Diversity and inclusion are the keys to creating a truly
modern team that’s built to maximize each individual’s skills, shore up
individual weaknesses, and build a powerful unit that can thrive, brainstorm,
problem-solve, and celebrate achievements together. With that said, getting
diversity and inclusion right is such an important responsibility that many HR
and business leaders continue to hire for cultural fit, leaving a coordinated,
purposeful D&I initiative for another day.
In order for businesses to succeed and innovate into the 2020s, that kind of thinking needs to stop. Each and every employer should be doing something at scale to encourage diversity and foster inclusion. The businesses that do not will soon stand to miss out on some of the world’s best talent and leave themselves exposed to costly lawsuits.In order to demystify the complexity of D&I and connect business and HR leaders with actionable strategies, Launchways recently held a free one-hour webinar, “Everything You Wanted to Know About Workplace Diversity & Inclusion but Were Afraid to Ask.”
The webinar featured an all-star panel of four of the
Midwest’s leading experts on diversity and inclusion, each of whom provided
crucial considerations and actionable strategies for businesses of any size or
growth stage looking to improve their commitment to diversity and inclusion.
Rebekah Wolford of Paylocity began the conversation
by articulating the importance of diversity and inclusion as prized values
baked into the core of what your organization does and represents. She
explained how D&I initiatives all about building the “We” that’s going to
maximize company potential and customer experience.
Rebekah also provided a valuable real-world case study for
D&I success by walking through how she and her team planned, initiated, and
built an impactful diversity and inclusion program at Paylocity. She discussed…
How to use surveys and HCM data to build an
understanding of the current state of D&I at your organization
Which data points should be most important to
your D&I planning and assessment
How to create a comfortable space in which
employees and leadership can challenge each other
How to be sure you’re practicing inclusive
behaviors and creating a strong culture
How to use employee resource groups (ERGs) as an
on-going part of a D&I strategy
How to create and provide meaningful D&I
training for your team
Rada Yovovich of The Darkest Horseshared
some of her wisdom as an expert diversity and inclusion consultant, expanding
on the vital importance of strong company culture and discussing how businesses
can work towards getting there from any starting point.
Rada stressed that the workplace is an unintentional “bias
factory,” which presents an unwelcoming or additionally challenging situation
for diverse talent. She specifically discussed how organizations can work to
identify and eliminate bias in their job postings, hiring interactions, and
performance management evaluations. She also explained…
How to build buy-in for your D&I program by
making it authentic to, designed for, and reflective of your organization’s
existing culture
How to use employee engagement to drive forward
the culture and team you aspire to
How to recognize, address, and eliminate the
unconscious bias that works against diversity and inclusion
How to provide non-judgmental employee
assessments by staying grounded in functional competencies
How to create a documentation trail that protects
your business in compliance scenarios
Dr. Renee McLaughlin of Cignadrew upon her years of
experience as an LGBTQ+ inclusion and healthcare professional to emphasize the
importance of proactive planning in corporate D&I. Whether it’s an
early-stage organization devising a plan for maintaining their strong culture
if a merger or buyout occurs or choosing which healthcare offerings will
ideally support your team, the best answer is to have a clear, powerful plan in
place.
Renee also provided tremendous insight into the necessity of
transition resources for professionals in any workplace. That means having a
policy-backed transition plan, proactively working to ensure the safety of
trans professionals, and providing healthcare offerings that provide trans team
members with the best opportunity to be their authentic selves at work. She
specifically discussed…
Why
diversity and inclusion are especially relevant for early-stage businesses
How
to work toward combining cultures in a positive, authentic way during a
business merger scenario
How
early stage companies can plan proactively to reduce these challenges
How
to proactively address the needs of LGBTQ+ employees, particularly transgender
team members, through company policies and insurance offerings
Which
specific terms need to be included in your policies
How
to plan to address resistant beliefs in LGBTQ+ inclusion scenarios
The
importance of understanding all local laws related to LGBTQ+ rights, particularly
for multi-site corporations
Alex Koglin of Launchways
applied his expertise as a leading employee benefits consultant and LGBTQ+
rights activist in the Chicago area to provide specific insight into how you
can build alignment between your benefits offerings and your commitment to
diversity and inclusion.
Alex provided specific employee benefits recommendations
that organizations can use to build the necessary support for diversity,
inclusion, and transition that Renee, Rebekah, and Rada discussed. He
explained…
How to create a strong, supportive D&I framework regardless of your personal feelings through employee benefits and healthcare offerings
The importance of benefits offerings that account for domestic partners and same-sex spouses
How to ensure your transgender employees’ healthcare needs are met
The importance of providing robust mental health coverage as well as physical healthcare
How to provide on-going health and wellness education to maximize team-wide well-being
When businesses truly embrace diversity and inclusion, they create a powerful, complementary team that’s unbeatable together . Unfortunately, though, there’s no magic wand you can wave to get there.
To leverage the incredible team-building and innovative
potential of diversity and inclusion, businesses need to articulate strong
values, make them a real part of daily work culture, and create policies and
procedures that hold themselves and their employees accountable. It takes
honest commitment, thoughtful planning, strong follow-through, and built-in
checks and balances along the way.
With that said, no business should be dissuaded from working
towards building diverse and inclusive HR policies just because the work is
complex. In fact, organizations who don’t tackle the challenge and opportunity
of diversity head-on only set themselves up to stagnate.
