It is okay not to know everything because no one is a know-it-all.
It could be phrased as ‘Acceptance of your limited stack of knowledge,’, but don’t we all like to keep it direct and straightforward? ;)
A workplace might include a cacophony of startling ideas, various opinions, different points of view, and occasional questions about dinosaurs and meteorites. But what do you do if you have no idea what a meteorite is or if you’ve never seen a real dinosaur in your entire life? (of course, you haven’t or have you? 0_o)
It can be quite challenging if someone poses a question you don’t know the answer to, but it doesn’t have to be like that. You don’t know everything, and it’s essential to approach your colleagues or employees with an acceptance of this fact. What’s more important is to realize that they are no different than you, and there might also exist questions they won’t be able to produce satisfactory answers to. Everyone is in the process of learning and growing with the passage of every working hour. That confident colleague who always seems to know everything is just doing a little more research or investing more time into it. That curious employee who is still coming up with strange and unique questions is deeply invested in his work field and might be an asset due to the amount of creative energy he brings to your team.
A question you don’t know the answer to or not being aware of diverse backgrounds is not as intimidating as you perceive it to be. No one is a know-it-all, so it is always better to say, “I don’t know the answer to that, but I can help you looking for it,” rather than giving wrong answers. It is also suitable to say, “I didn’t know that before so thank you for enlightening me,” rather than negatively perceiving someone’s drive to provide you with new information.
Adopting a humble attitude and taking a positive approach towards learning and improvement every day can influence your colleagues or employees to do the same. This generates a learning environment focused on growth and acceptance instead of a negatively competitive environment focused on isolation and bringing others down.
Conduct educational seminars and surveys concerning diversity and inclusion.
Conduct-educational-seminars-and-surveys-concerning-diversity-and-inclusion
In modern times, when the world has become a global village, the term diversity has rocketed the search trends and is no longer a company value. Instead, it has become a business model. Hence, it is significantly essential for every employee and colleague in a particular work to be aware of this term and have a deep understanding of it.
To hold educational seminars and surveys regarding diversity and inclusion in a workplace is an advisable strategy to adopt. This helps your workmates to create an inclusive environment that provides acceptance to people from diverse backgrounds. It also flourishes your endeavors because it attracts various customers or clients considering your inclusive policies.
Understanding diversity and inclusion is essential for every person in a workspace. Widening your horizon provides a chance for every person to facilitate your work regardless of their ethnicity, race, and gender. Educating your leaders and staff about these things can prove beneficial in the long run.
Use of inclusive language
Use of inclusive language
Language forms a significant foundation of a work base. It plays an essential role in progressing your aspirations. Sensitively wording your work descriptions and communicating with your workmates enhances the quality of the perception of candidates considering your company. Avoiding the use of strongly opinionated words or genderized phrases helps to aim for diction that fosters a sentiment of inclusion among the workforce and enables diversity during the recruitment procedures.
Replacing words like “aggressive” with more pleasant words like “passionate” or “dedicated” sounds like a minor detail, but the impact it holds ranges wide. The fact that “they” was mentioned as the word of the year by Merriam-Webster in 2019 is not a surprise. This is because it was recognized by the dictionary that “they” can be used to refer to an individual who doesn’t conform to a gender binary. Using inclusive language can help you widen the scope of your workplace and provide you with more opportunities to utilize unique talents brought to you by diverse people.
Utilizing diversity recruitment tools
Using diversity meters on your platform during recruitment can reduce the prejudice faced by people during the hiring process. The increased diversity and inclusion setups in the last few years highlight this trend. For instance, Jopwell is one of such startups that aims to aid job seekers who are black, Latinx, and Native Americans in progressing their careers.
Similarly, another tech platform named Equiv uses the strength of AI to prioritize inclusive hiring. Some other tools like Headstart and Applied also help hire people exclusive of prejudice and any bias. Utilizing such diversity recruitment tools can push you a step ahead in your efforts to flourish your company in a year like 2021, all about diversity and inclusion.
Don’t forget the I in D&I.
Now that you are done hiring and accumulating a diverse team of talented peeps, you can think you’ve achieved the goal of building a diverse and inclusive workplace. Right?
