equity Archives - Dover Staffing

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.

People often talk about the need for diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) in business, but they don’t always understand how to make meaningful progress in this area. Sometimes, management does not know where to begin, so they do not begin at all. If you and your colleagues want to transform your organizational culture, you need to understand the DEI terms and set concrete goals for progress.

What Do Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Mean?

You may wonder, “Why can’t we all just get along?” The answer to that question is long and complex, but you do not have to understand the world’s history to make progress at your company. Simply understanding the following terms will help.

Diversity – The presence of differences among your employees, including psychological, physical, and social ones. To have a diverse workplace, you need to have a variety of social and cultural characteristics present.
Equity – This term means everyone is given the same treatment and opportunities. Some groups do not achieve equity because of conscious or unconscious bias.
Inclusion – Inclusion means everyone feels welcome in the larger group. Acceptance is key to inclusion.

These are separate constructs, but they work together to create a fair, productive, and even happy workplace when made a priority in organizational development.

What Is the Combined Power of Diversity, Equity & Inclusion?

Realistically, you can have a diverse workplace without inclusion. That means your employees can be of different races, nationalities, genders, physical ability, etc., but your corporation still treats some employees as “less than.” For instance, you can have a diverse staff but the majority of your workforce excludes some individuals or subgroups. These excluded groups do not feel welcomed or appreciated.

You can have diversity without equity as well. If you pay your female employees less than the male employees, then your corporation is inequitable. If you promote some racial groups less often than others, your workplace lacks equity.

However, when all three elements are present in your company, you will notice fewer conflicts, more cooperation, and better staff morale. When employees are accepted and even rewarded for being themselves, they give more to the company, secure in the knowledge that management and their peers will appreciate and reward their work.

As Saleema Vellani, Chief Innovation Strategist of Innovazing said, “Empathy is the engine of innovation.” When you have empathy, you are able to learn from others with very different backgrounds, which improves creativity. Diversity enhances innovation and innovation solidifies diversity and inclusion.

What Are the Goals of a More Diverse, Equitable & Inclusive Workplace?

Achieving DEI means setting attainable goals and continuing to work toward those goals. In short, set the goals and then take concrete action to effect positive workforce development. Too often, this conversation gets lost in abstractions. Your goals for a more diverse, equitable, and inclusive workplace should:

Identify Opportunities – Your company’s management has to take stock of where you are and where you need to go. That may mean some uncomfortable introspection and a truthful look at current policies, values, and culture. Once you know where you are, you can list specific actions to achieve change.
Emphasize Equity – All three aspects of DEI are essential, but without equity, can the other two areas exist? Determine what fair opportunity is for different groups and work to identify barriers to it in your company.
Unleash Diversity – You can have a diverse workforce and never unleash the power of that diversity. You need to encourage different perspectives and challenge assumptions. An empowered and diverse workplace will value all perspectives.
Become Inclusive – As a leader, you need to be inclusive in your thinking and your behavior. If you do not set the expectation, you cannot expect your employees to embrace the concept.

What Does a More Diverse, Equitable & Inclusive Workplace Look Like?

Can you tell if a workplace is DEI just by looking? Well, you can certainly tell if it’s diverse, although not all cultural and social differences are visually apparent. You can still see if women and different races are represented in your workforce. Are there differently abled people present? You can also judge inclusion to some degree if you are present at a management meeting and distinct groups have representation. Equity is tougher to judge without taking a deep dive into the paperwork. Your workplace equity proof lies in yearly salary, management opportunities, and actual promotions.

How Does Creating a DEI Organization Improve the Performance of My Team and Affect the Organization?

You may worry that transforming your company into a DEI culture may negatively affect production and the bottom line. Studies show that this fear is simply not warranted. In fact, DEI can bring the following benefits:

Improved Financial Performance – Ethnically diverse companies outproduce national industry medians.
Enhanced Recruitment Ability – Excellent prospects want to work for diverse companies. Make DEI part of your talent strategy.
Improved Employee Engagement – Employees, especially millennials, are more engaged when they believe in their company’s DEI efforts.
Growth – Diverse companies are much more likely to capture new markets and increase market share.

Doing the right thing is better for employees and your company, not just ethically but financially as well.

Final Thoughts

It is not enough to talk about diversity, equity, and inclusion in your workplace. You need to embrace action over abstractions. Set specific goals and identify several concrete steps you can take now to transform your corporate culture. Your company will become a better DEI workplace step by step as long as you make it a priority.

For help with talent strategy and staffing needs, contact Dover Staffing Solutions, a full-service staffing firm that cares about business integrity and professional customer service. We work with corporate, government, and nonprofit clients. For more information, contact us today by filling out our brief online form or calling 770-434-3040.

Image credits: Photo on Freepik.

Tag Archive for: equity

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