Equity and belonging
Last year, we wrote about how a sense of belonging in teams is a “must have.” A sense of belonging improves employee well-being, job satisfaction, and performance. As public agencies in Washington continue working toward diverse, equitable, and inclusive workplaces, it’s a good time to stop and ask why belonging matters and how we can achieve it. In this article, we look at one equity team’s approach to increasing belonging.
A 2020 Harvard Business Review article notes:
“organizations often focus on inclusion in their diversity initiatives, but efforts toward inclusion that do not foster belonging can backfire….
When employees felt like others asked for their input only because they were supposed to, or sought their opinion as someone who can represent their social group (surface inclusion), they felt like they belonged less…This reduced sense of belonging works directly against inclusion efforts.”
Given the potential for unproductive efforts, how can supervisors and leaders learn which approaches might be more effective at increasing belonging?
A short case study
The division of Workforce Support & Development (WSD) at the Department of Enterprise Services (DES) formed an Equity Team four years ago, in response to a diversity workshop. At the end of the workshop, employees were invited to learn more and continue the conversation. The new Equity Team was tasked with facilitating next steps for building equity, inclusion, and belonging within the division.
Division managers attend Equity Team meetings. “The Equity Team doesn’t have to make formal recommendations to leadership because they’re part of the conversation at the right times,” said Equity Team member Elizabeth Castro. The team asks managers to champion the equity work with their teams. “Culture only changes when managers buy in, so it made sense to include them.”
The first year was focused on getting the team up and running. The team then asked, how do we measure a sense of belonging? How do we know if our work has increased belonging? “We had access to Employee Engagement and team satisfaction survey data,” said Elizabeth, “but we also wanted qualitative data.”
To address that need, the Equity Team hosted listening sessions for division employees with a separate session for managers. “We discovered that our employees wanted more information,” said Elizabeth. “We also learned they wanted to get to know each other — our identities, how we move through the world, who we are beyond what we do.”
The team responded by:
- Creating a division equity newsletter.
- Establishing monthly lunch hour “coffee talks” with open-ended discussion themes, such as “hair,” “music,” and “superstitions.” The discussion themes are a way to invite employees to share their stories.
- Providing professional development opportunities, including a workshop and a 21-day racial equity challenge.
The team recently completed a second round of listening sessions. “We’re gathering themes from the sessions and will do a pulse check survey to confirm our understanding,” said Elizabeth. The sessions asked four questions:
- What’s your ideal workplace culture?
- How is our division like that?
- What’s missing?
- Of what’s missing, what should the Equity Team prioritize?
The latest listening sessions revealed an increase in employee belonging, connection, and support. “The themes and tone of what people shared has changed since the first listening sessions. That’s why it’s important to check back in,” said Elizabeth. “It’s not a formula. It’s an approach based on listening.”
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The Washington State Employee Assistance Program (EAP) is a free, confidential program created to promote the health, safety and well-being of public service employees and their household adult family members. The EAP is available to provide confidential and expert consultation in a variety of areas. Reach out to EAP online or by calling 877–313–4455. To find out if the Washington State EAP serves your agency or organization, contact your supervisor or human resources department.
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