge, their mindset shifts from I’m working for you to I’m working with you. One way to work toward this is through surveys on workplace satisfaction, but employees need to feel heard on a regular basis.

Including employees in meetings, having management take time to talk to them face-to-face, and ensuring that all employees can offer input for big projects and initiatives are just some ways you can show that you value employee opinions.

From there, you can cultivate a sense of belonging by acknowledging ideas, praising individuals, and consistently showing appreciation. Employers should also try to strengthen the workplace community through social events and collaborative processes.

Collaboration Is Encouraged and Facilitated

Collaboration helps businesses accomplish more by breaking down silos and enabling different teams to work together effectively. In a truly collaborative workplace, there is little workday separation between one department and the next. All teams can communicate, share ideas, and help one another without feelings of frustration, delays, competition, or awkwardness.

In a siloed workplace, there’s no cross-collaboration until it’s critical for a big project. Because the teams only communicate during times of necessity, the interaction feels forced, and individuals sometimes aren’t as creative or efficient as they’d like to be. Communication didn’t exist before that project, and it will probably disappear when the project is over. That is the opposite of inclusivity.

Truly collaborative work environments don’t just enable easy communication — they encourage it. Facilitating collaboration means creating a culture where employees feel equal, valuable, and like everyone is accessible. Encouraging casual social interactions at work is one way to help melt away that awkwardness and standoffishness that can occur when teams don’t interact often.

There Are Programs to Support Growth

Inclusivity in the workplace isn’t just about whom you hire or how you treat them, but how you support people in different roles to achieve their goals and dreams. Leaders sometimes fear providing too much support for employees because they don’t want talent to grow so much that they leave the company.

In truth, offering support for your employees will make them feel respected and valued in a way that increases company loyalty. Some employees will eventually leave if they run out of challenges at your workplace, but that’s inevitable whether you’re helping them grow or not. Ultimately, you will only benefit from employee growth.

Offering opportunities for learning and development means that you can nurture your talent to become even better. This helps individuals feel that their strengths and aspirations have been recognized and acknowledged by the team and improves their sense of individuality in the workplace.

Each Person Is Valued as an Individual

Belonging and connection are often discussed as fundamental principles of a positive and inclusive work environment, but a sense of uniqueness is also crucial. “In an attempt to make everyone equal, companies often make the unintentional mistake of assimilation. When you fail to acknowledge and leverage each individual’s background, strengths, and goals, you devalue the entire team,” says Ms. Dover.

Showing that you care about each employee’s knowledge, experiences, and dreams is not easy, but it’s something management should strive to accomplish with each workday. L&D resources and internal sourcing are significant steps in the right direction. You can also show how you understand an employee as a person through daily interactions and conversations.

Inclusivity Is Part of the Business Strategy

One of the biggest mistakes companies make is failing to identify why inclusivity is so important. It’s the right thing to do, but figuring out how to strategically align it with business outcomes, both internally and externally, is crucial to success.

Inclusivity requires something different of each leader, manager, and employee. As such, each needs to understand what inclusivity means to your company and what their role is in achieving it. The question is, where do you begin? Many resources can guide your strategy and support your goals, including our full-service staffing firm DoverStaffing. One of their many programs that is a great resource is the DoverStaffing Ticket to Work Program. Ticket to Work Program assists those with disabilities of any kind, to receive the help they need to get back in the workforce. This can be any support they need whether it is for the betterment of their current employment or to become financially independent. We will examine in more detail the Ticket to Work Program in a future article.

Ask DoverSolutions for help in making your workplace more inclusive and unlocking the benefits of an effective DE&I strategy.

May 19, 2022/by DoverSolutions

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Diversity in the Workplace: More Than Meets the Eye

Workplace diversity has become the standard for excellence for companies nationwide. And as ethnic, racial, socio-economic, and gender demographics continue to shift in the U.S., it’s more important than ever for companies to implement diversity protocols in hiring staff and management. However, for many employers, the phrase “workplace diversity” can lead to confusion as businesses grapple with its implications and relevance in their industries. Businesses eager to thrive and embrace workplace diversity may be unclear about what it actually entails, how it relates to workplace inclusion, and how to create a company culture that embraces both.

In this article, we’ll explore the all-important questions of what workplace diversity is, how it affects your business, and how you can create a genuinely diverse, inclusive workplace.

