Top 5 Actionable Steps to Practice Inclusion at Work

Diversity and Inclusion (D&I) have long been considered the two cornerstones of healthy work culture. But, many often it remains limited to hiring candidates from different backgrounds. While that promotes diversity, D&I shouldn’t stop at that.

The end objective is to practice inclusion in the workplace and facilitate a healthy culture. No matter how many people from varied backgrounds work at a company, if they don’t feel an integral part of the organisation, the employee turnover rate will only increase.

Here’s the basic difference between diversity and inclusion. Diversity focuses on the formation of the workforce by bringing together people from different backgrounds, gender, religion, disability, sexual orientations, ethnicity, education, national origin, etc. Inclusion, on the other hand, is about valuing all of them, celebrating their uniqueness, and encouraging them to put their best foot forward for the organisation’s success. As the US Social Commentator Verna Myers beautifully expresses: “Diversity is being invited to the party, inclusion is being asked to dance”.

This article seeks to highlight some of the actionable insights into creating an inclusive work culture. Keep reading.

How to Create an Inclusive Work Culture?

1. Reflect Inclusion through Company Policies

The company policy should reflect a sense of inclusion towards all employees. Here are a few policies to explore:

• As per a report on March, 2022, women are paid 22.1% less on average than men (source: Portside). An inclusive workplace should address this gender pay gap and ensure a similar pay scale for people in the same role/experience. Gender bias should not affect the pay structure.
• In the post-pandemic age, hybrid and remote work has occupied the mainstream of work operation. Providing a flexible work policy facilitates a sense of inclusion as it enables the employees to work with flexibility and comfort.
• Different cultures and geographic locations have different holidays. Make sure that all the employees’ cultures, ethnicity, location, etc. are covered in the company holiday calendar.
• The recruitmentand selection policy should be completely bias-free. A diverse interview panel, name-blank interview scorecard, etc. can help towards this.
• Many companies have upgraded their leave policies to include different types of leaves such as sabbatical leaves, bereavement leaves, menstrual leaves, transition leaves, etc.
• A whistleblower policy should be in place to take action against anything illegal, unethical, and discriminatory behaviour within an organization.

As you can understand, all of these policies create a sense of inclusion in the workplace.

2. Create Awareness

Simply introducing a set of policies won’t help the cause if your team is not aware or enthusiastic about an inclusive workplace. Here are a few things you may try:

• Ask for feedback about the employee experience in your organisation. From HR policies to action plans — employees’ feedback can be implemented across various aspects of the company. This will make the employees feel like an integral part of the organization.
• Make new hires aware of your D&I policies right at the onboarding. This will create a sense of belongingness from the very beginning.
• Promote how your organization will not tolerate any discrimination based on race, gender, ethnicity, culture, geography, or any other metrics.

3. Focus on Team Bonding

The better bonding a team has, the lesser discrimination there is. Therefore, focus on improving the sense of belongingness among your team members. Here are a few ideas you can explore:

• Arranging team retreats can be a perfect strategy for the exchange of ideas and intermingling of diverse people.
• You can arrange for monthly fun activities where different departments in your workforce can participate. Now that many companies are operating remotely, virtual fun activities are turning out to be quite successful in inspiring team bonding.
• You might plan for a potluck lunch where the employees can bring their traditional cuisines and share among them.
• Celebrate various festivals encompassing diverse traditions and ethnicities of the employees. This will spread the spirit of celebration among the folks from different culture and inspire a sense of belongingness to the organization.
• Knowledge sharing and easy communication across ranks, gender, or communities is an effective idea to unite employees toward accomplishing common goals and fostering innovation.

4. Get Rid of Unconscious Bias

Dealing with unconscious biases is the most difficult task as it remains hidden. Pay attention to these while addressing your employees or potential candidates. Some of the tips are outlined below:

• While posting a job ad, you might want to check it through a Gender Decoder app. It will help you to analyze if the ad has any subtle bias in it.
• Consider asking which gender role the employees associate with during initial interactions.
• Make sure that any official notice is gender-neutral.

5. Contribute to the Extended Community

The practice of D&I shouldn’t be limited within the walls of your company. It’s important to add value to the entire society to eliminate discrimination and celebrate inclusion. Towards this aim, the following ideas can be explored:

• Share your insights in form of articles (or any other preferable formats) to enrich your community.
• Conduct or attend diversity and inclusion seminars to enlighten others. In turn, you may also get enlightened by other leaders and D&I practitioners.
• Consider exploring volunteering opportunities with organizations that seek to promote D&I practices.

TestVagrant Technologies: Cultivating a Diverse & Inclusive Work Culture

At TestVagrant Technologies, we are in a constant attempt to cultivate an inclusive work culture where people from diverse backgrounds feel safe and comfortable. Below, we have outlined some of our D&I practices.

We have 35% women representation in our workforce. We encourage women on break, who are looking to restart their careers, to join us in suitable roles. An exclusive committee is organized for the women employees at TestVagrant. From time to time, different activities are organized like health talks, yoga sessions, etc. are organized. At times, their kids are also included in our fun activities. Also, we arrange for virtual potlucks where our employees can indulge in their traditional delicacies with their families.

We have a corporate POSH policy to ensure a safe work experience for our team members. We also provide cab facilities and travel reimbursement to all who travel to client places. It helps the women employees to remain carefree about travel and safety. Our annualized attrition rate of women employees is low at 23% (from January 2022); which speaks volumes of the comfort and security provided by the organization.

Also, our Pan India employee base brings a wide diversity of culture, race, and ethnicity to the table and we enthusiastically celebrate unity among this diversity. Here, everyone is free to share opinions. For any decision related to the employees, they are always consulted via polls/votes. We also conduct periodic surveys to collect feedback from employees. Further, we arrange for cross-project knowledge transfer and Brown Bag sessions for knowledge sharing among the team members. Through these, everyone can share insights and enrich others.

We conduct various team bonding activities to facilitate collaboration and communication. For instance, we recently arranged for Hackathon where the team members can collaborate and participate as a team. We also organize Fishbowl activities where our people can share their thoughts on any specific topic. From team lunch to group discussion — each of our measures is directed at enhancing team bonding and creating a sense of belongingness.

When it comes to diversity and inclusion, every little step matters. Practising fairness and promoting camaraderie among everyone is at the core of an inclusive culture. Cultivating an inclusive work culture not only enhances the employees’ work experience but also adds value to the organization by bringing a wide range of ideas to the table.