A “more woke society” is calling for an end to discrimination
in the workplace. Today, businesses are facing immense pressure to build
diverse teams at work, with several high-profile organizations
compelled to divulge their diversity and inclusion statistics.
Besides being the right thing to do, cultivating diverse teams in the
workplace is more than just an HR fad or an effort to look good in the
public eye. There is mounting evidence that diversity and inclusion
leads to tangible and measurable positive outcomes.
The benefits of having diverse teams at work
Workplace diversity isn’t exactly a new concept. In fact, a number of
scholars trace the first workplace inclusivity initiative way back to
1948 when President Truman signed Executive Order 9981 to desegregate
the armed services.
That said, it’s not surprising that the benefits of diversity and inclusion in the workplace have been well studied and documented in different organizations across various industries.
Let’s look at some of the most recent numbers that speak volumes
about the positive outcomes that are correlated or directly attributed
to workplaces having diverse teams:
- Businesses with more diverse leadership teams report 19 percent more innovation revenue.
- According to Gartner,
75 percent of companies with diverse frontline decision-making units
will exceed their financial goals while currently, more gender-diverse
organizations outperform their more homogenous counterparts by an
average of 50 percent.
- The same Gartner study reveals that employee performance in diverse
organizations is 12 percent higher than employee performance in
companies with no inclusivity efforts.
- Diversity and inclusivity improve employee engagement, which in turn increases retention by 19 percent and collaboration by 57 percent.
- Glassdoor’s Job & Hiring Trends report cites diversity as one of the “Big 9 Cultural Values” in a list of core values listed by top organizations to have the most significant impact on business outcomes.
Culture is a competitive advantage among leading organizations
and a vital part of building a solid workplace culture foundation is
diversity (Image Source).
Clearly, diversity and inclusion are more than just trivial public
relations concepts given the concrete and measurable business outcomes
that have been documented over the years of research and surveys.
The question then evolves from “why do we need a diverse team” to “how do we build a diverse team?”
The role of HR in encouraging diversity
Some companies with the resources hire a Chief Diversity and
Inclusion Officer to bring diversity and inclusion gold standards to an
organization and work closely with HR. However, smaller businesses may
not have enough financial bandwidth to pay the salary of a new senior
and highly specialized leader.
This is where HR needs to step in.
Human Resources may seem like the obvious choice to spearhead the
initiative to build diverse teams at work, but what’s the rationale?
Retired SHRM president and CEO Henry Jackson explained it perfectly:
“It is the role of HR to cultivate these diversity leaders
throughout the company to identify, develop, and advance people from
every talent pool. HR models and gives organizational leaders the lens
needed to see new and non-traditional sources of talent—including
candidates with unconventional education and work histories. Your
diversity leaders, and the people they bring on board, will become your
organization’s best ambassadors and recruiters, constantly enriching
your workforce with talent that may have otherwise been overlooked.”
HR leaders and professionals who are starting a diversity initiative
from scratch will find quick wins in the following low-hanging fruit
tactics and strategies.
1. Redefine the hiring process
This means looking at your entire recruitment, interview, and
onboarding processes and noting possible diversity blocks along the way.
For instance, former New York Times engineering manager Tessa Ann Taylor noticed how there’s a preference given to interview candidates who were referred by current employees.
HR leaders
can look into the number of referrals that the company has hired and
determine whether these people are coming from the same
background—education, race, sex, affiliations, etc. If referrals
are a showing a common factor, HR can implement measures to
deprioritize employee referrals to pave the way for more diverse work
teams.
Below are more tips on how HR can redefine the hiring process to intentionally hire for diversity:
- Forge networks and relationships with professional groups whose
membership is composed of underrepresented talent (i.e., ethnic
minorities, women, LGBTQ+, etc.).
- Institutionalize diversity metrics, such as aiming to increase the
percentage of new hires that should come from underrepresented groups.
- Test your job description across several individuals in the organization to remove any requirements that could be bias.
For example, descriptive cues such as “dominant”, “competitive”, “best
of the best”, and “fast-paced” have been found to deter female
candidates from applying.
- Involve people with different backgrounds in the interview process.