Defining Workplace Diversity

The U.S. government’s Non-Discrimination Statement and Policy makes this clear and powerful statement: “The United States Government does not discriminate in employment on the basis of race, color, religion, sex (including pregnancy and gender identity), national origin, political affiliation, sexual orientation, marital status, disability, genetic information, age, membership in an employee organization, retaliation, parental status, military service, or other non-merit factor.” This covers much ground, and leaves little room for misinterpretation in doing so. In this way, the statement captures the heart of diversity: A group of people who reflect the whole of the society where they live and work.

As is clear from this definition, diversity and inclusivity aren’t just about markers such as race, ethnicity, and gender. They also involve gender identity, sexual orientation, national origin, military status or service, socio-economic background, marital status, political affiliations, levels of ability/disability, and other factors that can lead to discrimination.

While real strides have been made to create greater workplace diversity in recent years, studies show that it’s still not enough. A recent report from accountant firm PricewaterhouseCoopers showed that, while 87 percent of organizations participating in their survey believed that inclusion and diversity were top priorities, only 10 percent of them had met company goals in this area.

Are Diversity and Inclusion the Same Thing?

The terms “diversity” and “inclusion” are sometimes, and erroneously, used interchangeably. While the terms go hand-in-hand, each has its own distinct and vital place in the workforce. And for diversity and inclusion to reach their greatest potential, employers must understand how these words are different and why companies should focus on both.

Essentially, the word “diversity” indicates the workforce makeup, while “inclusion” refers to the steps and actions being taken to ensure that diversity grows and prospers within the workplace. Inclusion is the result when diversity is successfully implemented and optimized. When diversity exists without inclusion, this can produce a workplace where people from various ethnicities, genders, backgrounds, and abilities are employed, but may not be granted promotions or equal opportunities to work to their full potential in the company. In a truly diverse working environment that encourages inclusion, everyone’s contribution is enabled, utilized, and valued equally.

Creating an Inclusive Workplace

Here are several hiring strategies that can help you create a genuinely inclusive workplace:

Use software tools that test job candidate skills anonymously.

A number of software tools, including Vervoe and Toggle Hire, allow you to appraise a candidate’s skills and eligibility without identifying their name, age, race, or ethnicity. Other tools like Predictive Index help reveal diversity gaps within your company and fill these gaps with qualified individuals.

Create job descriptions with inclusive language.

Your job descriptions should make it crystal clear that everyone will be equally evaluated and, if hired, will be given equal opportunities within the role.

Include minority groups in your marketing and advertising.

Target your hiring ads so they’ll reach people in minority groups. In addition, you can seek out culturally diverse candidates through sites like LinkedIn.

Get advice from minority organizations.

Partner with minority organizations in your community and regularly consult with them on how to make your workplace not only more diverse but more inclusive as well.

A Diverse Workplace Makes for a Successful Business

The advantages of greater workplace diversity and inclusion are already well-documented. A recent report from tech talent provider Built In indicates that 48 percent of the Generation Z population identifies as a racial or ethnic minority. For companies to stay relevant and competitive, it’s essential to fulfill workplace diversity standards to attract and retain vital new talent. The report also highlights that employers who implement diversity protocols in staff and management typically see a 2.3 greater cash flow per employee. Likewise, a study from the Harvard Business Review shows that these businesses generally see a 19 percent increase in revenues.

“Diversity is a wide umbrella, “says Dover Solutions founder Sanquinetta Maria Dover, “and the more we recognize the breadth and scope of what a truly diverse workplace is, the greater the advantage to our businesses and our communities.” As a proponent of diversity and inclusion, Ms. Dover leads her organization in helping employers embrace inclusive hiring practices, and employees advance their skills to connect with greater opportunities.

Contact DoverSolutions to learn more about our innovative human capital management consultation services, staffing services, and training opportunities. And be sure to read our next article in this series, where we’ll talk about the many ways employers can benefit by hiring and retaining a diverse workforce.

March 29, 2022/by DoverSolutions

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Building Your Employer Brand: Key Strategies for Retaining Top Talent

Building your employer brand involves more than attracting talent to your workplace. It also requires an in-depth understanding of how to use social media and technology to attract talent and support employee engagement. Today, whether it’s workforce retention in the manufacturing industry or talent acquisition for corporate offices, this issue represents a major challenge in the workplace.

To expand on your efforts, you need to support employee advocacy; make your company’s culture interesting and welcoming; popularize and build your brand on social media; use AI for staffing and hiring; and support education outreach initiatives. These five key strategies will get you started.

