Megan Smith
Marketing Analyst
For many job seekers, diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) are at the forefront of their minds. Joining a company that promotes and hires diversity, gives equity, and implements inclusion is quite crucial in having healthy relationships, culture, and communication.
According to a September survey from Glassdoor, “76 percent of employees and job seekers said a diverse workforce was important when evaluating companies and job offers. Nearly half of Black and Hispanic employees and job seekers said they had quit a job after witnessing or experiencing discrimination at work. And 37 percent of employees and job seekers said they wouldn’t apply to a company that had negative satisfaction ratings among people of color.” Knowing this, as a company it is important to have some initiatives or a plan in place to increase your efforts.
Let’s clarify what each of these means.
Diversity: An organization that entails different types of people from a wide range of identities with different perspectives, experiences, cultures, ages, gender, ethnicity, race, sexual orientation, etc.
Equity: Giving the same treatment, opportunities, and advancements to provide equally high outcomes for all, while removing any correlation between success or failure and social or cultural factors.
Inclusion: The action of creating an environment of acceptance and respect while harnessing the impact of different ideas, experiences, and perspectives to deliver greater value.
So how can a combination of these three impact your company?
1. They foster an inclusive work environment and culture. Hiring a diverse workforce allows the company to gather and incorporate different ideas and perspectives, giving them a competitive edge. Employees within a DEI organization can feel more comfortable about voicing their opinions and ideas as they see that the organization is accepting of all walks of life.
2. There’s an increase in productivity, innovation, and growth. With a diversified team, innovation can increase by 19%, translating into overall better financial performance. Having open communication between all team members along with management can produce a higher increase in innovation. There is a correlation between inclusive decision making and an increase in business performance Cloverpop provides the following statistics to back this up:
- Inclusive teams make better business decisions up to 87% of the time.
- Teams that follow an inclusive process make decisions 2X faster with 1/2 the meetings.
- Decisions made and executed by diverse teams delivered 60% better results.
3. You can attract top talent. Most job seekers are looking for DEI efforts from the company they are applying to. The top talent candidates won’t settle so having something in place is key. When interviewing candidates, speak to your DEI plans and emphasize what exactly you are doing to ensure these actions are implemented. If you don’t have a plan established, ensure you’re on your way to starting one. Stating this in a first interview will help keep them intrigued and know that they are welcomed into your company.
Assess and evaluate the state of your organization’s DEI activities to see if putting together an action plan is right for you. Do you currently have diverse team members? Do you have equal opportunities for all members to grow and advance in their careers? If you have plans for improving DEI, are they being implemented across the organization frequently? These are some questions to ask yourself and your team to improve your company and attract those top talent candidates.
Assess your current employee satisfaction for free today.