Not so quick. Diversity only colors half of the D&I diagram. Developing an environment that respects and appreciates people requires an effort that oversteps what you’ve already done.
Forgetting the Inclusion in D&I is often a mistake committed by many companies. The target is to have an environment where every member of the staff feels included. It’s a great thing to create a team filled with talents, but what’s the use of bringing these people together if they are not satisfied and happy? To ensure the I in D&I is essential.
Employee Differences are your strength, not your weakness
One of the many ways to make your workmates feel included is to rejoice and celebrate the differences they bring to your team. Conducting events that respect their traditional differences and allowing them to come forward and share those differences with other teammates is a great initiative to foster inclusiveness.
Steps like reserving a separate room for meditation or praying in the workplace can make your employees feel valued, included, and respected. Providing them a few minutes for self-reflection in this way ensures dedication and better performance on their behalf. Similarly, generating greeting emails for diverse festivals celebrated by your employees develops sentiments of acceptance in your entire team. Every member of your staff learns to respect each other’s values and beliefs.
This inclusiveness in your workplace is a way to connect all the diverse people in your team who possess unique individual aspects. Where their diversity helps make significant decisions, bringing innovation, and ensuring better returns, the inclusiveness provided in your workplace can help them connect, which further ensures employee retention.
Paying attention to employee feedback should be your priority
Paying-attention-to-employee-feedback-should-be-your-priority.
Imagine having an employee or a colleague who is resentful of something you have done unknowingly and then being unaware of their passive aggression over that. Nothing could be more toxic than this in a working space where team efforts play a core role in the progress of your endeavors. This is why it is essential to listen to your employees and pay attention to their feedback.
To ensure better outputs, conduct employee surveys so issues regarding diversity and inclusion can be sorted out in good time. Arranging regular meetings to keep the gates of conversation within the team open is also an excellent way to develop an inclusive and diverse workforce. Such initiatives keep you aware of the needs of the people around you and even help you align your work strategies in relevance to their concerns.
Build a council dedicated to diversity and inclusion
Build a council dedicated to diversity and inclusion
Your workforce appreciates serious initiatives taken by you for their wellbeing. Choosing 10-12 staff members incredibly dedicated to the cause of ‘diversity and inclusion’ and forming a council for this very purpose makes your team realize that you care about them. This council should be dedicated to continuing communication between the employer and the employees. Ideally, this team must set goals concerning recruitment, retain employees and get involved in advancing a diverse community. It should also resolve communication and engagement issues between employees belonging to underrepresented groups in the workspace.
This council must constitute members representing diverse groups like various ethnicities, genders, races, and it’s better if they belong to different geographical regions and job functions too. Such measures reduce the chances of criticism from the employees as everyone gets a representative in this council.
Keep a trace of interaction between work peers
The interaction between your colleagues or employees highlights the level of inclusiveness in your workplace. If you detect an awkwardness among your work peers, it is time to pay attention to your diversity and inclusiveness policies. What is it that is causing barriers to building between the people around you?
Do you think there is something that is inhibiting your work fellows from feeling included or valued? If so, it’s good to modify your policies regarding diversity and inclusion in your workplace. It’s also good to remember that one should not hesitate to modify or bring changes to such approaches because the concept of D&I is ever-changing and ever-evolving. Keeping such policies stagnant hinders improvement and growth, so it is advisable to avoid it.
Make sure to eradicate gender pay inequality
No matter how long we postpone this, at the end of the day, the majority of the people work to earn for themselves, so their boats keep floating. Discrimination between genders when it comes to paying your employees can harbor resentment in the underrepresented groups and eventually leads to an uncomfortable environment. It is good to open the topic of gender pay inequality for discussion among your employees, so each one feels considered and acknowledged. To foster an inclusive environment in your workplace, pay your subordinates based on their performance regardless of their gender.
Diversity and Inclusion in the Workplace
Diversity and Inclusion are no longer mere workplace values. Instead, they have become essential models to foster a healthy working environment. With a pandemic at hand, it’s never too late to start working on creating a workspace that embraces every individual for who he is. After all, it’s no use getting poor results out of unhappy people.