In this post we’ll explore:
What strong workplace diversity and inclusion
“look like” as we near 2020
How truly valuing diversity and inclusion builds
success for businesses
The many costs associated with undervaluing and not
practicing workplace diversity and inclusion
How HR professionals trying to increase their
knowledge of current best practices for diversity and inclusion can connect
with the best resources
The State of Workplace Diversity & Inclusion
The world of workplace diversity has transformed immensely
over the past decade. A diverse, progressive, and inclusive workplace culture
can no longer be treated like an optional, industry-specific perk. Instead, a
commitment to diversity and inclusion has become a necessity for businesses at
any size. In fact, diversity and inclusion policies are increasingly
requirements when it comes to disclosures for business partnerships, grant
applications, and proposals.
In today’s modern work climate, organizations that don’t understand and leverage the value of workplace diversity will fail to outperform their competitors.
Let’s take a minute to break down both the words “diversity”
and “inclusion” and think about what they really mean in today’s marketplace.
Workplace diversity
means hiring, promoting, and valuing professionals from a variety of different
backgrounds, experiences, and approaches. It means employing people who think
differently, look differently, and experience the world differently from each
other. It means thinking beyond age, race, religion, disability, or sexual
identity. It means trying to build a team that is truly complementary and
reflects the world and marketplace as a whole.
Diversity, however, is nothing without inclusion. In fact, it is inclusion that has become the hot-button
issue and the trendier topic over the last two years. Inclusion is the
company’s devotion to and strategies for ensuring their diverse workforce
functions as a true team, and all people’s skills, values, and perspectives are
valued in a fair way.
As we approach 2020, diversity is firmly cemented as one of
the most important values for all corporations and businesses, while inclusion
is continuing to emerge and take its rightful place as a key focus of HR. Let’s
take a minute to think about what benefits forward-thinking HR departments can
create for their organizations when they get both diversity and inclusion
right.
How Diversity & Inclusion Help Businesses Win
As an HR professional, it’s your job to build a team that
sets your business up for success. From that perspective, diversity and
inclusion aren’t even really values or ideals anymore – they’re simply matters
of best practice.
When your organization embraces a variety of professionals,
perspectives, and people, you create a team that can accomplish more than any
homogeneous group. With that said, maximizing their impact means pairing that
diversity with inclusion – that is to say, diverse staffing practices must be
supported by policies, leadership, and day-to-day workflows that keep everybody
feeling empowered and engaged.
Businesses that call pull those two components off can reap significant
business results that less diverse or inclusive workplaces simply can’t access.
Talent Attraction and Retention
One of the most seismic shifts of the twenty-first century
has been the deemphasis on base salary, especially in the face of a thriving
workplace culture. Simply put, great talent wants to work in a great
environment – one that feels warm but professional, welcoming and collegial.
People also want to work in a place where their perspective
is appreciated and valued. That’s where the organization that values diversity
can connect with outstanding talent. If you can establish an identity and a
reputation as a business that truly creates opportunity for people based on the
strengths of their talents and thinks beyond twentieth-century concepts of what
corporate leadership and a productive office look like, you’ll be operating a
workplace where the very best talent of every background will want to work.
Increased Authentic Engagement
When your boss is the person who signs your check, you’ll
work to meet their expectations. When your boss is a person who shares your
values, applies fairness in every possible situation, and builds a team of
diverse voices that makes you (and everybody) feel heard, you’ll work to exceed
everybody’s expectations.
By fostering a diverse team, promoting diverse leadership,
and creating a workplace where everybody has the level of comfort, support, and
safety they need to get their work done, you can build something truly special:
an environment without glass ceilings or toxic secret inner circles. You will
have a workplace where all employees feel like they’re working positively
toward shared goals. This sets talent up to be their best selves and function
as a whole that’s much greater and more powerful than the sum of its parts.
Building a Variety of Perspectives
Too often, organizations lock themselves into a vision, a
culture, and a way of thinking early on in their lifecycle and craft hiring and
promotion programs in a way that reinforces that orthodoxy. This can be a
recipe for business stagnation.
Forward-thinking businesses aren’t afraid of a diversity of
perspectives or approaches destabilizing what they’ve previously built. On the
contrary, these businesses realize that a team with a wide variety of
backgrounds creates a much greater pool of ideas for innovation,
problem-solving, messaging, and more.
When each department, committee, and project team is diverse
and everybody knows their perspective and work is valued, businesses create the
strongest possible framework for innovative thinking, innovative work, and
innovative approaches to quality assurance.
Fostering a Reputation as a True Modern Business
If you can establish a great, diverse, inclusive workplace
culture where everybody feels supported and bought-in, you can turn your
organization into a destination landing spot for great talent and great buzz
alike. Your HR and marketing departments can leverage your thriving, positive
culture as an anchor point for campaigns that help your business grow and
spread the word about the great work you’re doing.
How Businesses Lose When They Don’t Prioritize Diversity
& Inclusion
Organizations that lack a strong commitment to diversity
don’t just miss out on all the benefits discussed previously, they also create
several very real and very dangerous business problems for themselves. Whether
it’s through explicit exclusion or simply a lack of care at the leadership and
HR levels, businesses that disregard building a thoughtful approach to
diversity put themselves in a tenuous business and legal position.
Businesses that preach diversity on paper but do little to
make inclusion a daily workplace value at every level leave themselves
vulnerable to many of the same problems. In fact, in some ways, a half-hearted
approach to diversity and inclusion can set you up to lose bigger, as the
organization comes away looking either disconnected from its values or like a
fraud.
