An inclusive workplace is one where all people are welcome and everyone is treated equally. However, true inclusivity can’t be achieved easily—you have to be mindful and take active steps to achieve the goal.
Employees and management need to be trained, processes reviewed, and policies implemented and enforced. An inclusive workplace is not only good for employee well-being, but it also improves employee retention and your company’s bottom line.
Here are 10 of the most effective steps you can implement to ensure inclusivity in your workplace.
1. Allow working from home
Giving your employees the freedom to work from home ties in with flexibility, but it deserves a mention of its own.
In a post-pandemic world, working from home has become the norm, and many people still have concerns over their health. Be mindful that a lot of your employees may need to travel to work on steel tubes packed full of people, potentially making them very uneasy about the commute.
2. Communicate respectfully and tactfully
Whether speaking or writing, it’s important to be careful about how you communicate. Certain words or phrases might not seem offensive to you but can be very offensive to other people.
Always keep your audience in mind when you are communicating with your employees and try to take different backgrounds and cultures into account. It can be easy to overlook nuances of language and ways your communication could be misinterpreted, so carefully check any written messages before sending.
3. Encourage socialisation
People can easily feel excluded in a workplace, especially when cliques form. To overcome this and improve employee well-being, encourage socialisation in and out of the office.
As well as offering the occasional luncheon or social event outside of working hours, you can also create areas where employees can relax and get to know each other. A games room will help people get to know each other better; consider investing in some gaming gear with gaming VPNs for great gaming security and performance.
4. Allow flexible work times
Many people cannot fit their responsibilities into a 9-5 working day. Many have children and other relatives to care for, making it extremely difficult for them to be in the office at set times.
Where you can, be flexible so people with different schedules can work and still perform their other obligations. While flexible hours are not practical for a lot of organizations, you may be surprised how much room for compromise there is, so talk it through.
5. Create a safe environment
Ensure that your employees feel confident that they can speak openly and safely with management about any issues they might have.
Nobody can be watching over all employees and management at all times, so bosses will sometimes have to count on employees to raise issues that might otherwise be missed.
Establishing secure and anonymous whistleblowing systems lets your employees know you care about their well-being, and it will help to ensure that employees feel comfortable speaking up about problems.
6. Provide inclusivity training
Train managers and employees on inclusivity. It can be very difficult even for well-meaning people to recognize occurrences of inequality in the workplace, so training should be provided to help people recognize such incidents.
Providing training will not only help educate management and staff, but it will also help send the message that you expect an inclusive culture. Also, provide sexual harassment training and any other training that could help your employees feel safer.
7. Set clear inclusivity policies in place
Set policies that make it clear to all that your company promotes an inclusive culture. Make sure that new employees are made aware of the policies, and that training is provided to help ensure that all employees are aware.
It’s also important to ensure policies are adopted throughout the organization—all the way to the top. Get buy-in from the C-suite to help ensure an inclusive culture permeates throughout the company.
8. Diversify your hiring process
Evaluate your hiring processes to help ensure a diverse workforce. Many of us don’t recognize our biases, and these can lead to inequality when it comes to hiring decisions.
Training recruiters to recognize and be mindful of any unconscious bias will help ensure a fairer hiring process and improved equality throughout the organization overall.
9. Remove barriers
Ensure that the workplace is accessible to all of your employees. Install ramps and lifts for wheelchair users and other facilities that help make things easier for people with disabilities.
Also, remove any barriers that might impede people who are working from home. Make sure you have remote working technology that keeps employees involved no matter where they might be.
10. Hold regular meetings
Weekly meetings keep everybody in the loop. Keep both on-site and remote employees up to date on any developments so they can know the company appreciates their efforts.
Use meetings as an opportunity to let employees have their say, and make sure to listen to feedback and act on it where necessary.
Conclusion
It’s important to remember that implementing the above steps alone won’t achieve a lasting inclusive culture. Maintaining an inclusive culture is an ongoing undertaking and requires constant mindfulness.
Regular reviews should be taken to ensure your corporate culture supports your employees’ well-being. You will also need to be prepared to adapt as society changes in the future.
*Cover Photo by Bench Accounting on Unsplash
