Diversity + Inclusion.

What is Diversity in the Workplace?

Diversity in the workplace means that an organization employs a diverse team of people that’s reflective of the society in which it exists and operates.

Unfortunately, determining what makes a team diverse isn’t so simple.

Diversity incorporates all of the elements that make individuals unique from one another, and while there are infinite differences in humans, most of us subconsciously define diversity by a few social categories, such as gender, race, age and so forth.

In the United States, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) enforces laws to protect individual employees in the workplace based on specified social categories that commonly face discrimination in American culture. These social categories are typically defined in some version of a Non-Discrimination Statement and Policy, such as this one by the US government:

“The United States Government does not discriminate in employment on the basis of race, color, religion, sex (including pregnancy and gender identity), national origin, political affiliation, sexual orientation, marital status, disability, genetic information, age, membership in an employee organization, retaliation, parental status, military service, or other non-merit factor.”

There are certainly more visible and invisible elements that make individuals diverse from one another than those defined by these statements, but these broad categories can help companies identify gaps in diversity. They also provide measurable metrics for companies to set goals and make concerted efforts to boost diversity in the workplace.

There’s no doubt that improving diversity and inclusion will be at the forefront of just about every company’s agenda from here on out. In fact, more that 1,600 CEOs have signed onto the CEO Action for Diversity & Inclusion Pledge, which aims to rally the business community to advance D&I efforts. The pledge focuses on commitments towards more open conversations towards diversity and inclusion, expanding unconscious bias training and having a strategic plan of action for all D&I efforts that has to be approved by each company’s board of directors. These are solid first steps in creating a more diverse work environment, but we must all hold our leadership accountable for following through on these actions. 

Learn more about diversity & gain insight from 10 companies building diverse workplaces

What is Inclusion in the Workplace?

Although often used in tandem with diversity, inclusion is a concept of its own.

SHRM defines inclusion separately from diversity as “the achievement of a work environment in which all individuals are treated fairly and respectfully, have equal access to opportunities and resources, and can contribute fully to the organization’s success.”

Inclusion in the workplace is all about understanding and respect. Making sure everybody’s voices and opinions are heard and carefully considered is vital in creating a more inclusive work environment where everyone feels respected. Creating a work environment where everyone feels accepted and where everyone is part of the decision-making process is incredibly challenging and needs constant support to make it work. 

According to the Harvard Business Review, promoting and measuring inclusion among employees is extremely difficult. First, leadership must come up with a well-rounded definition of “inclusion”. Then, People teams must consistently gather feedback from all employees regarding their current or proposed efforts. This is an incredibly important step because you can’t have inclusion without having the opinions of all employees. Then, D&I leaders can take some of the following actions to promote inclusivity in the workplace:

• Have leadership undergo training in unconscious bias and active listening
• Form an inclusion council that plays an active role in goal-setting, hiring and retaining your workforce
• Create spaces within your office that highlight your diversity. For example, you can have a mother’s room for new mothers to breastfeed in private or you can install a prayer room for your employees to have the privacy to practice their religions.
• Create Employee Resource Groups (ERGs) that give employees safe spaces to get together and talk about common interests. For example, you can have LGBTQ+ groups, groups for new parents, groups for women in sales, groups for certain religions, etc. These groups give employees the chance to get together and share what they are going through in a safe, non-judgmental way. These groups can also be excellent teachers to the rest of the employees, where they can host company-wide talks on topics that are important to them.

Diversity vs. Inclusion

Diversity refers to the traits and characteristics that make people unique while inclusion refers to the behaviors and social norms that ensure people feel welcome. Not only is inclusivity crucial for diversity efforts to succeed, but creating an inclusive culture will prove beneficial for employee engagement and productivity.

