Diversity is about employee differences in culture, race, ethnicity, age, ability, religion, sexual orientation, and other personal characteristics. Inclusion is about how well employees’ perspectives, contributions, and differences are valued and respected. Equity is about treating all employees fairly and providing access to equal opportunities based on their individual needs.

Promoting diversity, equity, and inclusion in your workforce keeps your company competitive. Respecting your employees’ unique perspectives, needs, and potential promotes trust among your workforce. It also helps your employees feel involved and supported in all areas of the business.

Emphasizing diversity, equity, and inclusion strengthens employee engagement, performance, and productivity. It also increases job satisfaction, employee morale, and retention rates.

Implement these tips to build a more inclusive and equitable workplace.

Review Company Policies

Determine whether your company policies must be updated to better support diversity, equity, and inclusion. This ensures that internal issues are handled in ways that are equitable and inclusive to all employees.

Many employees leave companies because the way that internal issues are handled perpetuates existing problems. This results in poor interactions among employees.

Updating your policies helps address and replace adverse processes and interactions with more positive ones. This supports diversity, equity, and inclusion in the workplace.

Implement Diversity Training

Educate leaders and managers on how cultural differences impact employees’ work and interactions. Topics may include concepts of time, communication styles, self-identity, and dealing with conflict.

Ensure the training aligns with your diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives and challenges and is specific to your employees’ needs. Consider using internal resources and partnering with a consultant to build customized training.

Clarify why the training is taking place, the problems to solve, and the next steps. This motivates your employees and ties the training to broader company goals.

Minimize Unconscious Bias

Educate leaders, managers, and employees on subconscious associations or feelings that are for or against certain personal characteristics. Since these unconscious biases often do not align with conscious beliefs, they must be given special attention.

Share how individuals are impacted by unconscious bias and the actions that reinforce these biases. Include methods to build awareness of and address unconscious bias. For instance, employees at any level can review, question, and analyze their personal biases, then find ways not to let them influence their behavior toward others.

Promote Pay Equity

Prioritize equal pay for equal work. This includes using analytics to determine whether your employees are underpaid for similar roles and responsibilities.

For instance, managers can use analytics to determine whether there are pay gaps within their teams. Also, leaders can look for patterns within departments to uncover the root of the issues. Understanding the reasons for these discrepancies helps resolve them.

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