Make room for celebrations and encouragement at work! Why should you embrace diversity in the workplace?
roundtable discussion series titled, “MBO Future of Work Roundtable March Series.” In these events, we invited some business leaders and experts to discuss some fundamental strategies for an effective workplace system. One of the topics we talked about was bringing diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) into the future of work. You may listen to the recording and view the transcript of the discussion here. Continue reading to know more about DEI in the workplace. Today’s article will also highlight what our firm is doing to bring diverse, equitable, and inclusive opportunities to thousands of business owners and independents in the US. Enjoy reading!
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Make room for celebrations and encouragement at work! Why should you embrace diversity in the workplace? Diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI). These elements are vital to creating and maintaining a happy and successful workplace. They’re founded on the principle that people of different backgrounds can thrive personally and professionally. According to an article from BuiltIn.com, an online community for startups and tech companies, DEI is an ethos that recognizes the value of diverse voices in the workplace and focuses on inclusivity and employee wellbeing as central facets of success. To bring these values to life, companies must implement programs and initiatives that make their offices more diverse, equitable, and inclusive. — On March 11, 2021, MBO Partners conducted a roundtable discussion titled, “Bringing Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion to the Future of Work.” In this event, I spoke with Kanarys, Inc. CEO Mandy Price, Pymetrics CEO Frida Polli, and MBO Partners Vice President of Talent Marketing Aassia Haq regarding the importance of DEI. I opened the discussion by saying that in 2020, our firm made a commitment we called, “Opportunity for All.” This commitment aims to increase awareness of diversity inside the independent workforce and discuss some of the challenges that business owners face when trying to grow their diversely owned firms. Mandy, Frida, and Aassia also talked about key stories of successful DEI initiatives inside large organizations. They highlighted what these elements mean for various firms as part of ongoing labor conversations. Let’s get into the highlights of the discussion one by one… Creating a Workplace where Everyone Belongs
As main speakers at the roundtable, Haq and I said that as more organizations focus on fostering a sense of belongingness in the workplace, business leaders, managers, and recruiters need to understand that individuals aren’t the only ones they have to look at. They also have to look at system-wide approaches to analyze how companies are tackling DEI-related issues to effectively create a space where everyone is welcome, feels safe, and has the chance to thrive. Meanwhile, Mandy stated that oftentimes, organizations want to do something better—they want to move towards diversity and inclusion, but they don’t know how. She mentioned that she and her team at Kanarys, Inc. often experience clients coming to them to ask if they can do unconscious bias training. [Unconscious Bias Training: This is one of the steps companies take to help employees recognize, understand, and manage hidden biases that could lead to poor decision making and undermine DEI initiatives and goals.] Here’s the thing: Mandy said this training isn’t the best way to approach DEI-related issues. She explained there are lots of research that show unconscious bias training can actually cause more harm to a firm. So… what does she and her team do? Instead of agreeing to clients’ requests, Mandy said what they try to do is help business leaders diagnose the actual issues that exist within their organizations. According to her, “Having someone come and do an off-the-shelf training is not going to lead to impact within your organization. You have to have a prescribed prescription plan that’s going to ensure success within your organization.” … and what comprises that prescription plan? Diagnosing the issues, doing a workplace equity assessment, understanding how a firm’s talent acquisition, performance management, and pay policies are working, and conducting employee assessments! According to Mandy, these steps will ensure more success for businesses than simply conducting unconscious bias trainings. Let’s now move on to another segment of the roundtable discussion… Aside from me, Aassia, and Mandy, Frida from Pymetrics also shared her thoughts about DEI in the workplace. She said all tools and automated systems used in hiring workers need to report disparate impact—policies, practices, or rules that result in a disproportionate impact on or unintentional discrimination towards a certain group of people. Why? It’s because Frida believes this is an important hiring issue and so there’s a need to address it. This will help ensure companies can properly bring DEI into their offices. According to her, automated hiring systems are becoming more prevalent today. She said businesses should maximize these technologies in the recruitment process to drive widespread changes throughout organizations. Here are a few of these hiring tools:
… and more. Frida said that while using these hiring tools on their own will not be enough to execute a DEI strategy, they can still support a company’s strategy in a number of ways, including:
These are some of the reasons why Frida mentioned during the roundtable discussion that employers and recruiters should take advantage of these automated tools. Measuring Employee Wellbeing in an Extended Workforce Another topic that I talked about in the roundtable discussion was that early on in my career, I was fortunate to meet Don Clifton, the founder of Select Research Institute, a company with MASSIVE amounts of data on human behavior. One of the pieces of advice Clifton gave me was to focus on the number one reason why employees stay at a company: Having friends and not just a high salary. According to Clifton, workers who don’t have friends in the workplace will leave. This is a basic yet significant factor in the perspective of a company’s DEI strategy. Simply said, firms must always take into account the wellbeing of their employees. They should not only give workers training on methods and policies but also make room for the celebration and encouragement of being heterogenous in the office. This is what I think about whenever I hear the words, “diversity, equity, and inclusion.” For me, inclusion is not having to be like someone else to fit in at work. It’s embracing the differences employees have and using these unique qualities to everyone’s advantage. — One of the huge factors that determine whether or not a company will successfully bring DEI into its workplace is the authenticity of a leader. As a thinker and speaker, I’m pretty much pragmatic… and for me, there are still lots of DEI-related progress that need to be made in the future of work. I personally believe great and responsible leaders encourage advancement towards more equity and inclusion in a diverse workforce. I think a DEI strategy will only be successful and authentic when leadership, management, and recruitment teams are taking action that’s actually driving transformational change. I hope you gained a lot of great business insights from our roundtable discussion in March 2021! May our pieces of advice inspire you to also provide “Opportunity for All,” welcoming workers of different backgrounds and celebrating the differences you, your colleagues, and your workers have. It’s time to bring diversity, equity, and inclusion into your own office space! For a daily version of this newsletter, please subscribe here. Follow us on LinkedIn. |
