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Components of a Successful Inclusion & Equity Initiative

Learning to be more culturally competent is a process. There is no shortcut. We have to be aware of ourselves – and how we act/react to others; as well as aware of our environment.

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You Gotta Realize...The Concept of Workplace Belonging is Evolving

The concept of diversity in the workplace has steadily evolved over the last couple decades. Originally, diversity focused primarily on race, but later broadened to include the promotion of women, people with disabilities and the LGBTQ+ community. Now, the definition of is expanding further to include aspects such as physical characteristics, background, family status, military service, personality and work style. Today, in essence, diversity is all of the ways that we are similar and different to one another.

The evolution of the concept of over the years has also changed how the diversity field views itself and many organizations now are adding the words “inclusion” and "belonging.” Inclusion is an important addition as the field has realized that diversity on its own was not sufficient to describe the work being done as the work is shifting. The old focus was on helping employees to respect and work with people who are different. The new focus is on helping employees understand and include the differences that exist among them to drive results. The evolution from diversity to inclusion is not just a matter of semantics. It's a fundamental shift in seeing the work and purpose of diversity.

While the concept and purpose of diversity is evolving, so too is the practice and application of diversity as an organizational initiative. Diversity work is changing from being stand-alone training and events led by human resources to an organizational development initiative where diversity work becomes restructured as a continuous education system. As this organizational change process takes place, the way that diversity is approached must evolve. When diversity learning stops taking place solely in training rooms and spreads to the hallways, offices and desktops of employees, it becomes a more comprehensive and continuous learning environment. With this environment, new opportunities emerge to engage leaders and employees in powerful ways that drive business results. This increased engagement results in workplaces that are more respectful and inclusive.

Let Me Give You a Few Definitions

Diversity has to do with human differences. So a lot of times when people say “diversity” - what they really mean is race or gender or ethnicity. Diversity is much more than that – it’s any point of difference. It can be differences in race or gender, but it also could be differences in work style, differences in personalities, differences in terms of our organizational cultures any type of difference that matters. So with that in mind, we don’t have to do anything to create diversity, diversity just is!

Inclusion is a tool or a strategy or an approach. Inclusion exists when we create a culture within an organization that makes a space for everybody to be present and to participate and contribute and feel valued.  When we think about inclusion, we think about words like belonging, fitting in, acceptance, togetherness, being in or out - and we can also think about it in terms of engagement.

Cultural competence is a set of behaviors, attitudes, and policies that come together in a system, organization or among professionals and enable that system, organization or those professionals to live or work effectively in cross-cultural situations. The word culture is used because it implies the integrated pattern of human behavior that includes thoughts, communications, actions, customs, beliefs, values and institutions of a racial, ethnic, religious or social group. The word competence is used because it implies having the capacity to function effectively.

Learning to be more culturally competent is a process. There is no shortcut. We have to be cognizant of ourselves – and how we act/react to others; as well as cognizant of our environment. So the first steps are always knowledge and awareness. Cultural sensitivity is next.

Simply put, that’s knowing that differences exist between cultures, but not assigning values to the differences, better or worse, right or wrong. This tends to be much harder than it sounds. Humans tend to be judgmental. It’s in our nature. Putting that immediate reaction to judge others (either individuals, societies, cultures) is a key part of gaining competency. A culturally competent person has the ability to view and assimilate many different behaviors, attitudes, and policies and live/work effectively in cross-cultural settings to produce better outcomes.

Elements of a Solid Diversity Initiative

There are common characteristics of a solid diversity initiative. Here are a few best practices that can help you get things kicked-off in the right direction.

Business Definition of Diversity

It is vital that every company develop their own definition of diversity, clearly outlining what they believe workforce diversity is for them.

Diversity Steering Committee

A group of managers and employees from across all departments/business units of a company. This group of people is responsible for determining what the goals of the diversity program will be, what topics to address, how diversity can benefit business operations at the company and how to successfully communicate the diversity program to internal and external stakeholders.

Customized Business Case for Diversity

The business case for diversity is different for every company. It is important that a company determine the business reasons behind the decision to launch a diversity program and that these reasons are aligned and connected to the strategic goals and business results that will be improved by the launching of a diversity program. This can include: improving customer service, improving the communication and productivity of diverse company teams, developing targeted products and services for specific diverse consumer segments and improving employee retention rates.

Communication Plan

Launching a new diversity program at a company is a great opportunity to communicate with employees and reinforce company values. Also, it is vital that the goals of a diversity program are clearly and pro-actively communicated to employees so that there is minimal speculation or confusion. The communication plan should emphasize the positive business outcomes that will result as well as how the creation of a more inclusive and respectful company culture benefits all employees.

Diversity Strategic Plan

Covers initial rollout of program as well as outlines goals that program aims to achieve of the course of one year, two years, or three years.

Diversity Training

It is important that employees understand what diversity means to the company, their role in creating a respectful workplace and how diversity can be applied to their jobs to improve company performance. It is also recommended that managers receive training on how to best manage and lead diverse teams.

Recruitment Plan

Recruiting and hiring employees from a wide range of background enables the company to capture new ideas, diverse experiences and to tap into the creative energy that comes from having a diversity of thought and backgrounds present in the workforce.

