In today’s day and age, businesses of all sizes and in all industries need to be investing in equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI). EDI involves creating a business that has equal opportunities in the workforce, a diverse workforce with people from different backgrounds and an inclusive environment so that all employees feel supported and welcome. Investing in EDI is important to create an equal and fair workplace, but also so that you can benefit from new ideas and perspectives, a welcoming environment and employees that feel valued and supported.
There are many benefits to investing in EDI and it could help your business to achieve higher levels of success. So, what are some ways that a business can invest in EDI and how will these help? Keep reading to find out.
Commit to Diverse Hiring Practices
One of the most important steps to take is to commit to diverse hiring practices. This can include things like removing names from resumes and eliminating gender-biased language from job descriptions. This can help to both attract diverse talent to your business and help you to recruit a diverse workforce by removing any (subconscious) bias.
Educate Employees
Education is key when it comes to creating an equal, diverse and inclusive workforce. You should educate your employees on the importance of having diversity in the workplace, common forms of discrimination and what they can do in their day-to-day to make the workplace more inclusive for all.
Fostering workplace social interactions improves teamwork and employee satisfaction. Your workforce may have a diverse set of values, interests, and qualities, which makes dei in the workplace tricky – but by no means impossible – environment to traverse. You can’t force people to like one another, but there are some things you can do to encourage the natural development of social relationships.
Create Employee Resource Groups
Another important area to invest in is employee resource groups (ERG). ERGs give staff the chance to engage with others in the workplace and address common issues in the workplace, often to do with underrepresented groups and the challenges that they can face.
Invest in Employee Growth
It is always worth investing in employee growth to get the most out of your team and to keep employees engaged, but it can also help in terms of EDI. This is because many companies struggle to maintain diversity at leadership and management levels. By training and developing your diverse workforce, you can maintain diversity at all levels of the organisation.
Audit Internal Policies
It is also important to analyse your existing internal policies to ensure that they are in line with EDI. If these policies were created a long time ago, you might find that they need updating to ensure diversity and inclusivity. You can also get EDI support from specialists that can help you to make positive changes to your business to become more equal, diverse and inclusive.
Every business needs to invest in EDI and this can benefit your business in many ways. The above are a few of the main ways to invest in EDI that should help you to improve equality, diversity and inclusion and reap the benefits of this.
