Inclusion drives diversity.

Not the other way around.

Listen up, companies! After two years of learning, researching, digesting and frankly many years of living the diversity struggle, I’ve come to a sound conclusion on what drives diversity: I N C L U S I O N.

You simply can not expect to retain diverse teams (or hire them for that matter) without deliberately embedding the importance of inclusion deeeep within the framework of your ethos.

Here’s how you can effectively increase your inclusivity:

1. Stop bolstering diversity numbers without addressing unconscious bias throughout the entire employee experience.
2. Rid your vocabulary of ‘culture fit’. Culture fit is a misguided buzz phrase used excessively in the tech and creative scenes. The issue with hiring people that you assume would already fit into the established company culture is that you aren’t leaving room for someone with varying experiences or cultural backgrounds to ADD to the culture. We should always look for the ‘culture add’ rather than the culture fit or we run the risk of homogenizing teams.
3. When hiring for middle management and executive level roles, ensure that you have a diverse pool of candidates to choose from. Of the job seekers that we personally surveyed during our initial research, 94% said that increased diversity in leadership was a major workplace perk and a case for retention.

And don’t forget to post with 2050Work, obviously.

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