Communicating Goals and Tracking Progress (Developing an Inclusive Workplace)

As with any organizational initiative, setting SMART goals (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound) is essential. These goals help build a compelling business case and guide corrective actions when desired outcomes are not met.

Regardless of the approach or timeline, certain critical factors, tools, and processes drive success:

• Leadership buy-in

• Executive sponsorship

• Employee resource groups (ERGs)

• Allyship

• Unconscious bias training

• Mentorship

• Psychological safety

• Use of preferred gender pronouns

These elements are explored in detail below.

Leadership Buy-In
Securing top-level commitment for DE&I initiatives requires demonstrating their strategic value in achieving core business objectives. Advocates must link the general benefits of diversity—such as broader perspectives and innovative thinking—to the organization’s specific mission and challenges. For instance, an organization facing talent shortages due to an aging workforce may leverage diversity initiatives to attract younger talent while retaining experienced staff. Similarly, organizations expanding into new markets must integrate members of target cultures into decision-making roles, making DE&I a strategic business imperative, not just a social responsibility.

This alignment of diversity and business strategies is not new. As early as the 1940s, a U.S. beverage company successfully targeted the underserved African-American market, which reshaped competition and led both market players to embed diversity into their corporate identities.

Given that most organizations reevaluate strategies every five years, DE&I must stay flexible and actively contribute to shaping new directions. Consistent alignment ensures DE&I remains integral even through changes in executive leadership.

Developing an Inclusive Workplace

Successful DE&I initiatives require comprehensive, organization-wide efforts. There are three main reasons why a strategic approach is required: priority, complexity, and resistance.

Without focusing on DE&I as a priority, DE&I efforts will always have a lower priority than more immediate concerns. Only when DE&I becomes a strategic priority does an effort to increase DE&I become a justifiable "safe" choice for a manager to make. In a competitive global market, only a strategic effort, clearly linked to core business strategies and with full organizational buy-in, will be able to commandeer the resources and commitment necessary to achieve any diversity goals-or more importantly, to enable DE&I initiatives to really help the organization achieve its business goals.

Because the complexity of the DE&I problem requires a strategic, organization-wide solution, any initiative aimed at creating a diverse, inclusive organization has a lot of moving parts to consider. In addition to the many dimensions of diversity and the associated challenges that arise from them, global organizations must account for the filter that each nation and region imposes on how diversity issues are viewed and prioritized. If diversity, equity, and inclusion are to be instituted across an entire organization, then every department, every function, every subsidiary, and every location must be involved, each with its own unique issues. It will involve many of the functions of HR. professionals and affect a diverse group of shareholders. All of these complex issues require considerable resource commitments of time, money, energy, and effort. These, in turn, require data-driven evaluations of the current baseline situation, concrete goals, and development of detailed, how-to-get-there steps.

Benefits and Characteristics of DE&I

Diversity, equity, and inclusion are three parts of the whole. Value is leveraged only by working from a definition of diversity that enables everyone- employees, management, customers, prospects, and collaborators-to feel that they are included and accepted, have a valued place in the organization, and are equally able to contribute to the fullest extent they can. This also keeps it from being "us" (the majority) and "them" (the minorities). Everyone has a perspective to offer- and their own preconceptions about others to deal with.

Given that, making the organization and the workplace more diverse and inclusive is not only the right thing to do; it is also driven by a common sense that a diverse workforce strengthens the organization. The types of perceived benefits can vary,

however:

· Improved creativity and innovation. Diverse views make for better business decisions and drive a high-performance culture. This benefit derives from having groups with multiple perspectives, life experiences, and learning and problem-solving styles. This generates more ideas, but the experience of working in a more novel group with different behaviors and norms also fosters increased openness and flexibility. As Columbia Business School Professor of Leadership and Ethics Katherine Phillips explains, the discomfort caused by diversity in and of itself helps promote innovation. Knowing that members of a group have a different background and are likely to bring a different perspective increases both the depth to which group members critically examine their own assumptions and their openness to alternative ideas.

Inclusion and Equity as a Part Diversity in workplace

 

Inclusion

Diversity addresses the question, “Who do we bring into our organization?” Inclusion, however, focuses on “How do we ensure they feel welcomed, valued, and empowered once they are here?”

According to the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM), inclusion is defined as “the extent to which each person in an organization feels welcomed, respected, supported, and valued.” An inclusive organization fosters an environment where all individuals are encouraged to contribute and are empowered to fully engage in the organization’s mission. Such organizations actively seek out, welcome, and value diverse perspectives.

True inclusiveness is achieved only when the organization creates a culture that recognizes and appreciates the unique talents, skills, and perspectives of every employee. By cultivating this environment, organizations promote collaboration, adaptability, and fairness in the workplace.

Definition of Diversity and Types

In an online article from SHRM, diversity is described as "the similarities and differences between individuals, accounting for all aspects of one's personality and individual identity." Within any given population, these aspects of personality and identity may take differing forms. This means that the application of diversity may vary from organization to organization and country to country.

Some organizations look to expand their application of diversity into new areas in a growing list of identity groups: race, religion, gender, culture, ethnic background, age, thought (which refers to the unique perspectives an individual brings), and so on. Others may change how they view the whole concept of diversity. They may move from viewing diversity defensively as a matter of legal or ethical compliance to viewing it strategically as a valuable asset that an organization can use to compete.

HR organizations responsible for workforces in different countries must be aware of differing legal standards, measures, and requirements. Many countries, for example, have laws prohibiting employment discrimination, though they may function differently, so a multinational organization must be aware of the specifics in every country in which it operates.

Three Types of Diversity

When considering diversity, it is important to consider these three types.

Legacy diversity. Generally, traits that are easily recognizable and visible, such as external physical characteristics. Culture, ethnicity/race, nationality, gender, physical attributes, age, and language are all examples of legacy diversity traits.

Experiential diversity. Diversity based on lived experiences, for example, where an employee grew up, where they went to school, and other life experiences (family, hobbies, interests). Employees with similar or shared experiences can form connections and work well together. At the same time, these bonds can result in the formation of cliques, which can have an exclusionary effect in some cases.

Thought diversity. Diversity based on different perspectives, resulting from education and socioeconomic background. Introducing thought diversity can help guard against "group think," inject new insights into decision making, and help identify prime candidates to tackle urgent problems and issues.