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02 Jul 2021
by Georgia Portwain

Want D&I in your business? Then don’t focus on reducing exclusion

Historically, diversity and inclusion (D&I) efforts have focused on mitigating legal risks and reducing exclusion. D&I policies, often drafted from a legal standpoint so organisations aren’t sued for discrimination, in practice, do little to promote inclusivity. Organisations are waking-up to this reality and are starting to do something about it. However, it’s easy to spend a lot of money on D&I efforts that continue to be unsuccessful.

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So how should D&I be approached for maximum success and what does this mean for rewards and benefits professionals?

D&I benefits

As well as diverse and inclusive workplaces that adequately reflect society being the morally right approach, organisations that possess truly inclusive cultures are also more successful. In fact, figures from our 2021 Global Culture Report show that they’re twice as likely to meet or exceed financial targets, six times’ more likely to be innovative and agile, and eight times’ more likely to achieve better business outcomes. 78% of organisations recognise these advantages and prioritise diversity to improve their cultures. However, many D&I initiatives fail to deliver on objectives and are often seen as hollow and ineffective with just 44% of employees saying that their company’s D&I efforts feel sincere.

When D&I focuses on ‘reducing exclusion’

The main failings of D&I initiatives is that they believe that inclusion is about reducing exclusion, and so the focus is on not making employees feel left out. This often leads to segmenting people into categories and approaching inclusivity in a one-dimensional manner, seldom looking at complex minority combinations. Such an approach often means that D&I is broached at key employee touchpoints such as the recruitment process, onboarding, career milestones and during learning and development programmes. Inclusive practices are simply not built into daily employee experiences. However, it’s these everyday experiences that make all the difference.

The impacts of a one-dimensional approach to D&I are significant. Our 2021 Global Culture Report reveals that disabled employees are 54% less likely to feel they belong at an organisation and are 115% more likely to suffer from severe burnout. LGBTQ+ employees are 63% less likely to feel they belong at an organisation and are 98% more likely to suffer from severe burnout. In fact, employees who identify as “different” in some way suffer greater burnout, feel a lesser sense of belonging, and experience more instances of microaggressions.

Promoting true inclusion

True inclusion must be reflected in the everyday employee experience – interactions with co-workers, one-to-ones with leaders, policies and appreciation. To achieve an inclusive culture, it’s important to rethink inclusion. Putting efforts into hiring a diverse workforce is all very well, however if that workforce then feels side-lined and can’t thrive, any D&I initiative will have failed.

To achieve real inclusion, it’s key to focus on employees’ everyday micro-experiences as this is often where discrimination and microaggressions occur.

So how can you build inclusion into the employee experience? Examine team interactions and how senior leaders behave. Is favouritism causing discrimination? Is the work environment welcoming to everyone or are there toxic cliques? Employees must feel that they have a voice and are supported equally and fairly, with opportunities for all.

Biases and any attempt at exclusions must be called-out and dealt with so that everyone recognises that it’s not an accepted part of the culture.

Leaders must also be taught how to lead through inclusion. This means promoting a modern leadership approach in which leaders connect with their people instead of gatekeep, and nurture a sense of purpose, fostering more inclusive environments.

Plus, leaders have to be held accountable, and talk about inclusion in meetings. When inclusion is treated as an intentional priority, it will become part of the culture.

All D&I efforts should be supported by appropriate technologies. AI, machine learning, natural language processing, and sentiment analysis can help with recruiting, career development, training, and engagement, helping to remove bias and discrimination from the process.

An inclusive approach to rewards and benefits

Rewards and benefits professionals must consider how employees are incentivised and rewarded fairly in a way that promotes inclusivity rather than avoids exclusion.

A recognition programme that’s open to all is a key part of this. Such a programme must encourage peer-to-peer recognition as well as leader-employee and employee-leader appreciation. Daily efforts and achievements should be recognised together with career highlights. And to make it clear why an individual deserves to be praised is vital, linking the recognition to corporate purpose and values, so that everyone is clear that favouritism/discrimination doesn’t feature.

Using a recognition system so that all recognition moments are recorded also ensures that analysis of who is receiving recognition and how often is possible should there be concerns about bias.

Making the mix work!

Diversity is all about the mix of the people in the organisation. Inclusion is ensuring the mix works well together, and it’s everyone’s responsibility to promote inclusivity, including rewards and benefits professionals. It’s only when everyone feels truly included and empowered, that D&I initiatives can be regarded as a success.

The author is Georgia Portwain, culture and engagement strategist from O.C. Tanner Europe.

This article is provided by O.C. Tanner Europe.

In partnership with O. C. Tanner

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