We believe that diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) is not just the right thing to do, but it's also good for business. A diverse workforce brings a variety of perspectives and experiences, which can lead to better decision-making and innovation. We are proud to be a small business that is committed to DEI. We believe that DEI is essential for our success, and are working to infuse DEI into our core values.
Guest post by Marjorie Jones from Working Class Wow.
DEI, or diversity, equity, and inclusion, are components of all successful and thriving workplaces. Businesses that learn to prioritize, promote, and understand the values brought upon by diversifying their staff benefit by creating an inclusive environment. This offers business leaders access to individuals who can bring a new perspective to the workplace.
Today, we want to share a bit of insight on how you can improve your business decision-making skills, increase innovation, and grow into a successful endeavor by creating a more inclusive and diverse environment.
Start with education
One of the quickest and most effective ways to promote DEI in the workplace is through simple education and training. This might include anything from workshops and seminars to webinars to help all of your employees understand the importance of diversification and how they can use it to their benefit throughout the workplace. You can also include training on how to recognize unconscious bias, which the University of California San Francisco’s Office Of Diversity And Outreach explains means allowing their unconscious beliefs about certain groups to sway their opinion of individuals.
Change up your marketing and promotional materials
If the entirety of your marketing and promotional materials depict one specific type of person, it’s time to diversify your image and the images used to promote your business. Consider adding people of color, women, people with disabilities, and other groups to any materials. This can appeal to a wider variety of potential job candidates as well as customers. You can save your materials for publication online in a PDF. To help you create a PDF online, look for tools that let you drag and drop your materials, save, and share.
Forge an inclusivity culture
Creating a culture of inclusivity is a key aspect in helping to promote your diversity endeavors. This does not mean ignoring everyone’s differences. Instead, a culture of inclusivity means celebrating everyone’s strengths, differences, and the challenges each group faces. Encourage open communication and collaboration between individuals and departments.
Acknowledge and address systemic barriers
It’s unfortunate, but many workplaces have systems in place that create boundaries that certain groups have trouble overcoming. These barriers can include unequal pay, race, gender, or sexual orientation discrimination, and lack of promotion opportunities. Be willing to take a close look at your business to identify and address these barriers by implementing policies and practices that help you promote fairness for everyone under your umbrella.
Change up your recruitment and hiring processes
Expand your pool of candidates by recruiting from different resources and, importantly, implementing blind hiring practices. What does this mean? It’s not the practice of hiring without researching your potential employees but instead means that you eliminate access to information that may trigger an unconscious bias. Flexjobs explains that things like pronouns, ZIP Codes, group affiliations, and even schools attended can all leave an unconscious image of a candidate in your mind. To truly have a diverse workplace, it’s best to let your top interviewees be a surprise until their first in-person visit.
Provide mentorship
Our last tip of the day is to provide mentorship as well as career development opportunities to your newest and most diverse group of recruits. These types of opportunities should be open to everyone because employees with opportunities turn into business leaders that help you grow.
Although the United States is becoming more diverse with each passing year, we still have work to do. Minorities, including women and foreign-born workers, continue to be un or under-employed. As a business owner, you can be a proponent of change by incorporating practices that diversify your workplace. Through simple actions, such as creating marketing materials that showcase a broad range of individuals and implementing blind recruiting practices, you can build a better business one diverse move at a time.
Take the next step
We are proud to be a part of the DEI movement, and we are committed to continuing our work to create a more inclusive workplace. When you’re ready to take your site to the next level, reach out to Minimo Studio for a design that helps you diversify.