Tap team members who have a different sex, gender expression,
educational attainment, socio-economic standing, race, etc. to ensure
balance.
2. Encourage inclusive behaviors in the workplace
Having a diverse workplace would be futile if there’s no inclusivity.
“Diversity is the first and easier step, but inclusion is the key to
leveraging diversity,” explains Gartner Senior Director Analyst Daniel Reina.
Without inclusive behaviors, those who were hired to intentionally create diverse teams at work will feel alienated.
Here are a few suggestions to foster inclusive behaviors:
- Link inclusivity to your overall company mission,
vision, values, and goals. For example, if one of your goals is to
become a recognized brand globally, then you can teach your employees
that a global mindset starts at the workplace.
- Regularly hold diversity and inclusion talks and seminars in the
workplace. Encourage employees who belong to underrepresented groups to
share their stories. HR leaders can also invite subject matter experts
periodically to give more in-depth sessions on the topic.
- Create your own anti-discrimination and equal opportunity policies.
- Celebrate occasions that matter to underrepresented groups (e.g. pride month, mental health awareness week, Blackout Tuesday).
3. Make everyone feel valued
The last thing HR leaders want is for employees to feel that your
efforts to build diverse teams at work is only for show—a corporate
charade to look good in the public eye. Companies who are serious about
diversity and inclusion should strive to make their employees from
marginalized groups feel valued and appreciated.
How can you spread employee appreciation?
- Make sure your employee recognition program
is implemented across all employees equally through different ranks and
departments. It’s important that recognition is both frequent and
inclusive. Currently, only 25 percent
of companies give recognition frequently and 34 percent give
recognition that’s inclusive. These numbers can and should be better.
- The ability to send and receive recognition should be as
frictionless as possible for employees. This also applies to everyone
across the organization from the C-suite to managers to team members.
Leaders should be able to recognize their team and employees should be
able to recognize their peers. An engaging culture of recognition promotes a sense of belongingness and connection.
A joint research brief published by the Brandon Hall Group and Achievers reports the following benefits enjoyed by businesses that rate their recognition culture highly.
Organizations with highly rated recognition cultures cite better employee engagement metrics across the board (Image Source).
- Employee performance
should be measured and rewarded using the same set of standards. There
should be sufficient record-keeping to back up any merit-based
compensation. For instance, tracking technology such as time monitoring software
can standardize how productivity is defined in an organization.
Empirical data deters any biases from coming into play when evaluating
employee performance.
- Atop of monetary and social recognition,
go beyond with your efforts. Employees who are often marginalized will
feel valued at work if they feel their employers truly care about the
challenges that are specific to them. For instance, releasing a
statement on a national issue about racism will make people of color in
an organization feel that their leadership is authentic in advocating
for causes that matter to them.
4. Create a safe place where employees can talk and managers can listen
Diversity and inclusion are two concepts that are difficult to
establish, and even more difficult to maintain. One employee can easily
spread anti-diversity venom that can send you back to square one. These
anti-diversity and anti-inclusion behaviors can go undetected—either
because they are subtle or are done unintentionally.
It’s important for HR leaders to create safe spaces for employees—marginalized
or not—to air grievances that are hampering an organization’s diversity
and inclusivity initiatives. Having open lines of communication through
pulse surveys and a 24/7 workplace chatbot
is an effective way for discrimination issues to be reported and
addressed in a timely manner. You want to make sure your employees feel
heard and supported, so whenever you receive employee feedback, make it your priority to quickly take action – any delay can negatively impact your employee’s trust in leadership.
Birds of a different feather can flock together
Creating diverse teams at work is about recognizing that great talent
knows no race, ethnicity, gender, religion, or socio-economic standing.
With HR at the helm of the diversity and inclusion transformation,
businesses can jumpstart diversity campaigns through the redefinition of
their hiring process, encouragement of inclusive workplace behaviors,
an all-in recognition and rewards program,
and safe spaces for communication. Eventually, organizations will see
past the differences between their employees and realize that all
people, regardless of different backgrounds, can work towards a common
goal—to drive their respective companies forward.
Next:
Start your Route to a managerial job:
Continue Reading about Your Opportunities:
Back to Create Your Team
