Despite organizations signaling commitment, important questions remain around equity, diversity and inclusion in the workplace. What does it mean to feel included at work? Why is cultivating DEI necessary for organizational success? And how might organizations make meaningful, authentic and sustainable changes to their DEI culture?
Our work with clients over the past two years underscores an important message: Inclusion and belonging matter for your organization’s success and can be supported through changes to your workplace environment and culture. While sustainable culture change must start at the top and include organizational accountability, it must also involve all employees, collectively learning and working together to shift processes, behaviors and attitudes.
Involving every member of your organization in the culture change process is the logical approach to take when embarking on your DEI journey. Your employees’ participation will not only give you the insights you need to make shifts in the right direction; showing them you value their input and are invested in their development can also foster feelings of inclusion and belonging from the outset.
Measure current DEI perceptions to develop a roadmap for culture change
Employees’ perceptions of the workplace are critical to decisions around remaining with an organization or taking a new position elsewhere. However, it can be challenging to assess current states of culture and levels of DEI at work. The Center for Creative Leadership developed a DEI culture survey in partnership with a client — a leader in the global automotive technology industry — to capture a wide range of DEI-related factors.
Responses from more than 2,500 employees suggested that cultivating a DEI culture matters for retaining committed, energized and resilient employees. Employees’ perceptions of the company’s DEI culture accounted for 20-34 percent of reported burnout, work-life balance and turnover intentions. To illustrate, knowing how employees perceived their DEI culture predicted one-third of employees’ decisions to look for another job. Considering the cost of retention and burnout, DEI perceptions provide a critical lever in individual well-being and organizational success.
Inclusion and belonging also consistently emerged as key predictors of turnover and burnout. Employees who perceived more inclusive workplace practices (e.g., recruiting and promoting a diverse workforce) reported less burnout and greater work-life balance. Similarly, employees who reported high belonging were less likely to report looking for other jobs or experiencing burnout. Responses suggest that employees’ perceptions of inclusion and belonging are crucial to supporting a happy, engaged and committed workforce.
Changing your culture requires changing your actions
Simply assessing DEI in the workplace is not enough to create change; instead, measuring DEI is most powerful when it is used to guide strategic action. Based on findings from the survey, CCL and the client company partnered to develop a strategic plan for meaningful culture change. This action plan was powerful because it was data-based, tailored to the company’s organizational context and scalable. Action steps included:
- Hiring a dedicated full-time diversity and inclusion director to augment efforts from the existing diversity and inclusion council.
- Founding employee resource groups to support employees with shared identities.
- Reviewing and revising policies and recruitment practices with an eye toward inclusion.
- Developing a deliberate communication strategy around DEI efforts at the company.
- Standing up a diversity and inclusion academy focused on scaling DEI training and development throughout a major portion of the organization.
The company’s diversity and inclusion academy plays an important role in offering training to all employees, exemplifying a model for fostering a learning culture and scaling efforts for the greatest impact. Democratizing access to DEI development — not just a select few — is a powerful tool to address the mindset, skillset and toolset needed for their entire employee population to lead with DEI in mind.
Walk your talk by democratizing access to learning and development opportunities
Every organization is unique. As an L&D leader, how can you ensure that all — not just some — of your employees can access opportunities to promote inclusion and belonging at your organization? Below are recommendations for fostering equitable access to opportunities to learn and develop, backed by recent CCL research on their importance.
- Ensure equitable access. Leadership development is often only offered to select high-potential employees, limiting options to scale and sustain change. In two studies with more than 24,000 young professionals (18-30 year olds) from 62 countries, 60 percent reported that leadership opportunities for young people are inequitable. Democratizing access requires an honest examination of who is involved and why. Ensure equitable access by practicing:
- Inclusive nominations. Be intentional about who is nominated to participate in DEI programs when there is limited space. Nominate employees who bring a range of experience levels, backgrounds and expertise. Intentionally reach out to employees participating in ERGs or performing informal leadership duties. Consider whether leadership opportunities are available to employees who hold different social identities, from sexual orientation and veteran status to ability level and age.
- Self-selection opportunities. Offer development opportunities to everyone, not just those who already hold leadership roles or have openly expressed interest in leading. Opportunities to engage in meaningful development opportunities can promote value, autonomy and trust.
2. Embrace differences. Teams and organizations with greater diversity are more productive, accurate and innovative and better problem solvers. Embrace differences by centering:
- Different perspectives. People tend to form relationships with others who are similar. Intentionally forming development cohorts that span functions, geographies, leader levels, generations and backgrounds creates opportunities for perspective taking and learning. Consider connecting leaders who wouldn’t normally interact and construct opportunities for boundary spanning. Also, advocate for trainers and facilitators who bring disparate backgrounds, expertise and points of view.
- Sponsorship, allyship and mentorship. Sponsorship, allyship and mentorship can help employees at all stages of their careers, from building professional networks to creating promotion opportunities. Sponsors can also create opportunities for challenging assignments and heat experiences, which CCL research suggests are fodder for growth. However, access to these important relationships is rarely equitable. Partner with leaders across the organization to create sponsors, allies and mentors for underestimated populations. Consider who is being mentored, by whom and at what points in their career.
3. Enlist managers. Leaders have been faced with managing important paradoxes during COVID-19, including fostering inclusion and belonging in an increasingly hybrid world. This challenge is further complicated as some employees return to the office full-or part-time or remain remote. Provide your managers with the right tools for managing teams by emphasizing:
- Psychological safety. More than 62 percent of senior leadership teams demonstrate significant variability in their feelings of psychological safety, which predicts team outcomes like performance, conflict and respect. Create opportunities for teams to explore, discuss and address psychological safety at work. Equip managers with training, support and resources to hold important and difficult conversations. Solicit feedback from managers on supports, barriers and nuances to psychological safety at your organization.
- Moving beyond bias. To support a more inclusive work environment, organizations must move beyond bias awareness training to provide managers with concrete strategies to counteract bias. Equip managers with research-backed strategies for themselves and the people they lead to recognize and replace biased thinking and actions.
4. Extend meaningful opportunities to promote DEI. DEI is not the responsibility of a single leader, council or department. All employees — across business units and leader levels — have a role to play in culture change. Extend opportunities to participate by communicating:
- Clear expectations. Organizations and organizational cultures are ultimately driven by people. Make clear that promoting inclusion and belonging is a shared responsibility and articulate the role that everyone is expected to play. Then, provide development, support and resources to enable all employees to actively build a culture of DEI.
- The importance of action. In our DEI culture survey, we found that what employees said they believed about DEI was only moderately related to what they had actually done to promote DEI in the past 90 days. Create opportunities for employees to take DEI-related action, then ensure that all employees are aware and have access to those opportunities. Model walking your talk from the top and consider highlighting exemplars of DEI in action.
Inclusion and belonging affects all employees, regardless of where they sit or who they are. So, why would learning how to foster an inclusive environment be limited to a small group of employees? Extending an invitation to all employees to help build an inclusive work environment, along with providing opportunities for them to develop personally and professionally, embodies the spirit of inclusion and belonging. Unite employees in the collective process of culture change by promoting widespread participation and utilizing scalable, equitable solutions.
