How to Incorporate Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion Initiatives in the Workplace

Businesses and organizations have been focusing on diversity, equity, and inclusion for a few years that can help promote and enhance better employee engagement and productivity. With the awareness of activism and social justice matters, diversity, equity and inclusion have focused on various companies. Although this is great awareness, there is still significant room for improvement.

If you are a manager or HR leader struggling on DEI topics, here are some tips and action items to help build on your existing DEI efforts and develop new ones for the first time.

Be Aware of Unconscious Bias: Understanding bias and building awareness is the first way to affect real change. With the various forms of bias, unconscious bias includes associations or feelings of bias hidden underneath the surface. Business leaders can address these issues by helping employees understand how individuals are impacted by unconscious bias and what actions continue to reinforce biases. The best practice to tackle unconscious bias has everyone review, question, analyze their personal biases and assumptions.

Develop a Strategic Training Program: Incorporating DEI information during your training session is pivotal. Diversity training helps individuals understand how cultural differences can impact how people work and interact. Employers should focus on relevant topics that align with their companies’ goals and identify challenges they face in diversity, equity, and inclusion. In addition, the organizations should invest in using external resources by partnering with a DEI consultant to create custom training sessions and programs that are function-specific for the entire company.

Mix up your Teams: Learning and understanding from employers’ different voices, experiences, values, and cultures enhance diversity. The various talents from diverse cross-sections help spark creativity and inspiration for the work-related task. Business leaders need to make sure that teams invite someone of a different gender, cultural background, or age to help weigh in on projects and assignments. These opportunities allow novel thinking, connecting thoughts in new ways, and different problem-solving approaches.

To help build on DEI programs and initiatives, check out speakers Lenora Billings-Harris and Dr. Jermaine Davis. Lenora Billings-Harris, a diversity strategist, delivers an excellent keynote speaking on making a real difference in today’s multi-cultural world by using characters from the Wizard of Oz as metaphors. Dr. Jermaine Davis, a leadership expert on influencing up, down, and across your organization, empowers his audience with keynote addresses that help employees and business leaders with organizational synergy with a little TLC (teamwork, leadership, and communication) with an inclusive lens.

Diversity, equity, and inclusion in the workplace are not required for businesses and organizations to check off their list. However, it is necessary to integrate all aspects of your working environment to establish a safe and open work culture.