Diversity and inclusion are more than just hiring trends, it improves business performance by increasing productivity from employees and inspiring better service for customers. But, what does it mean to promote diversity? It means welcoming people from different backgrounds, nationality, and religions.
A diverse work environment benefits from its access to various viewpoints, skills, and talents. An inclusive workspace, on the other hand, means taking the many types of people present in the company and making them work towards one goal. Then again, how can this be done? Below is a list of tips to make workplace diversity and inclusion part of your workplace.
- Make it part of the company DNA
One way to make a clear stand on diversity and inclusion is to create policies that promote it. Goals to promote these policies should be tied to the company’s own business goals.
Moreover, to make people feel safer, there should be rules in place to discourage harassment and discrimination, as well as valid ways to file complaints.
- Conscious hiring
Companies are encouraged to practice blind recruiting when hiring candidates for a vacant post. Blind recruiting is removing personal information on the CV to prevent unconscious preferences being favored by the recruiting agent such as gender, race, and educational background. Even names can be considered as sources of bias, and be stricken out.
The suitability of a candidate must be based on work experience and skill. Another way to hire using this method is to hire a candidate based on the results of tests and tasks related to the job.
- Equal pay
Are women paid less in the company compared to men for the same work? Check industry reports on how the company’s internal pay gap compares to the rest of the industry. If the pay gap is too huge for the same work, then it might be time to find ways to remedy that.
A company attracts the best talent through the reliability of their reputation. By correcting pay gap inequalities, the company protects its brand equity.
- Throw a wider recruitment net
The post should be advertised in a wide network as possible. The problems of relying on internal and referral hiring are the tendency of hiring the same people.
A wider recruitment net that is spread not just in regular job boards, but in veterans, seniors, and disabled forums can reach a different set of people that could even yield a better candidate.
- Honesty and participation
Diversity is not an easy pill to swallow for people resistant to change, and people have specific ideas on how a company should be run. The company HR is well-advised to open the floor for other employees to voice their concerns. Employees should also do their duty to answer honestly and sincerely. One can also approach a respected leader within the company to express their hesitations without judgment.
Diversity will need effort from co-workers to be open minded when it comes to cultures and races different from their own. This means being sensitive to comments and jokes that may be taken as impolite or offensive.
- Compromises are not compromising
Being conscious of diversity includes being attuned to lifestyle restrictions not commonly placed on typical employees. For employees with disability, this may mean adjusting work hours and workplace policies to allow them to be productive.
Employees may be different in terms of religious values, and it will show in the way they dress and the holidays they choose to celebrate. A single working parent will also have different priorities from those without children.
A company must foster a culture that respects differences. When diversity and inclusion are prioritized, then employee performance also improves because they feel they can true to who they are and not be afraid of any repercussion.