Which of the following steps comes first when attempting to establish a diversity and inclusion program?

Workplace diversity is crucial for innovation and creativity within organizations. Having employees from various backgrounds brings different perspectives and ideas into everyday business.

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“Research shows that even just the presence of physical diversity results in better performance and for companies that are data-driven, that extra performance boost can be extremely motivating”, says Clark Sabrina Clark, associate principal at SYPartners. “It’s also the fact that companies that lack diversity are being called out publicly and may even be losing business, not to mention falling behind when it comes to recruiting. Even Google is starting to show signs that their lack of diversity is affecting them”, says Clark (CIO).

Improve company’s reputation

Companies that promote diversity in the workplace are seen as more human and socially responsible organizations.

In addition, supporting diversity and inclusion is proof of the employer’s morale, fairness and empathy. These employer’s characteristics are often very attractive to Millenials and younger generations.

Make better business decisions

Besides implementing a flatter hierarchy and agile organizational culture, diversity is one of the crucial factors for better business decision-making.

Attract high-quality candidates

According to Deloitte, 67% of job seekers use diversity as an important factor when considering companies and job offers.

Diverse workplace often means more knowledge on different business areas. Therefore, employers that support the culture of diversity are more likely to excel in knowledge-sharing practices within their companies.

Improve employee engagement

Workplace diversity boosts employee engagement.

Deloitte conducted research that captured the views and experiences of 1,550 employees in three Australian corporations operating in manufacturing, retail and healthcare. This research showed that engagement is an outcome of diversity and inclusion.

Decrease employee turnover

Companies with a diverse workforce are generally have lower turnover rates.

Diversity and inclusion in the workplace cause all employees to feel accepted and valued. As the result, employees feel more satisfied and they stay longer with their companies.

Increase employee empowerment

According to Salesforce research on diversity, employees who feel their voice is heard at work are nearly five-times (4.6X) more likely to feel empowered to perform their best work.

📚 Read on: Empowerment in the Workplace: Definition & Best Practices

Increase employee loyalty

The same research states that employees who say their company provides equal opportunities are nearly four times (3.8X) more likely to say they are proud to work for their company.

And you know the trick: when your employees are proud to work for your company, they are more willing to stay, to give their very best, and they naturally advocate for your brand. In short, making diversity and inclusion one of your top priorities is a win-win situation.

Key Stats on Diversity and Inclusion You Can’t Ignore

Diverse companies enjoy 2.3 times higher cash flow per employee (BuiltIn)
Diverse management boosts revenue by 19% (Boston Consulting Group)
Teams that are gender, age and ethnically diverse make better decisions up to 87% of the time (Global Diversity Practice)
However, 41% of managers say they are too busy to prioritize diversity in the workplace (BuiltIn)
What’s more, only 55% of employees agree that their organization has policies that promote diversity and inclusion (Sapling)
Deloitte found that 74% of Millennials believe their organization is more innovative when it has a culture of inclusion (World Economic Forum)
57% of employees think their company should be doing more to increase diversity among its workforce (Glassdoor)
50% of organizations where diversity is not seen as a barrier to progression have leaders trained on managing diverse populations (PwC)
82% of business leaders whose organizations have a global footprint agree or strongly agree that employees demonstrate a commitment to inclusion – compared to 67% of local companies (PwC)
Gender-diverse companies are 15% more likely to outperform their peers and ethnically-diverse companies are 35% more likely to do the same (McKinsey & Company)
Inclusive teams outperform their peers by 80% in team-based assessments (Deloitte)
For every 10% increase in gender diversity among senior executive teams in the United Kingdom, companies earn 3.5% more in earnings before interest and taxes (BuiltIn)
The 2019 diversity statistics predict that by 2044, the current “minority” groups will reach a “majority” group status (What to Become)
A McKinsey & Company research shows that only 23% of C-suites are made up of women (McKinsey & Company)
Only 3.2% of Fortune 500 companies share diversity data in an open and transparent way (Yahoo! Finance)
67% of active and passive job seekers said that a diverse workforce is an important factor when evaluating companies and job offers (Glassdoor)
The World Economic Forum Global Gender Gap Report shows that the gender pay gap would close in 108 years (World Economic Forum)
40% of people think there’s a double-standard against hiring women (ClearCompany)
Research shows that blind applications lead to 5x more women (ClearCompany)

10 Diversity and Inclusion Best Practices

Even though many businesses are trying to create and manage diverse workplaces, many are not aware of some of the best practices to follow.

