Diversity: how to create an inclusive culture in your organisation

by The Scalers Offshore Development Teams In India

Is 'diversity' just a buzzword? The same question can be applied to 'inclusivity'. With online culture wars sometimes getting in the way of facts, it's worth a deep dive to see how diversity and inclusivity actually help businesses perform better, and also how to create an inclusive culture in your workplace to help facilitate this strategy. Diversity isn't tokenism, but the promotion of a varied workforce that includes an accurate cross-section of society. To achieve this, a diverse team will include people from different ethnicities, religions, and won't be limited to only men, for example. Separate from diversity is inclusion, which is basically how diversity is genuinely recognized to get the best out of everyone on a personal and professional level. Now that's clearly defined, let's explore how to create an inclusive culture in your organization.

Embrace difference

It's important to state that your diverse hiring practices aren't tokenistic, but it's important to act on that too. Whether it's devoting time to learning about one another's culture, cooking each other's cuisines (and even building a company recipe book!), or something practical like a creating multi-faith space (that doubles a meditation area for the non-religious), there are many ways to embrace difference and make people feel at home.

Bring in a happiness officer

When you're wondering how to create an inclusive culture, sometimes you need a helping hand. A happiness officer is a super-important part of a dynamic and modern workplace. They can facilitate cross-cultural learning opportunities and events and instill the company DNA in all employees regardless of background. And, remember that all of these things can be performed virtually too. With remote work leading the way in diverse teams, that's an important aspect. Overall, your happiness officer is well placed to listen to your employees and help to foster inclusivity throughout the organization.

Recognize success equally

Sometimes there's a hierarchy when it comes to performance feedback. Recognition is top-down and given only by a manager. However, if feedback is 'democratized' then everyone feels empowered. How does this work? Essentially, everyone in an organization takes an active role in recognizing their colleagues' stellar contributions. This could be as simple as sending a company-wide email saying "thanks" for a job well done. When working out how to create an inclusive culture in your organization, it's important to remember that doing so isn't just about recognizing different identities but also about recognizing the importance of everybody's contributions.