Increased Turnover
When employees don’t feel fully safe, valued, appreciated,
plugged-in, or supported, they head for the door. Of all the changes to the
workplace over the last twenty years, this is the one that’s caught senior
leaders and HR professionals off-guard the most.
Turnover due to gaps in diversity and inclusion isn’t just
the result of stereotypical harassment or bullying, though. Today’s top talent
is sensitive to their environment and can generally gauge whether or not they
are a fit for a job and its culture within six months. If talent feels there is
a glass ceiling or lack of potential for success and personal happiness due to
your organization’s lack of devotion to diversity and inclusion, they’ll just
hand in their notice and move on.
No HR professional needs to be told how damaging the spend
associated with turnover is. Gaps in productivity, hiring expenses, and
training time all hurt the bottom line and significantly impact the team’s
ability to fire on all cylinders. Even if you’re great at identifying and
hiring diverse talent, you’re just setting your organization up for a brain
drain if there isn’t a framework in place to ensure those professionals are valued
and supported.
Lower Employee Morale & Reduced Engagement
Discrimination and exclusion are ugly things, and when
people see them in the workplace – even devoted professionals – they simply
can’t work like their best selves. To put it simply, toxic cultures bum people
out, and nobody is motivated to do their best work when their workplace feels
toxic.
With that said, the way gaps in inclusion affect morale can
be subtler but no less devastating. When employees are physically present but
feel like they aren’t valued, heard, and included in the same ways as their
peers, their engagement level, buy-in, and quality of work begin to drop at a
steady pace.
One of the biggest mistakes HR leaders make is
underestimating how many people are sensitive to issues of diversity and
inclusion. When discrimination occurs or inclusion is clearly not a priority,
the blow to morale and buy-in extends far beyond the direct victim of the
situation. That means that organizations that do wrong by their minority or
LGBTQ+ employees are actually damaging the productivity, motivation, and
engagement of a much higher percentage of the workforce, who stand as allies to
those groups.
Groupthink
Diversity is a synonym of “variety,” and the less diversity
an organization has, the less variety there will be in terms of innovative
thinking and profit-driving work. If you get a room full of 10 people from
similar backgrounds and ask them to solve a problem, they’ll probably come up
with one or two well-defined ideas. In a room of 10 people from diverse
backgrounds, however, you can have a much richer discussion about possible
solutions because there are more ways of looking at the problem and a wider
range of past experiences and familiar approaches available.
Organizations that don’t prioritize diversity and inclusion
at every level within the organization set up themselves up to fall victim to
groupthink. This can be especially limiting at the executive or leadership
level, where a true team of complementary minds is necessary to steer the work.
Reputation & Perception as an Innovator
In this day and age, reputation is everything, for
individuals and businesses alike. Tone-deaf marketing campaigns sink brands
overnight, and reports of regressive, toxic, or non-inclusive culture on sites
like Glassdoor can quickly limit an organization’s potential to land great
talent.
When people encounter a discriminatory or non-inclusive
environment in today’s culture, they’re not going to suffer in silence or keep
it to themselves. They will use the tools available to make sure that the world
knows exactly what gaps exist in their current or former employee’s commitment
to inclusion.
Legal Issues
Of course, litigation is always the elephant in the room,
especially when HR issues are concerned. When it comes to inclusion and
diversity, a lack of HR commitment can quickly spiral into a costly legal
situation.
On one hand, all organizations in the U.S. with at least 15
employees are beholden to the Equal Employment Opportunities Commission (EEOC).
EEOC investigations and adjudications can last for months, or even years,
creating a long, damaging process that can devastate an organization’s ability
to turn a profit in both the short- and long-term. Depending on the state in
which your business is located, there may be additional anti-discrimination and
inclusion laws you need to consider.
On the other, there’s the specter of civil litigation. Civil
cases can be resolved much more quickly than EEOC investigations, but they can
be just as damaging in terms of finance, reputation, and ongoing employee
morale. No matter where your organization is located, there are several
attorneys in your area who make their bread and butter on discrimination
claims, and they know how to use your own policies (or lack thereof) against
you to win the biggest possible award for their clients.
Key Takeaways
As an HR professional, it’s your job to build the best
possible team and create an environment in which that team can thrive and
succeed. Part of building that great team is truly understanding the importance
of diversity to high-quality work; another part is commitment to supporting the
team you’ve built with policies, procedures, and structure that help them feel
plugged-in and valued.
Some key takeaways from this post include:
Diversity and inclusion are no longer optional workplace values
Businesses that create a welcoming, diverse, inclusive environment provide themselves with the best opportunities for innovation and the widest array of skills and perspectives
Organizations that don’t embrace diversity and inclusion stand to lose the war for talent and set themselves up for legal and financial trouble
How to Learn More
Whether you’re an emerging HR leader trying to build a better understanding of diversity and inclusion or an experienced veteran looking to bring yourself up to speed on how D&I best practices are evolving, be sure to reserve a seat at Launchways’ upcoming Diversity & Inclusion Summit for HR and Finance Leaders.
The free education session will take place after hours on Wednesday, October 16th at TechNexus in Chicago and will feature an expert panel with the Midwest’s leading HR professionals and diversity and inclusion experts, including…
· Rebekah Wolford of Paylocity, a culture- and success-oriented HR leader with experience leading data-driven D&I initiatives
· Alex Koglin of Launchways, a leading Chicago-area employee benefits consultant with a passion for LGBTQ+ rights
· Chanté Thurmond of The Darkest Horse, an executive talent consultant who specializes in radical inclusion and expert team building
· Manny Flores of SomerCor, a small business lender with a track record of empowering diverse entrepreneurs
Panel discussions will be packed with takeaways related to diversity and inclusion, including…
· How to foster a diverse and inclusive company culture
· How to build diverse and inclusive HR policies and practices
· How to ensure compliance with federal and state diversity and inclusion regulations
· How to create diverse and inclusive benefits packages.
