10 Ways Employees can Support Diversity and Inclusion

Once an organization has successfully modified their recruitment and hiring practices to reach a more diverse audience, the next step is to successfully engage and support them as employees.

For diversity practices to be successful, you also need to facilitate an inclusive work culture.

Unfortunately, my experience in diversity resulted in off shoring and loss of jobs locally. That was easily predicted by the employees but the management lied and many lost jobs. Diversity is only the beginning of off shoring and job losses, layoffs etc.

Actively engage in the diversity effort. You can take part in or start an Employee Resource Group, or volunteer to chair or serve on committees that organize diversity-related events and activities. Consider becoming a mentor, mentee, or part of a co-mentoring relationship. These activities require a commitment of time, but represent a valuable opportunity for personal and professional development.

One way to build awareness of diversity and foster greater inclusivity is to be aware of and acknowledge a variety of upcoming religious and cultural holidays. When closing out a team call or meeting, if the audience isn’t too large, ask how people plan to celebrate the holiday. Use your company’s intranet to help employees be aware of and keep track of multicultural religious or holiday celebrations. Be respectful of these days when scheduling meetings, and understand that employees may have different needs and require flexibility.

Our recommendation for people who do survive the first day and then week, is to see through a whole year before making any decisions about whether to stay in the long-term. It is important to experience a full cycle of the business and its operations.

Similarly, the very early days in your own new business have many pressures, excitements and issues with which to deal. We have been there and are thriving; we can help you address the pressing problems and open closed doors.

Know the diversity goals and vision of your organization and its connection to the overall business objectives

we are all different each others but we are the same. I would emphasize that the term races should be remove in common language and I support the human. the term "race" has the connotation of competition and neglect other group. Therefore, let us support and value all humans regardless the color of their skin and recognize we are all one race, which it is human.
Thank you
Mitogo T. Opira, Diversity Supervisor
JBS FOODS -Plainwell, Michigan

Great article. Ignore the naysayers

Always know the diversity goals and vision of your organization and its connection to the overall business objectives.

I am glad someone like you understands the employees' needs at work.
Nobody understands employee's sentiments but another employee.

Not as easy as it sounds though,
George is told: ‘We’ve employed people from your country before. You lot simply don’t share our work ethic’.

Li-Huei unsuccessfully applies for a job as a receptionist with a large hotel. When she calls the human resources manager to ask why she did not get the job, she is told that the manager doesn’t want to employ a receptionist with an accent.

I think it's super important to try to learn about other cultures and where people come from! We all have a different worldview. If we try to understand and come together, we can do much more good than if we ignored it or only supported one way of thinking.

The landscaping business is notorious for not being very diverse in their celebrations or their choice of employees. As a representative of this industry, I am striving to take my company in a different direction. When we go to schedule any landscaping contracting jobs or lawn care jobs in Edinburg, TX I am making it my personal goal to reach out to every individual customer and asking what needs they have and to be sensitive to special holidays they may be celebrating! I know it's just one location and one business but if we all did this, we would make a larger impact!!

Engaging people at every level is the hallmark of good leaders in not only business but life. Great post!

-Chris

I remember segregation. I remember race riots. All I can say as an old man who got tired of prejudice in this country is that I am so happy that this is now how the culture turned out. I am very proud of this country.

Diversity and inclusion is a company’s mission, strategies, and practices to support a diverse workplace and leverage the effects of diversity to achieve a competitive business advantage.

Thank you for sharing. Diversity and Inclusion are so crucial to the success of any business. These tips are very valuable, I especially like #9, everyone should continue to improve, especially in this area.

Diversity is one of those things that I think is moving in the right direction, but especially at the upper levels of management is still something that needs to be mitigated. I think we should all be aware of cultural biases and strive to be more than what our base assumptions tell us to be. Great insightful post.

-Mike

I love #9. We need to foster good environments around learning and growing. You can always learn something!

