5 STEPS FOR BUILDING AN INCLUSIVE WORKPLACE
Under your HR team’s leadership, your company has recruited a diverse workforce that includes a range of ages, ethnicities, religions and worldviews. Identifying and hiring people with such diverse backgrounds and characteristics is an achievement that you reflect on with pride. So now you can check off the diversity and inclusion (D&I) box on your to-do list for building a great workplace … right?
Not so fast. Diversity is only half of the D&I picture. Creating a culture where people are respected and appreciated requires another level of effort that may not be getting the investment it needs.
“We often forget the ‘I’ in the D&I conversation,” says Johnny C. Taylor, Jr., SHRM-SCP, president and chief executive officer of the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM). “The challenge is in having a culture where all employees feel included. It’s a major investment to bring talent into your organization, so why bring them in if they’re not happy when they get here? You’ve got to get the inclusion part right.”
Think of diversity as being similar to selecting people for a chorus who have different musical backgrounds, vocal ranges and abilities. The inclusion piece of D&I means making sure that those different voices are heard and valued and that they contribute to the performance.
When employees who are different from their colleagues are allowed to flourish, the company benefits from their ideas, skills and engagement, according to SHRM/Economist Intelligence Unit research. The retention rate of those workers also rises.
To that end, here are five practical strategies for creating an inclusive environment.
1. Educate Your Leaders
Your organization’s executives and managers will be instrumental to your D&I efforts. “At the end of the day, it’s the leader who’s on the front line with our employees,” says Dianne Campbell, vice president of global diversity and inclusion at American Express in Washington, D.C. “It’s the experience that the leader is creating that is going to make or break” your D&I initiatives.
This year, Amex is rolling out mandatory training for people at the vice president level and above. It will start with the basics—what inclusion is and why it is important. Small groups will discuss strategies to foster it in the company.
“We have always focused on inclusion and know this is something that’s important,” Campbell says. However, “as HR practitioners, we take for granted when we say to leaders that they need to be inclusive that they know what we mean.”
At global pharmaceutical manufacturer Merck & Co. Inc., bosses at every level undergo training in unconscious bias, which occurs when individuals make judgments about people based on gender, race or other factors without realizing they’re doing it. The training helps make people aware of this form of bias and drives home the importance of modeling inclusive behavior—such as engaging in active listening and encouraging different points of view—in meetings, performance reviews and other interactions.
The company’s global D&I team periodically evaluates its professional development offerings to ensure that managers have opportunities to learn how to better manage diverse workgroups. Members talk about how to deal with real-life scenarios that people managers face, such as supervising an employee who needs an accommodation for a disability or a worker who is a single parent with challenging child care issues.
“We look at the opportunities where people managers are making decisions about employees and integrate a D&I filter into those opportunities to ensure we are making decisions appropriately,” says Celeste R. Warren, vice president, HR and global diversity and inclusion center of excellence at the Upper Gwynedd, Pa.
Leaders at Merck are also expected to demonstrate a commitment to inclusivity and, importantly, to be responsible for the environment in their respective departments. Ongoing feedback from their own managers helps to hold them accountable, as does tying the goal to their performance evaluations.
“Leaders—especially middle managers—must be held accountable for results,” says Erin L. Thomas, a diversity researcher and a partner at Paradigm, a D&I consulting firm based in San Francisco. That means structuring meetings, allocating resources and using language that advances inclusion. “Employees need to see that inclusive behavior is a core competency.
Not so fast. Diversity is only half of the D&I picture. Creating a culture where people are respected and appreciated requires another level of effort that may not be getting the investment it needs.
“We often forget the ‘I’ in the D&I conversation,” says Johnny C. Taylor, Jr., SHRM-SCP, president and chief executive officer of the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM). “The challenge is in having a culture where all employees feel included. It’s a major investment to bring talent into your organization, so why bring them in if they’re not happy when they get here? You’ve got to get the inclusion part right.”
Think of diversity as being similar to selecting people for a chorus who have different musical backgrounds, vocal ranges and abilities. The inclusion piece of D&I means making sure that those different voices are heard and valued and that they contribute to the performance.
When employees who are different from their colleagues are allowed to flourish, the company benefits from their ideas, skills and engagement, according to SHRM/Economist Intelligence Unit research. The retention rate of those workers also rises.
To that end, here are five practical strategies for creating an inclusive environment.
1. Educate Your Leaders
Your organization’s executives and managers will be instrumental to your D&I efforts. “At the end of the day, it’s the leader who’s on the front line with our employees,” says Dianne Campbell, vice president of global diversity and inclusion at American Express in Washington, D.C. “It’s the experience that the leader is creating that is going to make or break” your D&I initiatives.
This year, Amex is rolling out mandatory training for people at the vice president level and above. It will start with the basics—what inclusion is and why it is important. Small groups will discuss strategies to foster it in the company.