In addition to these key insights, open Q&A and networking time will allow attendees to guide and personalize the summit experience to maximize their takeaways. If you’re a finance or HR leader in the Chicago area, be sure to save your seat at the Diversity & Inclusion Summit for HR and Finance Leaders!
This post is brought to you by our valued partner Paylocity.
Addressing diversity and inclusion within your workplace is
more than just giving trainings and seminars and sending informational emails. Only
with true action will employees know that you’re addressing their concerns, and
it can take time to show them just how committed your business is to diversity.
Updating your employee benefits package to ensure that your
offerings are designed for the diverse workforce you’re looking to create and
foster is a crucial step in your business’ diversity efforts.
Here’s what you need to know about the different ways your
office can be inclusive, and how to design your benefits package for a truly
diverse company.
Types of Workplace Diversity
to Consider
The term “diversity” doesn’t just refer to one thing, and it
takes many forms in the workplace and elsewhere. Types
of workplace diversity to consider when taking a look at your company data
and updating policies are:
Generational
Gender/gender identity
Sexual orientation
Race and ethnicity
Religious beliefs
Disability
Socioeconomic status
Lifestyle
Political views
And others
As you can see, diversity is more than ensuring half of your
employees are women, or that people of color are represented, though those are of
course important considerations. It’s also about avoiding any form of discrimination
based on age, gender, race, religion, or disability.
There are many factors to think about when creating your
diversity plan and updating business elements like benefits packages and
employee handbook policies.
What to Include in Your
Workplace Policies
First of all, remember that some applicable workplace laws
are made on a state-by-state basis, not on a federal level. Some attorneys recommend
going with the
most comprehensive protection plans out there, even if you’re not required
to do so in your state. This means you should update your policies to be in
compliance with these regulations.
One example is the protection of discrimination against sexual
orientation, which is not one of the included categories of Title VII of the
Civil Rights Act of 1964. However, sex discrimination is protected under the
act, and workers have been known to file lawsuits that argue their sexual
orientation cases under these protections instead.
As such, it’s a good idea to include in your policies that
discriminatory actions such as firing an employee because of his or her
mannerisms, or not treating a female employee fairly because she isn’t
“womanlike,” are prohibited, as they are forms of sex discrimination.
Other ways to update policies accordingly is to develop or
include gender-transitioning resources for employees, or to include the most
current, acceptable, and inclusive terminology in employee materials.
Designing Benefits For
a Diverse Workforce
The most important aspect of updating your benefits package
is making sure that the benefits offered are fair and equitable to all employees.
Let’s take a look at the ways in which you can revamp your benefits
offerings, in addition to your company policies. Think through these areas to
get started with building a more diverse and inclusive workplace.
Financial Benefits
for Different Generations
Analyze the financial benefit offerings your company
currently provides, such as retirement contributions, student loan debt
assistance, and savings accounts. Are they more geared toward a younger
audience, or an older audience?
For example, student loan debt is an affliction that impacts
generations across the board, but research from Experian showed that Generation
X, who are between 39 and 54, has the
most student loan debt, with Baby Boomers in second (ages 55 to 73) and Millennials
third (ages 23 to 38). Although it may seem like the younger generations would
want benefits related to paying off their student loans, this is clearly an
issue that all generation struggle with.
Another financial consideration here is retirement benefits.
Baby Boomers are the closest to retiring, but research from the Insured
Retirement Institute (IRI) shows that 45% of people in this age group don’t
have any retirement savings. As such, retirement savings assistance
shouldn’t just be catered to the long-term. In addition, benefits like phased
retirement plans and medical programs for retirees can help this generation better
prepare for life after work.
Family Benefits
Another way to address diversity within benefits is what you
offer for families. Important considerations in this category are:
Assistance with childcare
Parental leave
Adoption leave
Elder care services
Another benefit that can help support families through these
matters is a dependent
care flexible spending account, which helps employees pay for care services
while they’re at work.
Benefits for Same-Sex
Couples and Domestic Partners
Spousal healthcare coverage and other benefits have long
been offered to heterosexual couples. It’s now important to offer these benefits
for same-sex couples, in addition to couples who are in domestic
partnerships. This also means that parental or family leave benefits should apply
to these couples, even if they’re not legally married.
Flexibility Benefits
Because there are so many different perspectives,
experiences, and abilities that exist within your workforce, a crucial benefit to
provide is flexibility. Whether due to having children, a disability or
illness, or caring for a sick family member, flexible work options allow
employees to adapt their schedules and their location based on their personal needs.
However, this means that the flexibility benefits must apply to all employees
that require a different working arrangement, and cannot be implemented
unfairly. Employees should feel comfortable and never feel guilty about using
these benefits when they need them.
Holidays
A major part of your benefits package is time off for
holidays. This has typically only included the major American holidays, both
religious and political. However, think about the employees within your company
that don’t celebrate the “mainstream” American holidays, who instead celebrate
holidays from their own cultural background.
Implement benefits that allow employees to take off the
holidays that are important to their culture or religion, and make it simple
for them to request these days off. One effective way to implement these
benefits is to offer “floating holidays” that employees can use however they
wish.