Here are some of the must-follow diversity and inclusion best practices.

1. Establish a sense of belonging

Establishing a sense of belonging is crucial for employees to bring the best out of them.

Having a sense of belonging is one of the most important psychological needs that need to be met for employees to feel connected with their employers and organizations.

Bringing diversity and inclusion initiatives into a workplace can be a challenging task. Where do you start? How do you determine what type of initiative is needed? And then, how do you run the program?

We’ve created this quick start guide to give you a clear idea of how to get started with building a diversity and inclusion plan. We’ll outline what should be in a D&I plan and include a concrete list of tactics to support it.

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What is a diversity and inclusion plan?

A diversity and inclusion plan is an ongoing process that aims to meet your workforce’s diverse needs and increase their engagement. You can integrate diversity, equity, and inclusion into different aspects of your company, such as:

Policy development
Recruitment, internship, and returnship programs
Training and mentoring programs
Company culture
Company communications
Career development, and so on.

A well-developed diversity and inclusion strategy will increase employee engagement and success. And when your employees are included and are supported, your company will thrive.

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What should be in a diversity and inclusion plan?

A substantial D&I program will make an impact. It will help you create a workforce that reflects a diversity of thoughts, backgrounds, and experiences. And to foster this environment, your diversity and inclusion plan should tie back to business goals, have concrete initiatives (such as mentorship programs or training), and include ways to measure success.

So, you will need to consider your company’s demographics and what they need to succeed. You can understand what business goals and outcomes you should aim for and what you want to improve in your organization.

Once you have clear goals in mind, decide on the initiatives that will help you reach your goals. You may consider DEI training, mentorship programs, employee resource groups, and so on. As you launch these initiatives, remember to measure how these programs perform and how they tie back to your business goals. This data will secure further buy-in from leadership, which will allow you to expand your strategy.

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Steps to building a diversity and inclusion action plan

Let’s take a look at how your business can build a successful diversity and inclusion plan. Here are some key aspects to keep in mind:

Take a look at the current demographics of your company

First, you want to capture data on employee demographics. It is important to understand what your workforce looks like when compared to the labour market. Paying attention to your company’s employee demographic will also help you identify any areas of concern.

Traditionally, this data has included federal and state-protected categories such as age, gender, ethnicity, and so on. Recently, however, organizations implementing D&I initiatives also consider personality type, goals and skills, and thinking and learning styles. When you collect this data, you can create compatible groups or pairs within your program.

When collecting demographic data, look for:

Age
Gender identity or expression
Ethnicity or national origin
Race
Family status
Language
Disability
Organization function and level
Personality type
Physical characteristics
Religion, belief, and spirituality
Sexual orientation
Thinking/learning styles
Veteran status

There are a few different ways to collect this data. Your organization may already have this information available in your HRIS system or captured during the onboarding process.

Otherwise, you may need to survey your employees through voluntary self-identification to obtain necessary information. Alternatively, you can inform employees that leadership plans to run employee engagement and mentorship programs, and this information will help decide the course of the program. As for personality types and thinking/learning styles, you may conduct personality testing for the entire workforce.

What business outcomes will your strategy improve?

So, what are the goals of your diversity and inclusion plan, and how will you achieve these goals?

Once you’ve captured the necessary information and identified gaps and areas of concern, you can set diversity and inclusion goals. These performance goals should aim to build a diverse workforce. And having clarity on how this program contributes to overall business goals will secure more buy-in from leadership.

Look carefully at the data you’ve collected. Are there any underrepresented or problematic areas? Do you need to bring more diversity in management? How can you support employees whose second language is English? Is your organization hiring moms returning to the workforce?

