Building an Inclusive Culture

by Simon McCune

Diversity and inclusion are words that are often used together, especially when we are discussing a company’s hiring and staffing efforts. However, while the two words are often said in conjunction, today we want to focus on inclusion, specifically, and your company’s efforts to create a culture that emphasizes diversity and equality in the workplace.
 
Now, reaching a more diverse applicant pool and hiring more candidates from underrepresented groups is certainly part of these efforts, and we encourage you to read some of the blogs we’ve posted recently on those essential topics (How to Reach and Hire Diverse Candidates). However, what we want to talk about today is how to build an inclusive work environment for your current and future workforce, by focusing on efforts you can make outside of the hiring process.
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​Ways To Build an Inclusive Culture

• Count, Analyze, Strategize: When it comes to increasing sales revenue or profit margins, businesses are always collecting and analyzing data, and using it to come up with strategies to boost their performance. Well, why not do the same thing with your diversity and inclusion efforts? Tracking and evaluating not only your hiring numbers, but your retention rates and the upward mobility for employees from underrepresented groups is a great way to gain an understanding of what is working within your organization and identifying what needs to change when it comes to creating an inclusive environment.
• Include Your Managers: In our last post, we discussed the importance of getting buy-in from your managers when it comes to hiring applicants from underrepresented groups (How to Reach and Hire Diverse Candidates). However, manager involvement with your diversity and inclusion efforts should not be limited to the hiring process. As a business owner, you empower your managers to build and enforce your company culture within their particular team or department. If you don’t include them in your inclusion planning and strategy, you can’t expect them to understand how to translate your company-wide inclusion goals to the team of employees they are managing.
• Celebrate Employee Differences: We have discussed this before (Why Diversity in the Workplace Matters and How to Build It), but often when hiring and training employees, companies take a one-size fit all approach, attempting to find “culture fits” or staff members that would seem to match perfectly with their current corporate principles. However, as you strive to build a more inclusive environment, your organization’s culture will evolve. Therefore, it is important to encourage and celebrate the differences that will allow your culture to grow, focusing on what an employee has to offer and how they can spur that growth, as opposed to how they may fit within your organization as is.
• Listen To Your Employees: As a business owner or leader, it can be hard to remain connected to your employees and understand their experiences. We recommend checking in with your employees, especially those from underrepresented groups, regularly and in an open, safe forum, where they can communicate what they have noticed, and give you input on what needs to be changed in order for your company to provide a more inclusive workspace.
• Create Meaningful Mentorship Opportunities: According to a study by Heidrick and Struggles, employees from underrepresented groups, such as women and minorities, are more likely to say that mentoring was extremely important to their career progress, as well as to participate in formal mentoring programs offered by their companies. The evidence suggests that underrepresented employees place a higher emphasis on mentorship, and they are looking for opportunities to connect with organizational leaders that can help their careers blossom.

 
These, of course, are just a few ways in which you can build greater inclusivity in your company culture. As always, remember that ExecuSearch is here to help, and don’t hesitate to reach out to us for help with your staffing, retention, and diversity and inclusion needs!