People have a right to be treated fairly in the workplace for several clear social justice reasons.
People have a right to be treated fairly in the workplace for several clear social justice reasons. While this may seem enough, it shows that diversity and inclusion have a significant business impact on productivity and profitability. Working with our customers on their diversity and inclusion strategies has also taught me a lot, giving me a good idea of what to look for.
Here are four warning signs you can look out for that may indicate your diversity and inclusion approach isn’t doing its job effectively. Understanding if you have a problem can be challenging, and asking people rarely gives you a definitive answer.
High Attrition Rates
Red flags such as high attrition rates are evident and cannot be ignored since they hit hard. No one likes to watch their valued team members leave. While you can always come up with reasons why your retention rates are not what you would like them to be, if you notice that specific demographics are leaving your business faster than others, you will likely have a problem.
Here’s something you can think of doing: Exit interviews are crucial to understanding why employees leave and essential in ensuring others don’t leave for the same reasons. Remember to conduct exit interviews both for the employee leaving and for yourself.
Low Attraction Rates
First, attract a diverse range of applicants to build a diverse workforce. Sounds simple, but first, conduct an audit of your hiring processes. If certain demographics aren’t being attracted, there’s probably a reason why.
Take a closer look at your hiring process and determine if there are specific stages at which you lose candidates. If so, try to understand what might be contributing to this. For example, you may ask people to complete a lengthy take-home technical challenge when they have families to raise, and it can be done on-site. Or, you may have an onsite task that some people find intimidating but can be accomplished by others.
Here’s something you can do – You can start by making the interview process more fair by standardising questions. Try not to overlook providing managers with training on unconscious biases and interviewing techniques.
Poor Staff Engagement & Morale
Having trouble being oneself at work will lead to your team members not engaging fully. They may withdraw themselves, leading to low morale, engagement, and productivity for the entire team. Despite their shortcomings, engagement surveys and staff feedback remain excellent indicators of how your staff feels as part of the workforce. If specific demographics score lower or have similar problems, you may have an issue that needs to be addressed.
Try sending out specific D&I surveys instead of generic surveys to determine the feelings of everyone in your organisation. It is essential to include ‘exclusion surveys’ in your program to identify issues that you face directly.
Lack of management buy-in
It’s all good to have the best D&I policy in the world, but if senior management doesn’t actively participate, it won’t work. People must see the effort coming from management, so senior management must lead from the front. D&I initiatives that don’t get buy-in from top management are an early sign that things might not turn out how you want them to. Ensure management understands the importance and benefits of good D&I practices, then get their involvement and support.
Form a D&I-focused internal team with management representation so staff know that D&I is a high priority for the organisation. Management can also see how staff feels about D&I, making securing their continued support easier.
Have these issues? Worry not; there is a solution!
It’s okay to see one or more of these signs in your current team, department, or organisation. Diversity and inclusion only sometimes occur organically.
At Ataro Consulting Group, we understand the impact that an organisation’s lack of D&I measures can have on its workforce and the difficulties that challenging internal workplace norms can lead to.