You may even provide employees an opportunity to provide feedback via surveys focused on company culture. This way, you can understand how employees view culture, and if attitudes match, you have a clear path of what needs changing.

If the data collected shows little to no diversity, it may mean that individuals do not want to disclose personal information. This could be due to a variety of reasons, including distrust in the organization or fear of harassment. In this case, you may need to collect data anonymously, where employees don’t need to name or identify themselves.

With this data, you can decide the course of action and recommend programs or activities to bridge gaps. It is also crucial to communicate these goals to your employees. Help them understand how these programs will develop their skills and foster a sense of belonging within the organization.

Consider initiatives to include in your plan

Next, think about the initiatives you want to include in your diversity and inclusion plan. You may choose to run 1-2 different programs, depending on your goals.

Here are a few examples of possible initiatives you may include:

1. A diversity and inclusion mentoring program

Diversity and inclusion mentorship programs give diverse and minority employees a chance to rise above the ranks. Whether through group or 1-on-1 mentoring, mentors train mentees to help them learn the ropes and gain essential skills. They work closely to ensure mentees grow closer to their career goals, whether that be a promotion or learning a new skill.

2. Employee resource groups

Another initiative rooted in advocacy and employee support is employee resource groups (ERGs). These groups focus directly on assisting employees in continued career growth.

You may run ERGs for specific categories, such as working moms or LGBTQ+. Those participating in these groups will gain access to a community of like-minded individuals and join in the collective effort to succeed in this workspace. This will reduce feelings of loneliness, alienation, and discomfort.

3. Diversity and inclusion training

DEI training, while crucial, can lead to division within an organization. However, there are a few ways to pursue it without causing much friction. You may consider reverse mentoring, group mentoring, sponsorship, and ERGs so that employees can better connect with and support each other.

4. Fireside conversations about diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging topics

Finally, and this may need to come from leadership, create a safe space where talking about DEI topics is acceptable. Depending on the size of your organization, you may run fireside chats or company lunches to check in with one another.

Launch your initiatives

Collecting and sorting through data and then choosing the right initiatives for your diversity and inclusion plan may take a while. But once the course is decided, take time to determine how you will run the program.

In other words, what do you need to do for this program to be successful?

Assign responsibilities

Assign responsibilities to the right personnel and provide the necessary training material and resources. Establish a workable timeline and be flexible.

Plan how you will track performance

The first run of any program may need some tweaking and adjustments. So, as you launch, remember to record progress from the very beginning and plan for how you will measure results and success.

How will you launch it?

Then think about execution — how exactly will you run this program, and how can people join it? You may choose to run it manually by reaching out to employees individually and asking them to join the program. Alternatively, you can include it as part of the onboarding process.

Then plan out exercises and activities that groups can use to guide their sessions. Explain how this group and these tasks work towards the organization’s goals

While you and your team can manage the program manually, investing in a diversity and inclusion mentoring or training software may help automate these processes.

Now let’s look at how to measure the progress and success rate of your program. During the planning stage, you should have considered certain quality and diversity metrics, milestones, and goals that would determine your program is progressing well. Some examples include:

Increased representation in leadership
Number of members participating in the program
Diverse employee promotion rates
Hiring targets reached
Employee feedback, etc.

You may calculate this on your own or use a mentoring software with reporting capabilities. For instance, Together’s mentoring platform provides various reports, including registration data, session reporting, skills and goal development, mentor-mentee feedback, and so on.

Then, disseminate these results through presentations, briefs, emails, and other channels to leadership, so they know your D&I plan works. These results will move them to continue supporting your initiatives.

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Iterate and continue expanding your diversity and inclusion strategy

After establishing and successfully launching your program, you will have the opportunity to expand it. Look at feedback, consider gaps, learn from errors, and improve your diversity and inclusion plan. Then, take your plan and expand it to include more employees and departments.

Having a diverse workforce that feels included and heard is important, and so is equity and fostering feelings of belonging in the workplace. When employees feel welcomed and clearly see opportunities for growth and success, they will stay with your organization longer and this sense of loyalty will help your business grow.

Learn more about cultivating an employee-friendly workspace on our blog on best practices for diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging.