Companies: Here Are 5 Major Benefits Of An Inclusive Workplace
Verna Myers, Inclusion Strategist at Netflix, offers an excellent definition to diversity and inclusion:
“Diversity is when you’re invited to the party.
Inclusion is when you’re invited to dance.”
Today, lots of companies are proud to present a diverse board, to show pictures of women who were recently promoted managers or leaders. Yes, yes, it is great. More and more women are getting higher in the hierarchy, that’s fantastic.
However, there’s a counterpart to this apparent positive move.
I recently talked to the Communication Director of a big international French company. She was telling me about her own story:
“One day, a [male] director retired and left the executive committee board. I had already been working for the company for about ten years, and had been appointed Communication Director for a while at that point. So I decided to submit my application to get on the executive committee: after all, I knew I was doing a good job and deserved it.
Two days after, I’m told that the President has chosen two women as new members of the board. A director comes to me and explains: “you know, we needed to feminize the board”. But am I not a woman?
Well, it turns out that the problem wasn’t the fact that I’m a woman, but that I am a woman who speaks up. I do my job and I’m involved in it, so whenever things aren’t right, I’m the kind of person that speaks up and feels comfortable discussing the President’s orders until we find the best solution to the problem.
The two women he had chosen were the opposite: silent women who would obey orders without discussing them, and mostly remain silent during meetings.
You want to know the secret of women appointed board members? They don’t talk and do what the President says”.
Diversity does not work if women (or minorities) are only tokens designed to display a diverse workplace.
Being diverse is great but being inclusive is necessary.
Appointing two “silent” women to the board is a smooth gambit to remind women that they’re only tolerated to the big boys’ court.
Now, if business is working as it always has been, why would the company need to be more inclusive?
What are the actual benefits of being an inclusive company?
1— Inclusive teams generate performance
Organizational psychologist Andrea Espedido and Juliet Bourke, Deloitte Australia’s Diversity and Inclusion, led a study about why inclusive leaders are good for organizations. They made a great discovery: inclusion greatly enhances company’s performances.
“Teams with inclusive leaders are 17% more likely to report that they are high performing, 20% more likely to say they make high-quality decisions, and 29% more likely to report behaving collaboratively”.
2 — People are more engaged towards their company
Juliet Bourke also led another study about inclusive leadership: when employees feel included they feel more engaged in their work, which also means that employees are motivated to come to work and and do their best work.
She also explains that on the other hand, the more an employee feels excluded, the less likely they are to want to participate or bring their full capabilities to the table.
Moreover, inclusive teams generate happier people: they’re heard, their opinions and experiences are being taken in account, co-workers value their expertise. This leads to people feeling respected and appreciated and therefore, happier. People then come to work at their best self.
3 — Inclusion leads to creativity and innovation
The more diverse the team is, the more likely people are to get inspiration from totally unrelated backgrounds. Therefore, a diverse team that invites everyone to share their opinions, experiences and expertise is more likely to come up with an innovative solution, or to create something totally new.
4— An inclusive team is more likely to solve a problem efficiently
Problems happen almost on a daily basis: an unexpected event, people disagreeing, someone missing… At this point, effective solutions are to be found as soon as possible in order for the mission to be kept on going.
And the solution lies on a basic principle: the more inclusive a team, the more likely people will feel comfortable sharing their opinion and ideas, which will lead to generate collaborative ideas then problem solving.
5— You get less absenteeism at the workplace
Through their study, Andrea Espedido and Juliet Bourke also add: “if just 10% more employees feel included, the company will increase work attendance by almost one day per year (6.5 hours) per employee”
A positive side effect to inclusion?
If an inclusive workplace creates happier, more creative and innovative workers, then more workers will want to apply for a job at this workplace.
Attracting more people means that the pool of talents will proportionately increase (if you want to know how appealing a company is to their workers, Glassdoor is the place to go to).
In other terms, being an inclusive workplace also means getting the best talents.