According to Rita Mitjans, ADP’s Chief Diversity and Social Responsibility Officer, diversity is the “what” and inclusion is the “how” in your workplace. Diversity focuses on the demographics of your workplace (gender, race, age, professional background, sexual orientation, etc.), while inclusion focuses on efforts towards helping employees- with all of those different aforementioned traits (plus thousands of more)- feel safe, happy and respected. Though diversity and inclusion may be different, you cannot have either without first establishing a culture that embraces different perspectives. A close-minded workplace culture will ultimately fail to facilitate any semblance of diversity or inclusion. It is leadership’s responsibility to overtly acknowledge that different perspectives matter.

The more diverse an organization gets, the more important inclusion becomes. Inclusive efforts need to focus on making every single employee feel like they are respected and trusted, regardless of their background. Making the Black mother of three in accounting or the non-binary employee in engineering truly feel they share an equal voice with all other employees is imperative towards crafting a thriving diverse and inclusive workplace.

Check out this guide to building an inclusive work environment plus 10 tips from experts 

Business Benefits of Diversity & Inclusion in the Workplace

Aside from being a clear social, political, ethical and moral responsibility, there are some serious benefits associated with diversity in the workplace.

Benefit 1 - Ethnically diverse companies are 35% more likely to yield higher revenue, while gender diverse companies are 15% more likely to yield higher revenue.

Benefit 2 - In the US, companies that increase racial and ethnic diversity on senior boards enjoy a 0.8% increase in earnings before interest and tax (EBIT), while their counterparts in the UK see a 3.5% increase.

Benefit 3 - A recent BCG study found a strong, statistically significant positive relationship between diversity and corporate innovation. The study’s author explained her findings in a TED Talk, which is a must see for anyone interested in the topic.

Benefit 4 - Glassdoor found that 57% of employees and 67% of job seekers consider diversity an important element of their workplace, which affects recruitment and retention.

Benefit 5 - Diverse companies are 70% more likely to capture a new market audience.

Benefit 6 - When employees perceive their organization as committed to diversity and inclusion, and they actually feel included, employees are 80% more likely to rank their employer as high performing.

Benefit 7 - A study published in the American Sociological Review found that companies with the highest percent in racial or gender diversity have higher sales revenue, more customers, higher than average market share and profitability.

Diversity in the Workplace Statistics

Those figures alone should be enough to convince any business that fostering a diverse workplace is a top priority, but when we break down the latest statistics it’s evident that we still have a long way to go.  

• 97% of senior executive boards in the US fail to reflect the country’s labor force and population demographics.
• As of March 2019, 25 (4.8%) of Fortune 500 CEOs are female (up from 2.4% in 2008). To put this disparity into perspective, that’s barely more than the 4.1% of Fortune 500 CEOs who are named David and less than the 5.3% named John.
• Research studies done in New Zealand, Canada and by the National Bureau of Economic Research have indicated that people with minority names receive fewer opportunities for jobs.
• Inversely, another study indicated that people with traditional American names, like John or William, enjoy an average of 14% better financial returns.
• In addition to white men, as of 2018, there are more white women at every stage of the corporate pipeline than men or women of color.
• $16 billion is lost each year due to unfair treatment of employees and turnover.
• Compared to every 100 men promoted to a managerial position, only 79% of women are promoted.
• Of people who post personal religiously affiliated content on social media, Muslims are 13% less likely to receive a callback for an interview.
• Only 17.9% of people with a disability were employed in 2016 compared to 65.% of people without a disability.
• Men earn a 6% higher wage when they have a child, whereas women earn 4% less when they have a child.

The tech industry, in particular, has some startling diversity statistics. information is beautiful created an interactive infographic showing diversity statistics for 23 of the largest tech companies. Here are some of their findings:

• Indiegogo is the only company with at least 50% women representation, slightly less than the US population, which is 51% women.
• NVIDIA has the lowest representation of white employees at 37%. They also have the highest Asian representation at 45%, compared to 6% of the US population.
• Apple and Amazon both have the highest representation of Latino employees at 13%, compared to the US population at 18%.
• Amazon also has the highest representation of African American employees at 21% followed by Dell at 10%, compared to the US population, which is 13% African American.