Your D&I Efforts Will Fail If Employees Don’t Feel Like They Belong
Your diversity and inclusion initiatives won’t be effective if employees ultimately don’t feel like they belong. So what should managers do to emphasize inclusion and belonging? First, recognize — but don’t overemphasize — the differences between your employees. You want to strike a middle ground that allows people from underrepresented communities to feel included but not singled out. Create an environment that signals respect for and interest in people from all backgrounds and allows employees to feel secure expressing their identity. Next, ensure that there are systems in place to support employees who speak up about diversity and equity issues at your organization. Make sure their concerns are heard, not diminished or dismissed. Finally, frame your D&I initiatives in a way that conveys sincerity. At the organizational level, your diversity initiatives should absolutely focus on increasing representation of different groups. But at the day-to-day, person-to-person level, your inclusion efforts must be about individuals and their specific experience at work.
“Are Your D&I Efforts Helping Employees Feel Like They Belong?,” by Michael Slepian