Building and Maintaining an Inclusive Workplace

When a company’s values encourage an inclusive workplace, the pool of talent you attract changes for the better. Studies show that diverse teams are better at problem-solving, innovation, and client satisfaction.

Encouraging diversity is as easy as reaching out to Obsidi® and using our platform to hire your next tech worker. But what happens once they’re part of your team?

Do they feel accepted? Valued? Free to be themselves?

That is the difference between hiring a diverse team and ensuring they feel included once they’re on your payroll.

Building and maintaining inclusivity takes planning, but it requires consistency and modeling from the company’s leaders. This blog explains how to create an inclusive workplace that makes every employee feel welcome and valued.

Lead With Inclusivity

You’ve likely heard the advice that a company’s culture starts at the top. This theory extends to inclusivity in the workplace. If your C-suite brings its natural prejudices and stereotypes into the business, chances are likely that your employees will, too.

Those in leadership positions are the role models in your company. As such, they should be educated on the importance of being authentically inclusive.

Educating the Leaders

The qualities of inclusive leadership include:

• Being a good listener
• Embracing others’ diverse perspectives (even when they’re different from yours)
• Being open and transparent
• Addressing your unconscious biases

Yet, it can be dangerous to assume that the individuals you work with and respect understand what is and isn’t offensive to different groups, especially in today’s quickly changing society.

Many companies choose to establish resources and training opportunities for leaders and employees because of the dangers inherent in discrimination, which can range from hurting the individual’s feelings to breaking federal laws.

To ensure this goal is met, consider creating the Chief Diversity Officer (CDO) role in your organization. The CDO’s responsibilities include staying up-to-date on inclusive policies and designing and implementing your company’s strategies to create a welcoming workplace for everyone.

CDOs take the worry of complying with federal and state employment laws off your shoulders.

Whether you have a CDO or you compile the resources yourself, your leaders should be trained on your company’s diversity and inclusion plans. Provide opportunities for leaders to ask uncomfortable questions before making a “blunder,” and clearly show everyone what your company’s ultimate goal of “inclusivity in the workplace” looks like.

See also: The 13 Best Black Tech Conferences of 2024 and 2025

Adjust the Company Values as Necessary

Unless your company was established recently, its core values may no longer align with today’s inclusivity. As society changes, so should your organization’s values.

This evolution is why having a CDO is helpful. Still, you can evaluate the atmosphere and determine whether your “values” are current simply by asking everyone in the company via a survey. Including the option to be anonymous can help you get more honest feedback.

Ask a few clear, concise questions relating to the overall feeling of inclusivity in the workplace and provide yes/no or a number rating as potential responses. This simplicity makes it more likely that people will answer your survey questions. Then, offer an optional paragraph box for anyone wishing to elaborate on their answers or suggestions.

Evaluate the responses with an open mind. Consider your policies and what you’ve learned from the answers you’ve received. Next, include a statement on inclusive culture that encompasses the feedback.

Speak the Same Language: Inclusivity

While your teams may have varied first languages, the company should share the same talk: inclusive communication.

Consider your policies and the types of terminology in the workplace. Is your company training manual still full of outdated pronouns or gender terms like “husband” and “wife” instead of “partner” or “spouse”?

Not sure if your inclusivity knowledge skills are up-to-date?

Hire a sensitivity reader to evaluate your company policies, text, job descriptions, etc., as you and your C-suite learn about the changes in inclusive environments.

This doesn’t have to be a forever thing, but this person’s job is to point out terms that could be seen as offensive. Over time, you and the other leaders in your organization will understand the foundation of what is offensive versus inclusive well enough to stay on neutral territory no matter who is involved in the conversation.

Add Safe Space Rooms

If you’re a brick-and-mortar company, it may be time to remodel your setup to have inclusive safe spaces. These areas are physical and virtual places within the workspace where employees can feel comfortable being themselves and sharing their thoughts and opinions without worry of judgment.

Safe spaces are designed to encourage:

• Inclusivity
• Open communication
• Community building

Employees should welcome each others’ perspectives and value and learn from the shared ideas and experiences.

What Do Safe Spaces Look Like?

You’ve likely seen safe spaces as you travel through airports, chain restaurants, or large malls. They include gender-neutral bathrooms, distraction-free environments, and lactation rooms.

Consider how your company is set up for wheelchair accessibility and review other structural changes that may need to be made to ensure that any current or potential future employee is able to access everything as others do, regardless of any potential disability.