Ask Your Employees
Even with the best intentions, you won’t completely satisfy
your diverse workforce unless you allow them to speak up. An easy way for your
company to gain invaluable information about what workers care about and what
they want in their benefits packages is simply to ask them.
Send out surveys and ask for feedback. Ask them if they feel
like their needs are being recognized and respected, whatever they may be. Companies
often make a mistake when they assume that employees have certain wants, needs,
and beliefs, so it’s important to avoid those dangerous assumptions when
updating your benefits package. Instead, let employees tell you what’s most
important to them.
Key Takeaways
As you’re strategizing to create a more diverse and
inclusive workplace, making tangible within your benefits package is one
important way to keep your company on track. Remember:
There are many “types” of diversity within any
workplace.
Create policies that offer the most protections
possible against discrimination, regardless of whether your local laws require
all of them.
Different generations have different financial
priorities.
Offer family benefits like paid family leave and
dependent care assistance.
Make sure health insurance and other applicable benefits
are also offered for same-sex couples and domestic partners.
A range of flexibility options, like remote
working or flexible schedules, can help employees with family, disability, or
other concerns.
Not all employees celebrate the same holidays,
religious or not. Floating holidays can ensure that they take time off when
it’s applicable to their beliefs or culture.
Ask your employees directly what they want or
what they feel they are missing from their current benefits package.
Remember that your employee benefits package will only be designed for a diverse workplace if the offerings are applicable to everyone on your team. Avoid making assumptions about what’s important to your employees, and you’ll quickly be on your way to an inclusive, satisfying benefits package.
You may already know how valuable diversity and inclusion
(D&I) are to the satisfaction of your workforce and to your recruitment
efforts and ability to retain top talent. But did you know that these important
considerations can also pay off financially? And that D&I efforts can have
a significant impact on your workforce’s productivity?
Many Finance leaders are catching wind, as Deloitte’s 2019
CFO Signals survey showed that two-thirds
of finance heads from large companies said they now have a form D&I
strategy in place at their organizations.
So, aside from D&I being top priorities for businesses
because of the ethical and moral implications, it helps to recognize that there
are additional benefits for the business’ bottom-line as well. In this post we’ll
take a look at what the research shows about how D&I can help financial
professionals drive business value and profitability.
Driving the value of
your business
It’s now becoming common knowledge that a more diverse and
inclusive workforce means stronger organizational performance. This can be
broken down into several categories, including retaining talent, employee
satisfaction and well-being, and greater workforce productivity.
Retaining talent.
Workplaces that focus on D&I efforts and take steps to make employees feel
more welcome tend to retain talent better than those that don’t. For example, a
report from the Human Rights Campaign Foundation showed that 1
in 4 LGBTQ workers have stayed at a company because of an accepting
environment. And it makes sense—employees who feel unrecognized and excluded
are more likely to be unhappy with their job and ultimately, they will leave.
Employee
satisfaction. On a similar note, it’s important to emphasize that welcoming
workplace environments foster more satisfied employees. Modern workers want to work
in environments that not only don’t discriminate, but that also encourage openness about differences.
Gone are the days when biases and discrimination are the
norms in offices. Instead, creating inclusive, diverse environments drive business
value because employees will be more fulfilled by the work they’re doing. An
employee survey from Deloitte showed that there is a strong correlation between
employees being happy at work and feeling
valued by their company.
Greater productivity.
More diverse teams tend to be more productive as well. The combination of
differing perspectives make efforts more creative, and can open the eyes of
team members to views they wouldn’t be able to otherwise see themselves. With
more diverse skillsets, experiences, and ideas, organizations can produce and
create in more innovative ways.
Increasing Profitability
In addition to creating a more valuable workforce, D&I efforts
have proven to contribute to increased profitability businesses as well.
Research from McKinsey & Company shows that companies that have more
racially and ethnically diverse workforces are 35%
more likely to have greater financial returns than industry medians, and
those with greater gender diversity are 15% more likely to see better returns.
McKinsey data also shows that in the U.S., for every 10%
increase in ethnic and racial diversity on the executive team, annual company earnings
rise roughly 1%.
A more recent study from Boston Consulting Group (BCG) shows
that companies with above-average diversity on their leadership teams have a 20%
advantage in revenue from innovative products and services for their
companies over management teams with below-average diversity. These improved financial
results come from the varying perspectives and insights that diverse teams
bring to the table.
Effective strategies
for addressing D&I in your organization
Clearly, there is a strong business case for a more intentional
and thoughtful approach to D&I at your business. Aside from the fact that
employees will be more satisfied and fulfilled, the business will likely perform
better financially.
The strategies outlined below will help you get started with
your D&I initiatives and sustain your program’s success in the long-term.
1. Make sure the
strategy is known throughout the company
A good first step in addressing D&I is ensuring that the
entire company knows about your efforts and that it matters to you and the
entire executive team. Less than half of respondents in the Deloitte CFO
Signals survey indicated that their D&I strategy is known throughout the
company, so there’s still plenty of work to do in this area.
Start by sending around an email on these topics, initiating
regular trainings related to D&I, or bringing up issues during
company-wide, as well as departmental-wide, meetings.
2. Set up a
measurement technique
As with any company strategy, a measurement process will
hold you accountable and ensure that goals are being met. Try implementing
things like regular employee surveys, and actually measure your diversity
stats. Consider, who is underrepresented in each department’s management team? Gathering
this data will help you to measure if your efforts are actually working, and
you can update your strategy accordingly.