I think number 4 makes a lot of sense and we should definitely respect your co-workers and build better relationships, improving your work experience with them in the long run. Thank you for the great article!

Out of the 10 ways, what I really like are the numbers 5, 8, and 10. Thank you for sharing this content and it is in deed very helpful especially if you can really see the diversity in your working environment.

Number 5 is right on the spot, we need to try to put ourselves in other people shoes

These are great pointers for businesses!!!! Love this article!

All 10 points are easily actionable – what a great article

Education is key. People are underestimating its compound effect.

Possessing the ability to adapt to diverse backgrounds and skillsets can be a huge asset. When work environments promote collaboration adapting to work will others can be a great tool.

This was my favorite truth – "Often, negative behavior comes from ignorance rather than malice". A positive attitude for progressive growth and learning. I appreciate your article.

Education is key to life itself for everyone.

We employ people from all walks of life. I am glad I took the time to read this as it is a reminder about how to find and keep the best employees

Excellent Blog! hoping the same best work from you in the future as well. I Thanks for sharing. Great websites!

Thank you for bringing up this topic. I really think that diversity is important in a company. Doesn't matter how big a company is. Get out of the comfort zone and have employees with different background. It's really interesting to hear from other sides.

Love this. My company does do a good job in making it known they're diverse but having an executable plan makes it all the best. To be honest, diversity is super helpful. It brings out different experiences from different people – that's the good part. It teaches people how to interact, work and grow from those who grew up differently.

Thank you for your recommendation about how employees can support diversity and inclusion. This will be helpful since most of the companies are experiencing a lot of employee turnover or attrition. In this way, it can be minimized. In handyman services Delaware, employees are involved as well as our clients in reaching our goal that is to provide the best handyman service.

I have been trying to figure out how to do this better within my own tree service business, you bring up some key points. Thank you.

Great article! As the owner of a concrete company in Olathe, KS I can absolutely relate to this. Building a positive and sustainable culture as a business actually isn't hard. Treat people as equals, with respect and dignity while compensating them fairly for their skills. I love my team, they are some of the most loyal and hard working humans I have ever been around or had the luxury to work with.

Choosing a positive attitude is one of the most powerful things we can take.

Es importante tener en cuenta las minoridades sobre todo en el mundo del trabajo!

Really great ideas!

Keep up the great work with what you do.

Great article. I especially felt like the "become culturally competent" and "the commitment to continuous improvement" points were astute. It is not difficult to take an interest in other cultures, and can help bridge the gap between what feels "normal" to one person, and unusual to another. As long as people are committed to improving in the arena of diversity inclusion, it can be done.

Great work, keep up the effort.

One thing thing that is often overlooked in diversity and inclusion protocols is the layout and design of the workplace. A good workplace strategy will take into account diversity requirements so that a new office design or refurbishment actively encourages diversity and inclusion.

I agree with Dan in the fact that we are becoming a very sensistive divided culture. Especially when it comes down to politics. I find it funny the general population ultimately wants the same thing but our egos are to great to where we would rather choose a side as opposed to coming together and finding a solution.

Diversification is needed but it should never triumph the individual skills on the field that is required to get the job. It certainly increases the cultural aspect of the team as more people from different background are able to express their aspect on problems.

We are huge proponents of diversity and inclusion. This is becoming on of the top priorities in this country, which is very encouraging to see. We are a far shot from ideal state, but we are doing our respective parts to move in the right direction.

Great job everyone for coming on board with this. It will revolutionize the workplace.

One way to build awareness of diversity and foster greater inclusivity is to be aware of and acknowledge a variety of upcoming religious and cultural holidays. Let's respect each other. 🙂

Best regards!

I thought that this was a great foundational article about diversity and inclusion. There are many facets to diversity and inclusion and she gave GREAT insight to each one. We can now branch off and include the disabled although within certain "groups" if you are a minority THAT IS A disability or handicap that ostracizes many from participating within the GROUP. I think that she touched on that.

Nice article, I think just following the golden rule is the best way to respect others diversity and differences.