What is Diversity & Inclusion
Diversity and inclusion in the workplace creates an environment where all people can feel accepted and valued. When people feel accepted and valued, they are happier in their work and more engaged with the company. As a result, companies that create a culture of diversity and inclusion tend to have a more productive workforce and lower turnover.
Bringing people in who have unique experiences, diverse backgrounds, and individual differences creates a dynamic and innovative workplace. However, companies should assess if their environment and culture is respecting and appreciating those differences.
- Diversity refers to the characteristics that make people unique
- Inclusion refers to the behaviors and cultural norms that make people feel welcome
- Belonging refers to an individual sense of acceptance
Diversity, inclusion and belonging can be assessed as the extent to which employees are valued, respected, accepted and encouraged to fully participate in the company. In addition to looking at employee demographics to uncover what makes a culture inclusive, companies can measure whether people truly feel like they belong. And when belonging is intentionally fostered in the workplace, employees feel accepted and connected with each other around a shared sense of purpose.
How to Measure Diversity & Inclusion
As the father of modern management Peter Drucker said, “we can’t change what we don’t measure”. Companies can use employee feedback surveys to measure and support their diversity and inclusion initiatives by using this simplified approach:- Assess: Identify why diversity and inclusion is important to your company’s success.
- Listen: Ask employees to share their perceptions through a confidential survey to understand experiences across different employee populations.
- Understand: Seek to understand what’s working and not working based on employee feedback and identify what you need to do to improve.
- Act: Share feedback across levels and identify action items. Coach leaders on how to be more inclusive in their practices.
- Be Accountable: Hold leaders accountable to following through on initiatives. Check-in with people and ask for feedback regularly, measure progress, recognize and repeat.
People Element measures diversity and inclusion as a stand-alone pulse or integrated with an existing survey such as Engagement. This enables companies to measure employee perceptions and sentiment across demographics as well as identify groups at risk of leaving due to not feeling a sense of belonging.
Key areas to measure when assessing diversity and inclusion:
- Sense of belonging
- Feeling of value and respect
- Fair treatment
- Openness to ideas and opinions
- Workplace advocacy
Diversity and inclusion initiatives can feel daunting and too large in scope to act on. People Element simplifies the process to encourage leaders to take individual responsibility and recognize what they can do to help others feel included. When leaders set an example with inclusive behaviors, this inspires change, one individual at a time, multiplying across an
organization.