3. Update your hiring
approach
These efforts go hand-in-hand with your HR department and
the company’s hiring policies. First make sure that D&I is fully integrated
into the employee handbook and other policy documents. This will make it clear
to employees that it is a serious matter that is given priority at your
business.
Then, make sure that hiring and interviewing techniques
support these important policies. For example, what kind of questions are being
asked on applications? Or in interviews? You must ensure that every employee
the conducts interviews understands what type of interview questions are and
are not acceptable, especially when considering sensitive D&I topics.
4. Don’t be afraid to
admit fault
Finally, as the CFO or head of finance, you help set the
example for much of the company. Part of being a genuine leader and exuding
integrity is admitting when something isn’t where it needs to be.
This means that if a diversity goal isn’t being met—for
example, if the company executive team includes solely older white males—you might
admit that this is something the company is working on addressing to integrate
more diverse perspectives. Then, you can show your workforce the strategies
you’re putting in place to fix things. These tactics show departments across
the board that you take D&I seriously and that you’re actually following
through on promises.
Good leaders know when to discuss a challenge area instead
of pretending like no areas for improvement exist.
Key takeaways
D&I continues to drive high performance and profits for
companies across industries. As a financial leader within your organization,
it’s important that you realize the value D&I brings to any team, in
addition to the steps you can take to make it happen.
Remember:
D&I helps increase business value by
retaining talent, increasing employee satisfaction, and driving productivity.
Your bottom line will thank you for your D&I
efforts, as more diverse workforces and executive teams mean more revenue and increased
business profitability.
No matter the numbers, diverse perspectives
bring invaluable expertise and viewpoints to teams to make them more creative
and productive.
Implement D&I into your strategy by:
Distributing knowledge throughout the company
Setting up ways to measure success
Updating your approach to hiring and
interviewing
Admitting there are areas for improvement within
the organization and creating a plan to improve these areas
In addition to these key takeaways, remember to always remain open to change and thus open to the broad range of perspectives that can exist within your company. This viewpoint alone will help you to give D&I the time and attention it deserves.
Growing companies are increasingly turning to diversity and inclusion, or D&I, initiatives to fuel their success. People are the ultimate drivers of business success and having the widest range of perspectives available to tackle business challenges is an invaluable asset to companies of all sizes. But small-to-mid-sized businesses are particularly strongly defined by the makeup of their employees.
Many businesses have D&I policies and procedures as a matter of course and treat it as a compliance issue or silo it in HR. But others are starting to put the principles of diversity and inclusion at the heart of everything that they do. And they’re seeing real results. Recent studies show that greater gender and racial diversity each are directly correlated with increased profitability and value creation. And companies with the most women and minorities in leadership positions are between 20-30% more likely to achieve above-average financial performance.
One of the companies that have gone above and beyond in their D&I efforts is Launchways client Tandem, a consultancy that focuses on developing custom software solutions for growing businesses. We spoke to Tandem CEO, JC Grubbs, about how and why he has tried to foster diversity at his startup and how these efforts have contributed to his business’s phenomenal success. As it turns out, businesses looking for ways to stand out from competitors and fuel innovation within their organization have a lot to gain from the lessons that Tandem has learned.
Why D&I Is A Top Priority for Tandem
Before delving into the business advantages of having a more diverse and inclusive team, it’s worth spending some time to consider the moral forces that influence businesses like Tandem to focus so much effort into D&I. Generally speaking, many employers feel a moral responsibility to take care of the employees who dedicate so much of their time and energy to growing their company, and that includes making sure that all employees feel welcome and receive fair treatment regardless of their backgrounds or demographics. Diversity and genuine inclusion are important elements of the positive company culture that so many business leaders want to maintain.
For JC, though, his moral obligation to promote a diverse and inclusive workplace at Tandem goes beyond these general principles. As a member of the LGBTQ community who has experienced first-hand both inclusive and non-inclusive environments work environments, he sees it as his duty to make sure that everyone feels welcome and included at Tandem.
Beyond moral considerations, D&I is just good business for companies like Tandem. The studies showing how diversity contributes to profitability and value creation are grounded in business realities that JC has seen at his company. Since starting the company in 2011, he has seen how Tandem’s products and the ways that the company executes its work dramatically improve as the team becomes more diverse. As JC says, “It has happened over time but as I look at the way that we’ve run engagements with clients, I see a continual improvement in that. Part of that comes from learning and process improvement but I attribute a significant portion of that to our efforts in bringing more diverse voices to the table in how we deliver work to our clients.”
So how has JC built such a diverse and productive team? A lot of it has to do with the way that Tandem brands itself and crafts its company culture.
Importance of Employer Branding
Authentic branding should represent who you want to be as a company not just how you want to be seen. With that principle in mind, Tandem recently underwent a significant branding effort, including adopting the name Tandem in place of DevMynd, to put the principles of diversity, inclusion, and human connection at the very core of the brand. This new brand emphasizes the company’s focus on the human side of software development: getting as many diverse voices and perspectives involved as possible to create unique solutions that fuel innovation.
A significant part of the D&I branding effort has focused on how Tandem features their employees on their website. The “Team” page plays a much stronger role in the site than for most companies, and Tandem has done several things differently to foster a sense of diversity and inclusion. The first thing that visitors will probably notice is that the page isn’t organized with the C-Suite at the top and lower-ranked team members as you scroll down. Instead, everyone is mixed together with the CEO and COO right in the middle so that leadership at the center, rather than the top, of the company. And each employee profile features an in-depth bio that helps potential clients and employees get to know the team, plus three photos including one featuring the employee’s favorite hobby to further humanize the team members.