“We have always focused on inclusion and know this is something that’s important,” Campbell says. However, “as HR practitioners, we take for granted when we say to leaders that they need to be inclusive that they know what we mean.”
At global pharmaceutical manufacturer Merck & Co. Inc., bosses at every level undergo training in unconscious bias, which occurs when individuals make judgments about people based on gender, race or other factors without realizing they’re doing it. The training helps make people aware of this form of bias and drives home the importance of modeling inclusive behavior—such as engaging in active listening and encouraging different points of view—in meetings, performance reviews and other interactions.
The company’s global D&I team periodically evaluates its professional development offerings to ensure that managers have opportunities to learn how to better manage diverse workgroups. Members talk about how to deal with real-life scenarios that people managers face, such as supervising an employee who needs an accommodation for a disability or a worker who is a single parent with challenging child care issues.
“We look at the opportunities where people managers are making decisions about employees and integrate a D&I filter into those opportunities to ensure we are making decisions appropriately,” says Celeste R. Warren, vice president, HR and global diversity and inclusion center of excellence at the Upper Gwynedd, Pa.
Leaders at Merck are also expected to demonstrate a commitment to inclusivity and, importantly, to be responsible for the environment in their respective departments. Ongoing feedback from their own managers helps to hold them accountable, as does tying the goal to their performance evaluations.
“Leaders—especially middle managers—must be held accountable for results,” says Erin L. Thomas, a diversity researcher and a partner at Paradigm, a D&I consulting firm based in San Francisco. That means structuring meetings, allocating resources and using language that advances inclusion. “Employees need to see that inclusive behavior is a core competency.
2. Celebrate Employee Differences
One of the most important ways to show employees that you respect their backgrounds and traditions is to invite them to share those in the workplace. For example, the HR team at Bak USA, a manufacturer of mobile computers based in Buffalo, N.Y., holds potluck parties to celebrate the 14 nationalities represented among its 100 employees. Many employees are new to the U.S., and the events are a way to showcase the foods of their home countries, says Eva Bak, vice president of people.
A meditation or prayer room. The need for a reflection space came to Bak’s attention after she started giving up her office for 15 minutes every Friday so Muslim employees could use it to pray. It wasn’t an inconvenience to her, she says, and the gesture meant so much to those individuals. Creating a permanent space, however, provided “that inclusion piece where people felt they could bring their ‘full selves’ to work,” she says.
An enhanced HR presence for more-isolated employees. The company created a small HR office to serve production team employees who work on a different floor than the HR team and who often work different hours from the rest of the organization. It’s also a place where those workers can have private conversations with their managers.
One of the most important ways to show employees that you respect their backgrounds and traditions is to invite them to share those in the workplace. For example, the HR team at Bak USA, a manufacturer of mobile computers based in Buffalo, N.Y., holds potluck parties to celebrate the 14 nationalities represented among its 100 employees. Many employees are new to the U.S., and the events are a way to showcase the foods of their home countries, says Eva Bak, vice president of people.
3. Listen to Employees
To better understand their workers’ experience, HR at American Express fields employee surveys and convenes focus groups to drill down on engagement and inclusion issues. Conduct a comprehensive assessment of your organization’s demographics and people processes to develop specific strategies to promote inclusiveness, Campbell advises.
At Bak USA, leaders conduct regular town hall-style meetings as part of their communication with staff. “[It] teaches us what people really need and what makes them feel comfortable” and included, Bak says. “Just being listened to is important to people—being able to voice your concerns in a safe place. It can be daunting sometimes, especially [for] HR, to go into those meetings because you never know what you’re going to be asked.”
The company used to hold a separate holiday party for its production team to accommodate their nontraditional work hours. However, a response to an employee survey pointed out that the practice seemed to silo that department from the rest of the organization. Although only one person expressed this concern, the HR department thought the point had merit and now holds one celebration for everyone.
4. Hold More-Effective Meetings
An employee’s daily experiences with co-workers are more telling about a workplace’s inclusiveness than anything else.
“Determine the moments of truth in the workplace where any individual can impact diversity and inclusion,” says Danny Guillory, head of global diversity and inclusion at San Rafael, Calif.-based Autodesk, a global software company. “What is most impactful is not what the CEO says, not what I say, but the experiences I have with the five or six people I work with every day. What are the key moments almost every employee touches where they can have an impact?”
Meetings are a prime example, says Guillory, who offers the following ideas for fostering an environment where contributions from everyone are encouraged:
Distribute meeting materials in advance and share questions to be discussed. This is helpful for workers for whom English is a second language and for introverted employees who function better when they are given time to process information before reacting to it.
Reach out to teleworkers. Make sure you have the right technology for virtual meeting participants to have a meaningful experience. Welcome them to the meeting, ask them questions and pause to be sure they are given the opportunity to take part in the conversation.
