Businesses are changing and evolving day by day and so is the future of diversity in the world of employment. Many organisations prioritise building their diversity policies as this helps maintain a comfortable and welcoming work environment, giving employees a sense of belonging, but also allows for more creative and diverse ideas. This has not only increased work productivity, but companies have mentioned that it has also given them access to a new labour pool and helped build a positive brand image for their business.
Diversity, Equality, and Inclusion (DEI) practices in the workplace can be impacted by several different factors, whether they be political, economic, or social, yet businesses have still been seen adapting to a number of trends and suggestions to ensure big advancements within their diversity policies.
Increasing number of roles for DEI specialists
One of the key trends since 2020 has been the increase in roles for DEI specialists or ‘Head of Diversity’ positions, in which the individual would be responsible for creating inclusion strategies for their organisation to ensure a comfortable and open working environment. From organising and running training sessions to raising awareness about different backgrounds, they would be responsible for every factor that would contribute to creating the initiatives for DEI in the workplace.
According to a LinkedIn Talents report, since 2020 77% of new Diversity, Equality, and Inclusion roles within EMEA were senior or director positions. In a much closer look, the UK were known to make twice as many of these hires compared to any other country in the world, making it the second largest nation with DEI specialists globally. It is predicted that firms could be looking at hiring whole diversity teams in the future, starting from the most senior positions first to help establish the base.
It is shown that businesses who have already made an investment in these roles have increased a 22% chance of being seen as an industry with a high calibre talent pool and a 12% chance of being seen as an inclusive workplace for people of different backgrounds. This has been a very useful initiative in attracting a new talent pool for the company as most job seekers are keen on employers that value diversity, equality, and inclusion.
Employee Resource Groups (ERG)
Employee Resource Groups are employee led communities which aim to give a voice to those who are generally underrepresented in the workplace. These groups allow people in the workplace, with the same shared identity and experience, to come together on much deeper level with focuses on race, gender, ethnicity, sexuality, or any other defining characteristic. In 2021, nearly 40% of companies in the US were known to have or invested in ERGs, a rise of 9% from the previous year, which has helped develop and support the awareness for diversity and equality in their workplace.
ESGs give a voice to the underrepresented people in the company who are unable to share their day-to-day struggles or concerns within the organisation and help them find a solution with the support of their colleagues. Proven to increase job satisfaction, ESGs are also well known to foster a better learning environment for firms by providing cultural and diversity insights for them. In the future, companies can expect to see massive contribution to these groups by Gen Z employees, who are considered the most diverse generation of the nation, highlighting the big change there could be for diversity in the coming years.
DEI training
This is a key practice that nearly all companies use to provide their employees with the correct understanding of how they wish to incorporate DEI but also to keep them up to date with what is acceptable and what is unacceptable within their work culture. In order to provide employees with efficient training, it is recommended that a firm conducts an assessment first which can help them understand the strengths and gaps within their DEI policy and use this to create a tailored learning programme. If not tailored to the right needs, there is a chance that certain training can cause more negative impact then positive for example, research in 2019 found that by asking people to fight stereotypes through training, they are actually reinforcing them into their minds instead.
In conjunction with this, the delivery of the training is also another key aspect to focus on as many organisations opt to just a short one-shot training session, which can be very ineffective. As DEI training can be given through various methods, firms could look into investing in one that would work well for their employees. They could chose and combine between e-learning modules, in person workshops, web based labs or virtual trainer toolkits to create a new innovative approach to DEI training. Furthermore, they could consider refresher training sessions after a certain period e.g., every 6 months to be able to maintain the policy. With the correct training and method, the course should be available at all levels to emphasise a similar culture within the firm.
Progress updates
Initiating and implementing DEI practices is a continuous work in progress and will always require constant assessment. Firms that consider running regular checks and providing updates on their progress are more likely to show their commitment towards increasing diversity at their work environment, which again can give them a better brand image and attract talent that they may have not had access to before. Furthermore, these reports can also help make training more effective as it can highlight new strengths and gaps to which training programmes can then be tailored too. However the main goal of implementing strong DEI initiatives should be to foster a work culture that accurately represents our demographic and makes people of all backgrounds feel comfortable to thrive.
Written by Kawleen Kaur – connect with me on LinkedIn
