Inclusion Can Be The Game Changer For Your Brand If Handled Wisely
How important inclusion is?
As soon as you land a new job, you get super excited, thrilled, and your joy knows no bounds. You throw parties, put social media posts declaring your new role in that renowned company, and then, a sudden feeling of agitation engulfs you. You wonder if you will be able to cope with the prevailing work culture of the organization. That’s exactly what inclusion is all about.
Inclusion in the workplace is crucial for any brand striving to create a strong sense of connection and an engaging work culture. With the strike of the pandemic, workplaces have started to focus more on their Diversity Equity Inclusion policies than the earlier days. According to a Gartner study, the number of human resource leaders acknowledging DEI factors as a top priority rose almost 1.8 times around 2020 than in 2019. Gartner research further points to an estimated 800% rise in job postings for dedicated diversity recruiters.
The fuss about inclusion
“The Value of Belonging at Work,” a research by BetterUp, analyzed the measurable worth of belonging at work. The study surveyed 1,789 full-time employees from a wide range of backgrounds, and concluded that a strong sense of belonging reflects a 56 percent surge in job performances and a 50 percent drop in risks associated with turnovers. The data also revealed that job holders, who feel like an important part of their organizations are 167 percent more inclined to recommend their employer to their acquaintances, as a great workplace.
How to include?
A recent Deloitte study states that 80% of the job holders see inclusion as a significant factor for choosing an employer. So far, we have known what inclusion means, but we are yet not clear how to attain inclusion.
Let’s go through the possible tactics, a manager or a leader can implement.
A company’s managers are formidable in encouraging an inclusive workplace framework. A manager mostly stays on the frontline and acts as a connection between the core management and the employees. So, the first step could be educating the employees on the ways to deal with a diverse workforce. Since managers are close to their employees, it would be easier for them to schedule a diversity workshop or a cultural training, with the objective of ending unconscious biases by imparting training to the employees on the importance of everyone’s inclusion.
The second step could be, revisiting the company’s core values more often, especially during the moments of major transformations such as the pandemic. If the organization’s core values don’t already encompass a policy on inclusive culture, take necessary measures to take it from leadership to draft an update and apply it. The leaders can always seek out employee feedback and suggestions if their human resource staff collectively aren’t very diverse. The perspectives derived from the employees might assist in filling a blank the manager has missed out on.
What else can be done? Well, in this technology driven era, you should not be ripping your hair off looking for ways to imbibe inclusion in your workplace. Honestly, technology can handle it way better. However, only a handful of organizations use technology to drive inclusion, either through their Human Capital Management technology suite or as a point solution. The right kind of technology can offer you with a wide variety of learning opportunities, ranging from eLearning and events, to linking employees to ERGs and projects. Appply Studio has gracefully embarked on the mission of easing out the leader’s lives by planning to develop a well equipped software that will help the managers in tracking inclusion within cross-functional projects and teams. Additionally, the software will also help the organizations with predictive analytics along with the adverse impact analysis.
Nevertheless..
The feeling of being included automatically boosts the performance of your employees. It’s a human tendency after all and thus, the leaders must leverage it skillfully as a tool to improve the overall performance of their organizations. Include and see the difference!