Rotate meeting times if you have remote workers in different time zones.Give credit where it’s due. When someone is recognized for an idea that someone else put forward earlier in the meeting, point out who shared the idea originally.Be conscious of your communication style. Don’t assume you know more than others by explaining concepts they may already understand—a behavior sometimes referred to as “mansplaining” when done by men to women.
“Cultivating inclusion is an evolving process with constantly moving targets. You’re never done,” Thomas points out. “A company’s goals and tactics must evolve along with the needs of current and potential talent.
5. Communicate Goals and Measure Progress
Establish and clearly communicate specific, measurable and time-bound goals as you would with any other strategic aim. At one organization where Thomas worked, the employer took great care to quantify engagement within its BRGs. After 11 months of “high-touch management” from Thomas’ team, BRG members reported double-digit increases across 12 measures of engagement.
One of the most important ways to show employees that you respect their backgrounds and traditions is to invite them to share those in the workplace. For example, the HR team at Bak USA, a manufacturer of mobile computers based in Buffalo, N.Y., holds potluck parties to celebrate the 14 nationalities represented among its 100 employees. Many employees are new to the U.S., and the events are a way to showcase the foods of their home countries, says Eva Bak, vice president of people.
A meditation or prayer room. The need for a reflection space came to Bak’s attention after she started giving up her office for 15 minutes every Friday so Muslim employees could use it to pray. It wasn’t an inconvenience to her, she says, and the gesture meant so much to those individuals. Creating a permanent space, however, provided “that inclusion piece where people felt they could bring their ‘full selves’ to work,” she says.
An enhanced HR presence for more-isolated employees. The company created a small HR office to serve production team employees who work on a different floor than the HR team and who often work different hours from the rest of the organization. It’s also a place where those workers can have private conversations with their managers.
One of the most important ways to show employees that you respect their backgrounds and traditions is to invite them to share those in the workplace. For example, the HR team at Bak USA, a manufacturer of mobile computers based in Buffalo, N.Y., holds potluck parties to celebrate the 14 nationalities represented among its 100 employees. Many employees are new to the U.S., and the events are a way to showcase the foods of their home countries, says Eva Bak, vice president of people.
3. Listen to Employees
To better understand their workers’ experience, HR at American Express fields employee surveys and convenes focus groups to drill down on engagement and inclusion issues. Conduct a comprehensive assessment of your organization’s demographics and people processes to develop specific strategies to promote inclusiveness, Campbell advises.
At Bak USA, leaders conduct regular town hall-style meetings as part of their communication with staff. “[It] teaches us what people really need and what makes them feel comfortable” and included, Bak says. “Just being listened to is important to people—being able to voice your concerns in a safe place. It can be daunting sometimes, especially [for] HR, to go into those meetings because you never know what you’re going to be asked.”
The company used to hold a separate holiday party for its production team to accommodate their nontraditional work hours. However, a response to an employee survey pointed out that the practice seemed to silo that department from the rest of the organization. Although only one person expressed this concern, the HR department thought the point had merit and now holds one celebration for everyone.
4. Hold More-Effective Meetings
An employee’s daily experiences with co-workers are more telling about a workplace’s inclusiveness than anything else.
“Determine the moments of truth in the workplace where any individual can impact diversity and inclusion,” says Danny Guillory, head of global diversity and inclusion at San Rafael, Calif.-based Autodesk, a global software company. “What is most impactful is not what the CEO says, not what I say, but the experiences I have with the five or six people I work with every day. What are the key moments almost every employee touches where they can have an impact?”
Meetings are a prime example, says Guillory, who offers the following ideas for fostering an environment where contributions from everyone are encouraged:
Distribute meeting materials in advance and share questions to be discussed. This is helpful for workers for whom English is a second language and for introverted employees who function better when they are given time to process information before reacting to it.
Reach out to teleworkers. Make sure you have the right technology for virtual meeting participants to have a meaningful experience. Welcome them to the meeting, ask them questions and pause to be sure they are given the opportunity to take part in the conversation.
Rotate meeting times if you have remote workers in different time zones.Give credit where it’s due. When someone is recognized for an idea that someone else put forward earlier in the meeting, point out who shared the idea originally.Be conscious of your communication style. Don’t assume you know more than others by explaining concepts they may already understand—a behavior sometimes referred to as “mansplaining” when done by men to women.
“Cultivating inclusion is an evolving process with constantly moving targets. You’re never done,” Thomas points out. “A company’s goals and tactics must evolve along with the needs of current and potential talent.
5. Communicate Goals and Measure Progress
Establish and clearly communicate specific, measurable and time-bound goals as you would with any other strategic aim. At one organization where Thomas worked, the employer took great care to quantify engagement within its BRGs. After 11 months of “high-touch management” from Thomas’ team, BRG members reported double-digit increases across 12 measures of engagement.
Source: SHRM.org
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