The idea of a safe work environment also extends to your employee benefits packages. How does your company policy show care for each person’s overall well-being? Does it encourage mental health support through options like therapy and time off for a work/life balance?

Remote workspaces also need to be fully inclusive and safe. Virtual safe spaces include adding options for employees to block out personal time on their calendar as necessary or email signatures with a preferred pronoun next to their name.

Cultural events can still be celebrated but should be optional and consistent. For instance, you can enjoy Christmas, but don’t ignore Kwanzaa and Hanukkah in the process.

Holidays should be celebrated, but through the lens of a culture of inclusion.

Recognize and Encourage Performance

Public recognition can improve your team’s performance, but the rewarded behaviors must be aligned with company diversity & inclusion values. When everyone feels valued for being their authentic selves, productivity can skyrocket.

In addition to targeted production goals, look for behaviors that encourage a positive environment and inclusive contributions.

In your human resource performance evaluations, use clear and fair criteria that are free from inequities. When you provide feedback, ensure it is constructive and pertains to developing a successful and inclusive workplace culture.

Offer inclusion initiatives such as allowing workers to join employee resource groups (ERGs) that promote inclusivity and provide training to encourage a positive work environment without cultural barriers.

Another way to do this is to provide mentorship programs where coworkers from varying minority groups connect to learn through diversity. Mentors and mentees with different backgrounds partner together to use their cultural knowledge to share strengths and build on areas of development.

Through these relationships, mentors ensure their mentees have access to the connections and programs that can help them grow.  Mentorship programs are so successful that 98% of Fortune 500 companies have them.

Offer and Approve Inclusive Events

Professional development is an extra expense, but it often pays for itself.

Companies that offer this benefit frequently reap:

• Higher employee engagement and worker satisfaction
• Longer retention rates
• Improved productivity

The perk of professional development can also attract the top talent in your field.

The key to this benefit is to ensure you’re including diverse and relevant topics as part of the agenda throughout the year, bringing in experts and permitting employees to miss work to attend diverse functions. If the knowledge obtained in the event is connected to your company’s goals, you may even choose to pay for some or all of the costs associated with the trip.

Connect with Obsidi® as a partner to ensure your diverse team members are already highly trained, and to establish a program of strategic professional development opportunities within your organization.

Discover: How to Build a Diversity Training Program

Embrace Communication

Most importantly, your company must have an atmosphere where everyone feels comfortable being honest and authentic. Fear of judgment, reprisal, or discrimination permeates the workplace and can make everyone nervous to speak honestly.

The Importance of Effective Communication

For communication to work, it must be mutually engaging and free from misunderstandings. Strong, clear communication prevents conflict and expedites and promotes productivity.

Employees who know what they need to do and feel heard can better complete their work timelines and stay with the employer longer, reducing turnover.

Positive work environments stem from good communication. As internal and external challenges occur, the communication policy you’ve created within your company’s atmosphere determines how quickly the problem is addressed and overcome.

On the other hand, miscommunication can be detrimental to your business.

Employees lack the information necessary to complete their work on time, putting the overall budget at risk. Workers who feel discriminated against or unvalued are less likely to work at their peak efficiency and may sow seeds of discord among their co-workers.

What Inclusive Communication Looks Like

Note that miscommunications aren’t the same as offensive conversations, yet the damage can be just as destructive (if not more so). Modeling effective communication as part of your inclusion efforts can reduce the likelihood of this happening.

To embrace inclusive communication, establish open policies of discussion in accessible formats. Follow through with your policies, even if someone tells you things you don’t like hearing.

Through communication, employees and leaders work together to form a culture where inclusion is the goal. Differences of opinion, when voiced appropriately, are respected and appreciated.

For this to occur, though, everyone needs to understand that communication occurs constantly, both verbally and physically.

Culturally inclusive communication includes the flexible exchange of information. If others are offended or hurt, adjustments should be made in the moment and carried into the future.

Mistakes will happen, but they can help you and your team build a more inclusive workplace where discrimination and offensive comments are the exception rather than the rule.

Through this goal, once divisive factors become adhesive. The system of prejudice and discrimination begins to erode, shifting society’s default exclusionary practices and creating a workplace of appreciation of differences.

Related: 8 Reasons Why DEI is Essential for Your Business

Conclusion

Within a diverse workforce, there are cultural differences, yet everyone must be allowed equal opportunities.

As you create an inclusive atmosphere where things like gender, ethnicity, race, religion, and sexual orientation are embraced, you must also find a balance of commitment to the workplace.