1. Support Employee Advocacy

Supporting employee advocacy within your organization humanizes your employer brand and extends your influence in branding, advertising, marketing, staffing and hiring, and talent retention. By developing an advocacy program, you can encourage brand ambassadorship from your employees.

Creating an Advocacy Program

Creating an advocacy program involves:

Identifying your employer brand in innovative terms.
Focusing on service.
Showing support for employee concerns and needs.
Highlighting your employer brand as a leader in your field.
Giving back to your community or the world through environmental sustainability or volunteer assignments.
Developing a company culture that inspires trust, which is instrumental for staffing and hiring top talent — and for continued employee retention.

Do your employees love coming to work? Do they like sharing their work experiences? Answering these key questions will help you develop an employee advocacy program that enhances employee retention and helps you find top talent. Passionate employees can serve as indirect — yet powerful — staffing and hiring recruiters. They also make it possible for your staffing agency to find and recruit the best of the best employees.

You can easily develop an employee advocacy program today, thanks to social media. Using your employees’ perceptions of your brand can be helpful for workforce retention.

To begin, you need to establish goals and key performance indicators (KPIs). While employees of your company may post their impressions about work on social media, you still need to set defined goals for your program to track and analyze results.

Make it your goal to step up employee engagement by increasing brand awareness. Encourage employees to post their views of your employer brand and offerings. For example, if you plan to provide a new service, create shareable information — something that will excite and motivate employees to post the content.

Next, you need to focus on the key metrics, including:

The top contributors, or which employees or teams share the most information on social media. What is the level of employee engagement?
Your brand’s organic reach. How many people see employee-generated posts?
Outside engagement. How many people comment on the content posted by employees?
Traffic. How much traffic does employee engagement drive to your employer brand and site.

Finally, review how your employer advocacy initiatives affect your employer brand perception on social media.

Other Activities That Build Your Employer Brand

You can also improve your employer brand for employee retention and hiring purposes by taking these steps:

Create testimonial videos and share them on your website and social media.
Craft tweets that convey employee satisfaction or share career advancement opportunities.

By turning your best-performing employees into brand ambassadors, you will raise awareness about your organization and employer brand.

2. Turn Your Employer Brand Into a Talent Magnet

To become a talent magnet or increase talent retention, you must make your company’s culture inviting and interesting. Here are several ways to accomplish this goal:

Establish a protocol that supports transparent management and leadership.
Show appreciation to your employees regularly.
Treat all your employees with respect and fairness.
Encourage employee engagement, collaboration and communication.
Build positive relationships in the workplace.
Highlight company innovations.

If you make your workplace culture inviting and supportive, you cannot help but become a magnet for top talent.

3. Build a Popular Employer Brand on Social Media Accounts

To popularize your employer brand, you need to maintain a high-quality profile on your social media accounts — one that will allow you to connect with top talent and support your talent retention initiatives.

Studies reveal that candidates research company profiles before applying for jobs through a staffing agency online. It pays off, then, to use employee engagement and your employer brand to fuel interest in your company.

This requires starting meaningful conversations, tracking engagement, and positively taking part in social media activities.

4. Use AI for Staffing and Hiring

You can collaborate with your staffing agency by using artificial intelligence (AI) for staffing and hiring as well. Here are some ways automation can improve these processes:

Automating the recruitment process.
Screening and short-listing candidates.
Scheduling and coordinating interviews.
Supporting mobility of redeployment for workforce retention.
Sourcing or reactivating the data on passive candidates.

Using the latest recruitment software or AI technologies can help you organize your HR activities for better workforce retention and employer brand awareness.

5. Develop Apprenticeship Programs and Internships

You can also develop your employer brand and increase talent retention by working with schools and colleges to develop apprenticeship programs and internships. An education outreach program gives students the initiative to find work in a job they love and helps you, as a company, maintain employee retention.

Final Thoughts

In the current digital climate, it pays to build your employer brand to attract top talent and increase employee retention. By becoming more proactive on social media and collaborating with a staffing agency, you can meet many of today’s HR challenges.

Because you have special staffing and hiring requirements, you need support from an expert in the staffing field. At Dover Staffing, we can help you with your unique HR needs. Contact us now to learn more about our services.

Image credits: Photo by Shurkin on Freepik.

April 30, 2021/0 Comments/by DoverSolutions