How to Foster Inclusion in the Workplace

Statistics show that more diverse workplaces have higher productivity and greater creativity. So, to help improve your business productivity, read this guide for greater cultural inclusion in the workplace.

Securing an inclusive workplace

If you take active and positive steps to prevent discrimination occurring in your workplace, then you can experience real benefits in productivity. Diversity in the workplace can provide:

• Increasing retention and lowering employee turnover.
• Reducing recruitment.
• Greater innovation.
• Greater employee engagement leading to higher discretionary effort from employees.
• Increased staff loyalty.
• Higher staff morale.

You can review your entire workplace practices, from start to end, to review whether you can amend these for greater inclusivity.

Progressive recruitment strategies

How you advertise your latest vacancies, and the interviews you hold with applicants, will have a significant impact on workplace diversity. After all, if advertising is limited to a certain group of individuals, these are the only people who will apply for the job role.

To ensure jobs are advertised to a diverse range of people, have at least two different approaches, such as online and in local newspapers. Also, the wording of the advert should remain inclusive and not exclude certain applicants.

The interview process should also avoid any questions which imply that the workplace is not inclusive. For example, asking females whether they have family plans not only carries a high risk of discrimination, but also raises the question of whether the business has diversity and inclusion at work.

Diversity and inclusion policy

As well as reviewing business practices to ensure these are inclusive, you can have diversity and inclusion in the workplace activities to create a positive workplace culture. This can include:

• Providing diversity and inclusivity training for all members of staff.
• Embracing awareness initiatives such as Time to Change and the Inclusive Behaviour Pledge.
• Introduce returner schemes to encourage those who have had a career break to return to work
• Highlight family-friendly policies within the workplace, especially shared parental leave.
• Monitor the diversity of staff, in line with data protection obligations, to assess how inclusive the workplace is.

You can also introduce an action plan which sets out how the business will implement equality, diversity and inclusivity policies. This can include a schedule for matters such as training and reviews of internal procedures. All of which should help improve diversity initiatives in the workplace.

Diversity management

The culture of a business is heavily influenced by the support from senior management. As such, they should lead from the front with regards to supporting diversity and inclusion best practices.

Workplace diversity initiatives need to receive encouragement from seniors, and they should support the ongoing commitment from others within the workplace.

Additionally, as managers make the important decisions they will have the biggest effect on whether a workplace is diverse or not. Decision-makers should receive training on inclusivity at work and can also receive training on how to tackle unconscious bias at work.

This is where, without deliberate intent, a decision maker is influenced by their expectations, experience or assumptions about an individual.

This can have a serious and negative impact on diversity at work, so decision-makers need guidance on how to focus on objective factors which are necessary to the decision.

Improve your business diversity

We can help with your diversity and inclusion business strategy. Get in touch today and we’ll help you improve your cultural diversity in the workplace: 0800 028 2420.