How Managers Can Sustain Diverse and Inclusive Workplaces

Building a successful company requires diversity in the workplace, particularly in terms of employee engagement. Because every team member—from management to front-line and mobile workers—brings their individual backgrounds, experiences, and viewpoints to the table, workplace diversity fosters creativity and innovation.

Today, diversity is increasingly seen as essential to creating a thriving workplace and promoting innovation, productivity and competitiveness. Maintaining a diverse and inclusive organizational culture has many positive effects and benefits that last for years. 

These include, but are not limited to, better company image, enhanced employee retention , and a workforce that produces a larger range of ideas and solutions.

Academic research and the work of recruiting and consulting firms show that organizations that have implemented diversity and inclusion (D&I) programs tend to increase their business compared to organizations that do not have such programs. 

This finding is most noticeable in cases where an organization's D&I strategy is aligned with the organization's overall business strategy.

Security leaders can maintain and greatly contribute to this alignment and the overall institutionalization of the D&I program. But to do so, security leaders must ensure that D&I practices are incorporated into their security strategies and any other programs that seek to add value to the organization.

You can significantly impact establishing and following through on a commitment to diversity and inclusion. Here are the top ways to support inclusion and diversity in your workplace.

1. Create more inclusive workplace policies

If you are moving to a more diverse organization, take a deep look at your current practices and thoroughly evaluate your workplace. Encouraging diversity in the workplace can mean creating new policies or changing existing ones throughout the system, from hiring to performance evaluation and promotion.

For example, job descriptions should be adjusted when posting job offers to reach a wider audience. For example, consider posting these job descriptions and sending recruiters to a wider range of job fairs, community recruiting offices, and outreach programs.

The following are some additional inclusive practices that promote diversity and inclusion in the workplace:

• Allowing employees time off work for religious holidays that the company may not officially observe
• On-site daycare provision
• Review your office setup to ensure inclusive facilities, such as gender-neutral restrooms
• Expanding the possibility of flexible working hours
• Using a mobile workforce app with translation functionality so that every employee can communicate in their preferred language

2. Communicate clearly and create employee-led workgroups

Creating a workplace diversity policy is not enough. Clear communication and follow-up are needed to ensure that initiatives are effective. This means that the policies in your organization should take into account the various needs of each individual.

Employees should feel comfortable coming to their managers if they have concerns, especially about their treatment at the company because of their gender, ethnicity, sexuality, age, or other factors.

Managers should be assured when communicating with staff members internally, avoid making assumptions, and use inclusive language. This is a fantastic first step for managers to take in creating polite and open internal communication channels.

Regularly solicit feedback from your diverse workforce and create dedicated diversity task forces with team members from each department to recruit and train candidates. This guarantees openness and the team's collective ownership and buy-in.

Recognizing that not everyone is comfortable speaking through traditional internal communication channels, these teams can contribute to ongoing efforts to strengthen work culture and employee engagement for all.

3. Provide meaningful opportunities for employee engagement

If your business has multiple locations, consider allowing employees to visit other locations in another city, state, or country. Ask your workforce where they like to spend their free time or volunteer with an employee survey, and organize both work-based activities and external employee engagement trips.

In addition, they can see how other locations deal with similar problems and situations in entirely different ways. For example, it can encourage your employees to learn to think outside the box and bring that mindset back to their teams.

4. Create mentorship programs

Hiring a diverse workforce is important, but mentoring programs are a key component of workplace diversity programs so that everyone has an opportunity to advance.

High-potential employees should be offered a mentor regardless of their age, race, gender, or other factors. If a company-sponsored mentoring program is not feasible for your company, there are different ways to provide similar opportunities, including:

• Support professional development opportunities by contributing to staff continuing education. The more they know, the happier and more productive their employees are.
• Connect employees to outside resource groups, such as those dedicated to young professionals and women in leadership.
• Ensure your leadership team reflects diversity by hiring and promoting diverse candidates to these roles.

CEOs, in particular, can assist their organization by participating in diversity promotion by attracting the best and most varied staff. Diversity in the workplace is prioritized through deliberate, targeted employee engagement activities, which aid in recruitment efforts. 

It improves overall satisfaction, performance, and retention, communicates your company's core values , and strengthens your brand identity and image.

5. Eliminate bias in the evaluation process and promotion opportunities

A significant corpus of research demonstrates how unfair and prejudiced hiring practices are. A large portion of it is unintentional racism, ageism, and sexism. Unchecked, it could harm your company. If we don't see male kindergarten teachers or female engineers, then, of course, we don't relate. 

Women and men in their jobs, and we apply different standards to hiring, promotion, and performance appraisals. Managers must learn to deviate from their practices and procedures.

Some strategies for combating bias include:

• Gender-neutral language and verbs that balance gendered descriptors and nouns should be used when rewriting job descriptions.
• Create a blind system for reviewing resumes so you don't see "demographics."
• Set diversity goals as an organization to help you track your progress.

Conclusion

Security scholarships and internships offer another way to promote diversity and inclusion. Under-represented groups may benefit from these chances to speak up and demonstrate their potential worth to the larger security team and its services.

Promoting diversity and inclusion in the workplace does not happen easily. You must have a concrete plan and dedicate the right resources to implement changes that affect recruiting and day-to-day team interactions.