What is diversity & inclusion?

We all deserve the opportunity to develop our skills and talents to our full potential, work in a safe, supportive and inclusive environment, be fairly rewarded and recognized for our work and have a meaningful voice on matters that affect us.

Diversity means that each individual is exclusive in terms of unique traits and characteristics. It includes many factors like age, gender, race, socio-economic status, geographic factors, ethnicity, physical abilities/disabilities, religious & political beliefs and other ideologies but valuing everyone as an individual makes a productive environment in which everybody feels valued, their talents are fully utilized and organizational and personal goals are met.

Whereas “Inclusion” is a distinct idea from diversity. SHRM defines inclusion as “the achievement of a work environment in which all individuals are treated fairly and respectfully, have equal access to opportunities and resources and can contribute fully to the organization's success.

What is Diversity in the Workplace?

Diversity in the workplace means that an organization employs a diverse team of people. Diversity identifies individual differences in terms of categories mentioned above. In a simple language, diversity means traits and characteristics of an individual and inclusion means conduct and standards that define acceptance of everyone and making them feel valued. Such diverse culture will make employees more engaged to the organization.

It is a strategic function. It is HR role to implant diversity, equality and inclusion at workplace in form of policies, practices, HR programs, core activities and procedures. Diversity is about knowing difference and acknowledging the benefit of having a variety of perspectives in decision-making and the workforce being representative of the organization’s culture.

Inclusion is where people’s differences are valued and used to enable everyone to thrive at work. An inclusive working environment is one in which everyone feels that they belong and their contribution matters and they are able to perform to their full potential, no matter their background, identity or circumstances. An inclusive workplace has fair policies and practices in place and enables a diverse range of people to work together effectively.

Companies with a diverse workforce and inclusive workplace leave behind its competitors and achieve greater profits.

Below are the advantages:

• Variety of different perspectives and opinions
• Increase in creativity and innovation
• Better decision making
• Higher employee engagement
• Reduced attrition
• Improved employer brand
• Increase in productivity and efficiency

This principle is not just for one stage but it should be inherent in all the stages like talent acquisition, talent development, engagement and retention, it means that it is part of employee life cycle. Having diverse workforce does not mean that we are able to achieve our goal, inclusion (the action of including or being included) plays an important role in achieving the cultural goals.

Leadership team plays a vital role in imbibing culture of diversity & inclusion. If leaders, manager and C-level employees follow the principles in all the practices than inclusion will help to retain employees as well. Managers and leaders should build an environment which values all people. Research has shown that combination of these 2 principles help in obtaining organization goals and achieving successful results. Businesses should examine their own people management practices and diversity data to understand where barriers lie, taking action accordingly.

Below few are examples of Discriminations at workplace:

• Age
• Disability (physical & mental)
• Gender identity (Fair opportunity for women)
• Race
• Sexual orientation
• Ethnicity

Important points to take in consideration:

• Ensure that initiatives and policies have the support of the senior management and leadership team
• Remember that managing diversity and developing a culture of inclusion is a continuous process of improvement, not a one-off initiative.
• provide training for line managers to help them respond appropriately to diversity needs, as they are vital change champions, but give them scope for flexible decision-making.
• Coach all employees to understand and engage with inclusion in how they do their jobs and work with colleagues.
• Reflect respect and dignity for all in the organization’s values and ensure these are reflected in the way the organization and its employees operate on a daily basis.
• Make clear that everyone has a personal responsibility to uphold the standards.
• Focus on fairness, inclusion and transparency, ensuring that merit, competence and potential are the basis for all decisions about recruitment and development opportunities.
• Develop an open culture with good communication channels based on open dialogue and open door policy.
• Ensure appropriate channels for employee voice and that different groups feel able to access them.
• Use different and accessible methods such as newsletters, in-house magazines, notice boards and intranets to keep people up to date with diversity policies and practices.
• Actively seek people’s ideas and suggestions to take action on feedback.
• Build diversity and inclusion ideas and practices into employee training courses, management training and teambuilding programs to increase awareness of the need to handle different views, perceptions and ideas in positive ways.
• To assess the performance of implementation regularly audit, review and evaluate progress, using quantitative and qualitative data on both diversity and inclusion, to best bit where barriers exist (for example, via recruitment data) and show the impact of initiatives, making appropriate changes to activities if needed.
• Use employee surveys to evaluate initiatives, to find out if policies are working for everyone, and to provide a platform for improvement.
• Include diversity and inclusion intentions in job descriptions and appraisals and reward achievement.
• Benchmark progress against other organizations and explore what others are doing to adopt and adapt ideas where appropriate.