By Sharmla Chetty, CEO of Duke Corporate Education
Pushes for inclusivity must start from the top.
Gathering voices from a multitude of backgrounds might seem like progress, but it’s fruitless unless these voices are truly heard. Inclusivity lies in not just bringing diverse voices together but in actively encouraging and amplifying them. This is crucial in fostering equity within organisations, a journey that faced setbacks during the pandemic.
Women and black and Asian ethnic groups experienced a disproportionate impact during the pandemic, which in turn has brought diversity back into sharp focus. While having diverse teams is a good starting point, organisations need to make a sincere commitment to fostering deeper inclusion to break free from repeating historical errors.
To ensure that diversity makes a meaningful impact on both organisations and society at large, boards must go beyond mere representation. They need to actively involve and engage individuals within their teams, embracing the multitude of viewpoints, perspectives, and styles within diverse teams. Teams actively pushing for diversity and inclusivity see 35% more productivity, and a study from LinkedIn shows that 60% of survey respondents say that inclusivity within their team has contributed to their success.
Research from Gallup shows that despite 97% of HR leaders reporting that their organisation has made changes to improve DEI, many employees feel differently, with only 37% of employees strongly agreeing that their employer has made changes to improve DEI in their workplace. This signals that although some advancements are being made, there is still considerable room for improving DEI efforts to create impactful changes from the top. Inclusive leadership is the key to making diversity matter because diversity without inclusivity is detrimental to an organisation’s success.
5 Steps Closer to Inclusion
Boards should follow these five steps to ensure inclusion is embedded into the fabric of their organisation:
- Understanding Inclusion
The first step in your journey to DEI improvement is having a clear understanding of what inclusion actually means. Without that understanding, your goal will be near impossible. Build a foundation based on one cohesive definition that everyone in the organisation understands.
- Strategy Alignment
Boards must ensure that their business strategy aligns with their inclusivity goals. They should provide direction that helps drive their strategies towards inclusivity, while also ensuring they amplify inclusivity within both the boardrooms and throughout the company.
- Recruit Inclusive Leaders
Hiring individuals who exhibit inclusive characteristics is crucial to the success of reaching your inclusivity goals. These leaders build trust and create environments that foster openness and safety, allowing different perspectives to be explored advantageously.
- Measuring Inclusivity
The progress of inclusivity within your organisation should be measured. This can be done by monitoring retention and keeping track of representation levels to ensure diverse teams are having their voices amplified and involved in all parts of the business. Boards should monitor from an organisational standpoint, while leaders and managers should collect and analyse data within their departments.
- Perception
The way external stakeholders perceive the company is important. Boards should ask leaders to assess how customers, suppliers, and the public view the company, as well as ensure leaders within the company view the organisation through an inclusive lens, specifically from multiple perspectives. Boards should get opinions from external parties and help leaders continue building their inclusive brand.
Allyship
Being an ally is the most crucial piece of being inclusive. Everyone benefits from the sense of inclusion which comes from valuing uniqueness, being socially connected, and treating others fairly. Creating an inclusive environment is more difficult than creating a diverse one, so relying on only recruitment demographics isn’t enough.
Effective allyship means those with privilege can advocate for marginalised voices who are often relegated to the background. By educating themselves on their privileges, allies can recognise and address unconscious biases to ensure all voices are heard equally. It’s important to remember that allyship is about action and therefore involves a commitment to ongoing self-education and collaboration with colleagues from different backgrounds.
Boards need to be their organisation’s biggest ally. They are the ones driving inclusivity from the top and are the backbone of change throughout their organisation. Following the five steps outlined above and staying committed to improving will in turn pave the way for a more diverse and inclusive future.