Diversity Newsletter

An internal publication that highlights programs, community events, diversity champions, international holidays, tips for working on diverse teams etc. This is a regular reminder to employees about diversity and its impact upon their work.

Employee Resource/Affinity Groups

Employees that share a common affinity may wish to develop a networking group. These resource groups can support employees, advocate as needed and raise awareness of issues of importance to group participants to the company.

Diversity Intranet

An internal intranet page serves as a resource for employees on diversity topics, international holidays, articles and other resources.

Chief Diversity Officer

A chief diversity officer serves as the point person for internal and external diversity efforts, programs and initiatives.

Moving to an HR-Driven Diversity Program

Making the transition from diversity to inclusion requires organizations to shift the way it's applied to business operations and understood through the organization. Companies need to move from the notion that diversity is an HR-driven program to one where inclusion and belonging is an organization-wide initiative. This is an initiative that engages all employees to build upon knowledge, awareness and skills to create a new, more inclusive, respectful corporate culture.

diversity program

Diversity and inclusion continue to change. Organizations must notice these changes in order to best understand how to attract and retain key employees, and also establish themselves as a competitive employer and business of choice. An organization that recognizes diversity and inclusion as an Organizational Development initiative tied to business goals is one that will see a noticeable improvement in employee engagement, profitability and company vision.

While human resources may take a leadership role in the inclusion efforts, operational lines of the business must also be engaged. Managers throughout the organization can help to push the initiative forward once they understand how the work helps to decrease friction, improve communication and fix the real-life challenges that they are facing every day.

This shift to an Organizational Development perspective expands the work beyond diversity to inclusion. Inclusion is about the more beneficial work of changing employee behavior. For employees it means that diversity and inclusion is not something done outside of their daily work, but is an integral part of their daily interactions with coworkers and customers. For companies, it means that diversity and inclusion initiatives can be integrated company-wide by aligning those goals with the efficiencies learned from previously successful development programs.

Continuous Education

Continuous Education

Approaching inclusion and belonging from an Organizational Development perspective also means changing how diversity learning takes place.

Companies should build upon their diversity training programs to include the idea of diversity as a continuous education environment. Whereas diversity training is often seen by employees as a short-term program or skill building exercise that is done to them, education is empowering employees to acquire knowledge and skills over the long-term and to integrate that knowledge into their daily interactions.

In addition to traditional instructor lead training, there are many educational tools that can be used on a daily basis to reinforce a culture of inclusiveness, including: manager-led team meetings on diversity topics, online training modules, themed email blasts, newsletter articles, an online diversity portal, international food in the cafeteria, international holiday calendars, etc. In combination with an Organizational Development strategy that supports an inclusive workplace, these tools empower employees to take responsibility in educating themselves about the people that they work with and the customers that they serve. With the richness offered by diversity, there will never be an end point where anyone can say that they have learned it all. Instead, employees will understand that inclusiveness requires lifelong education in understanding differences and learning to build respect across those differences. If diversity training was a push in the right direction, diversity as a continuous education becomes a pull towards a workplace that employees want to be part of.

Thoughtful and Strategic Decisions to Achieve Results

For an organization making the shift from diversity program to diversity Organizational Development initiative, thoughtful and strategic decisions must be made in order for that initiative to be successful and achieve business results. In our experience, organizations go through a seven-step process to move forward from programmatic training to Organizational Development continuous education. We have put these seven steps into a model that provides a practical framework to guide organizations through this transition.

Strategic Decisions

The seven steps of the model help to guide an organization through the different decisions, considerations, goals, resources and time frames that need to be considered when setting up diversity as a continuous learning Organizational Development initiative.

While each step of the model has additional considerations than what are listed here, this is the basic framework. The emphasis behind this model is that when you begin to run diversity as an Organizational Development initiative, there are many decisions and considerations that must be made.

While leveraging the knowledge from past Organizational Development initiatives will be helpful, here are some additional success strategies to keep in mind when creating an Organizational Development initiative for diversity and inclusion work:

  • Seek and gain senior leadership support and active engagement through-out the entire process. Have them model their own personal engagement with the initiative.
  • Ensure that the D&I work is closely aligned with organizational goals.
  • Focus on augmenting training with ongoing education. Design a comprehensive strategy that layers D&I training, learning tools, themes/topics and programs year after year to reinforce and support your diversity education.
  • Provide regular communication to employees about the diversity work, its alignment to organizational goals, and why it is important to them.
  • Allow sufficient time to implement programs. Diversity is a highly personal and emotional topic for employees. As such, it will require longer implementation than some other Organizational Development initiatives. Employees need time to integrate inclusion into their interactions and this can take longer than expected.
  • Engage and support managers in the work. Provide them with the training and resources to become advocates for diversity and inclusion within their teams. Help them to use educational tools such as manager-led team discussions to reduce friction and solve team issues.
  • Engage employees from all levels of the organization in this process to drive success and employee engagement.
  • Use diversity champions throughout the organization to gain insights into implementation challenges and success stories.

Ready to Implement Diversity & Inclusion Programs?

Sollah has workplace diversity training packages for every size organization. Let us help with your training objectives, requirements and specific training needs for online and/or facilitated training resources that improve workplace performance and behavior.

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