Is your organisation truly an inclusive workplace – or are you risking levels of engagement, even losing talent?
Inclusivity helps everyone to feel more welcome and happier in the workplace – it also helps create better productivity. Yet people often say they don’t feel included because they feel that they don’t belong or that their employer didn’t understand them or their needs.
In this article we look at why inclusion is good for business, gain insight into reasons why people feel excluded and offer tips on how to build an inclusive workplace that helps to give people a sense of belonging.
Why is inclusion good for business?
Inclusion is all about building a culture that ensures the workplace accepts every individual, making them feel respected and valued within the workspace, allowing them to bring their whole selves to work.
Why is it good for business?
- When your people feel valued and included, they are more likely to flourish within the workplace, including producing a higher standard of work.
- An organisation needs to have a diverse base of people to attract those of different race, age, gender and sexual orientation.
- At the moment there are a growing number of older people who want to return to work. This demographic can be a highly productive, reliable and experienced employee group but they need to feel welcome and that they belong as much as younger workers. Many organisations have some way to go in appealing to older workers, starting with the way they recruit.
Who feels excluded?
There are many people who feel they don’t belong or get excluded in the workplace for being different whether it be for age, gender, sexual orientation, religion or race.
Although companies believe that they are inclusive or want to be, many people aren’t comfortable and don’t actually feel included at their workplace. For example, The independent confident and connected report by Scope found that 41% of disabled people don’t feel valued by society and struggle to obtain and keep jobs.
The CIPD UK working lives survey found that 22% of employers feel that team members would judge others for being different. This demonstrates that even though people wish for diversity in the workplace, there is still a requirement for a change in attitude and perception if we are really going to make a difference.
Where do companies get it wrong?
Here are just some of the ways that a company may fail to achieve a fully inclusive environment, such as:
- Making assumptions before checking the facts about people’s behaviour, for example when someone is late to work.
- Not treating people equally and perhaps showing favouritism.
- Unfiltered comments and jokes based on other people’s differences.
- Excluding people or ignoring them.
- Being a bystander to other people’s issues or specific incidents.
Tips to build a more inclusive workplace culture:
Some ways to improve your workplace and make your organisation more inclusive for everyone are:
- Training your managers on inclusivity and holding them accountable.
- Providing workers with a safe place to voice their concerns.
- Valuing people’s differences and helping to create an environment where employees are genuinely comfortable to be themselves at work.
- Identifying the needs of each group and giving them the necessary support and resources.
- Making sure that all team members understand what inclusivity is; that it is about ensuring everyone is heard and valued by the team.
In conclusion
With society constantly changing and becoming more diverse, adopting a workplace culture where everyone feel they can be themselves at work is a business advantage. It helps to increase productivity whilst also keeping people feel included, needed and valued. Are you and your company being the most inclusive you can?
Further reading:
https://cordel.247developments.com/blog/why-is-creating-inclusive-workplaces-such-an-effort/