It’s hard to overemphasize the importance of employer branding and featuring employees so heavily on the website. In fact, according to JC, branding and highlighting his team members has been the number one contributor to the increase in diversity at Tandem. One of the first things that people from underrepresented communities look at when they’re considering a potential employer is what the team looks like. As JC puts it, “When they go to your site and see people who look like them and when they read their bios, they read things that feel like them, it immediately puts them in a different frame of mind in terms of how they view you as an employer.”
The benefits don’t stop at attracting diverse and talented employees, either. Another driver for Tandem’s focus on their Team page and D&I branding is to celebrate their success in that area and the success of their team. Small-to-mid-sized businesses are ultimately just a conglomeration of their employees and it’s important that both potential employees and clients see the people they’re going to be working with and get a sense of what voices are going to be in the room. This can not only lead to productive partnerships but also prevent damaging missteps as it can drive away employees or clients who aren’t a good fit. As far as Tandem is concerned, they don’t want to work with employees or clients who do not want to work with a team like theirs, so the more public they make their diversity the better.
Tailoring the Employee Benefits Package for D&I
But branding can only go so far; the real measure of a business’s diversity and inclusion is how they treat their employees. For growing businesses, especially in the tech field, who lack the resources to compete with major companies in terms of salaries and bonuses, this means tailoring their benefits packages to attract talent and build a diverse and inclusive team.
At Tandem, this started with a comprehensive and fully employer-paid insurance package that provides 100% coverage for employees and their families on all major health aspects: medical, dental, vision, and more. Just last year, they added a telehealth program so that employees can get access to medical advice more quickly and easily; a benefit that especially appeals to employees with children.
Tandem tailored its other benefits to accommodate people who have responsibilities that aren’t tied to work, such as being the caretaker for aging parents or being parents themselves. They implemented a flexible time policy that lets employees set their own schedule as long as they are in the office for core work hours from 10:00am-4:00, give employees the option of working remotely one day a week, and allow employees to work from home on other days whenever the need arises. Despite being too small to be required to offer maternity leave under FMLA, Tandem also offers 8 weeks of new-parent leave for natural births and adoptions, on top of standard PTO. Having that flexibility and making sure that the flexibility is integrated into company policies and processes is an important step to support a diverse set of outside of work needs; another key element of D&I.
Tandem isn’t ready to stop there, either. They are already exploring two new potential benefits to better foster diversity and inclusion: fertility and gender transition support benefits. While they are still looking into costs and proper structures and have not pulled the trigger yet, they believe that it is important to think ahead and look beyond traditional benefits to see what you can and should do to support a more diverse set of employee needs.
Ongoing D&I Efforts and Accountability
The final lesson that growing businesses can take away from Tandem’s D&I success is that diversity and inclusion is a constantly evolving process and that it is important to reevaluate current practices to see if you’re doing the right things and if are there new areas that you should explore. In fact, Tandem’s CEO went so far as to say, “If I had any advice for other growing businesses it would be that D&I is not a one-and-done, ‘check all the boxes’ and then move on type of issue: you need to reexamine it on a continuing basis.”
So what should growing businesses who are dedicated to promoting D&I do to monitor and reexamine their efforts? Tandem conducts bi-annual employee satisfaction surveys and the CEO has a one-on-one with every employee at least annually so that Tandem can be sure that it is maintaining its culture, that its employees feel engaged and included, and that any issues can be identified and corrected. JC also decided to create a Culture and Inclusion committee made up of a wide range of employees that meets every quarter to review current practices, discuss possible initiatives, and generally steer the direction of the company’s D&I efforts.
This committee has been central to the successful integration of D&I into Tandem’s brand and operations. It was responsible for raising the possibility of providing fertility and gender transition support benefits after it worked with Launchways to determine what the current insurance covered and what opportunities for improvement were left on the table. It also looks at the public face of the company to see if it is sending the types of signals to job candidates, such as reviewing job descriptions to see if they appropriately emphasize inclusion or use language that can be interpreted as exclusionary.
Tandem also recently completed an ADA study of their physical office space to get a sense of what they need to do to support people who need access to the building in different ways. And Tandem is planning on publicly releasing career paths, complete with requirements to move up to each position and salary ranges for every position, to encourage transparency and fairness both internally and for potential employees. This is significant, because transparency is absolutely vital to fostering true diversity and inclusion.
Key Takeaways
Every company is unique, and its approach diversity and inclusion should be as well. But Tandem provides a compelling model of how companies can put the principles of D&I at the heart of their employer brand, benefits strategy, and processes to build a diverse and innovative team. Hopefully, you can apply some of the lessons that Tandem has learned to fuel your business’s growth. Just remember that:
• In addition to being morally right, diversity and inclusion is just good business and results in increased profits and business results
• Your employer brand defines how potential employees and clients see you, so making sure that it aligns with and celebrates diversity and inclusion can help you build an innovative workforce and productive partnerships
• Benefits are often the most concrete tool that employers have to foster D&I by accommodating a wide range of employee needs
• D&I is an ongoing process that requires constant reevaluation, accountability, and transparency
The LGBTQ community has yet to have full federal protection in the workplace against discrimination. In May 2019, the House of Representatives passed the Equality Act, which bans discrimination because of an employee’s sex, sexual orientation, or gender identity, but the bill is resting with the Senate, who may decide not to pass it.
In your workplace, diversity and inclusion should be two main priorities, and adequately addressing these matters means that you are both recognizing and encouraging the LGBTQ community to feel open, safe, and normal living and working as they are.
