Best Practices for Promoting Diversity and Inclusion in the Workplace

In the past few years, there has been a major push to promote diversity and inclusion in the workplace which has helped to finally shed light on these important topics. As an employer, it is your responsibility to make sure your company is encouraging dialogue about diversity and inclusion in the workplace among employees, that your employees feel safe and discrimination-free at work, and that your workplace is a diverse and inclusive environment. When it comes to promoting diversity and inclusion in a company, there may be many things you have already been doing to be inclusive. It’s always possible that there are some additional steps you can take to make sure everyone is welcome and included at work, and the Nowell Agency is here to share some inclusion ideas.

Importance of Diversity and Inclusion in the Workplace

Besides your moral compass pointing in the right direction, you, your business, and your employees will all benefit from creating diversity, equality, and inclusion at work. There are a variety of organizational advantages to be gained for businesses that establish diverse representation and maintain an inclusive work environment. Some benefits that arise from a diverse employee base include unique employee perspectives, a deeper talent pool, increased innovation, and improved workplace morale. All those factors result in higher productivity and loyalty, reduced employee turnover, and ultimately increased profitability. Supporting that fact is a recent study which found that diverse workforces are 25% more likely to outperform their less diverse competition.

An additional advantage of promoting inclusion and diversity comes in the form of fewer lawsuits regarding failures in inclusive and diversity practices. Again, these potential legal issues come at a high cost for the company, both monetarily and reputationally. By creating an atmosphere that not only encourages but mandates a diverse and inclusive workforce, your employees and business alike will thrive.

Building Diversity and Inclusion in the Workplace in 2021

So you might be wondering how to develop a diversity, equity, and inclusion initiative for your company! Following these best practices for diversity and inclusion in a business will start you on the right track. Chances are, some or all of these diversity and inclusion in the workplace examples are already in place, and if so, great job! If not, don’t fret, change is on its way!

How to build workplace diversity, equality, and inclusion:

• Take steps to ensure diverse representation within your leadership team, and adjust or expand existing leadership positions to accommodate (it starts at the top!)
• Mandate routine training on diversity and inclusion topics for the entire staff, particularly the senior leadership team
• Hire, mentor, and promote qualified employees who belong to underrepresented communities; this may require compensation practices for recruiting diverse candidates
• Provide further professional development for those employees who have not had equal opportunity
• Produce and disseminate an annual workplace diversity and inclusion report which provides data regarding your organization’s inclusion and diversity efforts
• Establish a diversity and inclusion leader (or department) to uphold company diversity and inclusion initiatives and ensure compliance with all related federal and state legislation
• Keep detailed documentation of all workplace diversity and inclusion initiatives and be transparent with this information
• Consult the Nowell Agency, or another reliable insurance professional to determine specific D&O coverage needs for diversity and inclusion

Best Diversity and Inclusion Strategies

We hope you now feel at least a little more informed on how to establish diversity and inclusion best practices in the workplace 2021; you’re well on your way! Having a comprehensive employee benefits package helps foster a workplace mentality based on equality and inclusion. Support every employee equally and attract top diverse talent with an insurance plan from Nowell Agency. Give us a call today or click to see all of our employee benefits and health insurance policies or to obtain D & O coverage. Our experienced agents will ensure your insurance policies cover all the bases. Congratulations and good luck from the Nowell Agency!