How To Implement Inclusion And Diversity In The Workplace

Hiring the perfect candidate for the job is important to every business, but diversity and inclusion should never be overlooked. While the appropriate skills are essential, implementing inclusion and diversity in the workplace can help strengthen the performance of your team. What's more, having a diverse team can also help you attract and retain the very best talent, enabling a reduced employee turnover rate. But what exactly is diversity and inclusion, and how can your workplace work towards achieving it?

What is it and why it's important 

In this sense, inclusion and diversity is when a business hires a wide range of different individuals, eliminating any obstacles that prevent candidates from having equal opportunities. This includes hiring people of varying cultural backgrounds, ethnicities, races, genders, religions, sexual orientations, ages, languages and abilities, among other factors. The thing is, diversity isn't straightforward; human beings can be complicated and there is an infinite number of ways you can create a diverse workforce when you consider experience, personal characteristics and cognitive capabilities. While hiring for ‘cultural fit’ can improve the overall motivation, productivity and engagement of employees by 36%, getting it right the first time can be a tricky business. Cultural fit should never be used to discriminate against employees. Rather, a healthy company culture should reflect a diverse and inclusive workforce. That’s why you should instead consider hiring for ‘culture add’, building departments with enough variety of ideas.

Benefits of diversity in the workplace

Inclusion and diversity in the workplace leads to several benefits that will inevitably improve your business in the long run. Given that individuals from various backgrounds often have different experience, diversity can increase overall creativity. The Wall Street Journal’s review of diversity and inclusion among S&P 500 companies has revealed that it leads to boosted innovation. Research compiled by Katherine Phillips also shows that diversity improves decision-making and accelerates problem-solving. Additional benefits of diversity, as discovered by Catalyst, include:

• Increased profits
• Better hiring results
• Reduced employee turnover
• Higher employee satisfaction and engagement
• Enhanced company reputation

5 things your workplace can do now

When it comes to implementing inclusion and diversity in the workplace, it’s crucial that hiring managers understand how they can diversify their recruitment methods. Here are some top tips to attracting and retaining a range of talent for your roles:

1. Avoid using alienating language when writing job descriptions
2. Advertise job openings on various platforms
3. Keep an open mind and try not to hire candidates based solely on their CVs, but rather their capabilities and overall attitude
4. Reduce bias by asking each candidate the same questions in the same order so that you're able to assess them on the same set of criteria
5. Establish policies for diverse jobseekers and consider flexible work arrangements

Businesses looking to improve inclusion and diversity in the workplace can additionally seek the assistance of knowledgeable recruitment specialists, such as Cast UK. Each of our consultants has had thorough training on this. They’ll ensure you can attract qualified and experienced candidates that are suitable for your company, regardless of their background.

Interested in hiring in order to add to your culture? Watch our webinar, where Eva Adam shares what cultural exchange programme candidates and her CIPD training has taught her.

To find out more about how we can help, contact us today on 0333 121 3345 or hello@castuk.com.