Here are key reasons why you should take action to create a more inclusive and diverse workforce, and the ways to do it.
Impacts on the LGBTQ community when they feel excluded
It’s easy to see why LGBTQ workers would continue to feel excluded in the workplace. They often don’t feel understood or acknowledged, and they may feel like they’re not able to participate in normal discussions or activities because of the fear of being judged or stereotyped.
Many people in this community feel overly sexualized. Essentially what this means is that when it becomes known that they have a certain “nontraditional” sexual orientation, they become their sexual identity, instead of coworkers seeing them for themselves and their work capabilities.
This feeling of exclusion leads to negative feelings and even lack of productivity at work: 25% of LGBTQ workers report feeling distracted from work, as the Human Rights Campaign report shows, 17% report feeling exhausted from having to hide their sexual orientation, and 31% report feeling unhappy or depressed at work.
Why encourage openness and acceptance?
According to the aforementioned report, 46% of workers who identify as LGBTQ remain closeted, and half of those surveyed said that there aren’t any employees at their organization who are open about it.
While it’s of course not always a great idea to have everyone discuss or admit to their sexual experiences in the workplace, the reasons behind staying closeted show how fearful a non-inclusive workplace can be for this community. The top reasons that they stay closeted are:
• The potential to be stereotyped by coworkers
• To avoid making others feel uncomfortable
• To avoid losing connections or relationships
• To avoid coworkers thinking they are attracted to them because they are LGBTQ
Make sure in your efforts to encourage openness that you aren’t forcing LGBTQ workers to disclose things they aren’t comfortable with; the key is to educate staff and have serious discussions about these topics. If they aren’t talked about, LGBTQ workers will feel like they have to remain closeted. And while some topics are “supposed to be” taboo at work, like sex or politics, the truth is, many employees talk about their lives outside of work on a daily basis with their coworkers.
Why educate employees?
It’s also important to keep all employees educated about policies and aware of how best to behave in the workplace. You aren’t telling them what to believe, just how to represent the company and treat others while they’re on your watch.
Many employees may just not be aware of these issues, and so they may not even recognize that their behavior is out of line or could be offensive to their coworkers. It’s your responsibility to thus educate them so that they are more thoughtful and deliberate about how they treat certain topics and talk to each other at work.
The Workplace Divided report revealed an additional alarming statistic in this area: 1 in 5 LGBTQ workers have experienced being told by a coworker that they should dress either more feminine of masculine; only 1 in 24 non-LGBTQ workers reported this having ever happened to them. Additionally, 36% of non-LGBTQ employees said that they would feel uncomfortable if an LGBTQ coworker started talking about their dating life.
So, there is clearly still a bias in place that needs to be addressed in each and every workplace. Part of ensuring you are fostering an inclusive and diverse office is educating everyone to get them thinking about their behavior and the way they treat others.
Benefits of inclusivity for your company
Your LGBTQ workers will not be the only ones who benefit from addressing these issues. Think about the benefits your organization will also experience: • Less discrimination lawsuits and therefore less in legal fees • Less turnover, as 1 in 4 LGBTQ workers said they stayed in a job because the workplace was accepting of LGBTQ people • Health insurance costs may go down because the health of all employees is given more consideration • Partnerships could increase as your company becomes known as a socially responsible organization
Another big reason to address discrimination and encourage inclusivity and diversity in the workplace is because a more diverse office is a more profitable office. A study from Boston Consulting Group last year found that companies with above-average diversity on management teams earn 19% more in revenue than companies with below-average diversity on these teams.
Why? Because diverse teams create diverse perspectives; gone are the days of the bureaucracy, where one team of older white men makes all the decisions for an organization. For any company to grow and succeed, diversity, and therefore greater inclusivity, are assets.
Additional strategies to foster inclusivity and diversity in the workplace
So where should you begin? Try implementing these strategies to foster inclusivity and better educate the workforce about discrimination and how to create accepting, inclusive workplaces: • Talk about how detrimental stereotyping can be, in general and also related to someone’s gender or sexuality. • Share statistics similar to those presented in this article to show employees how important these issues really are for a functioning workplace. • Engage with learning materials that present workplace scenarios so that employees can learn how to approach certain topics and actually visualize how to behave to encourage inclusivity. • Always stress the importance of diversity and make sure the executive team shares with the company about efforts they are taking in these areas (for example, those in charge should admit when they become aware of areas they could improve, such as diversifying the board of directors). • Provide resources for LGBTQ workers if they experience harassment or discrimination from coworkers, or if they just need someone to talk to, like an HR representative or counselor. • Implement actual company policies that protect workers against discrimination and harassment in the workplace. Make sure these policies are distributed to all employees and are available for reference.
Key takeaways
• Because discrimination rights based on sexuality continue to stall on a federal level, take action in your individual workplace
• If the LGBTQ community feels excluded in the workplace, they’re more likely to leave and are more likely to feel unhappy or depressed at work
• Encourage openness and acceptance at work so that LGBTQ workers don’t feel like they have to remain closeted to be liked
• Educate employees, especially non-LGBTQ workers, so that they are aware of these issues and are better aware of how to behave
• Recognize the financial and productivity benefits that an inclusive and diverse workplace provides
• Create support systems and company policies that address these issues
When you’re able to educate and encourage, and foster diversity and inclusivity—teaching your employees what they mean, why they’re important, and how they help the entire workplace—your company culture will shift toward being more socially aware and responsible.
