Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Belonging are key to developing a positive and engaging culture. This helps to drive employee retention, performance, engagement and supports the recruitment process to attract the best and skilled talent to reflect a diverse workforce. DEIB is something that is an intentional HR strategy and practised throughout the organization.
- Diversity refers to the demographics of your workplace, which includes ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, age, military/veteran status, location, nationality, disability status, skills,and many other factors. It can be challenging to diversify teams. And when you do succeed, having a certain percentage of diversity won’t transform your team—it’s the environment that you foster for diverse employees that brings real change.
- Equity gives each employee fair and equal access, opportunities, and advancements, regardless of their diversity background. This can require companies to actively break down employees’ barriers to success. For example, if a new hire has a disability, an equitable workplace ensures that the resources are readily accessible to help that employee succeed. Equity means that each team member has the proper resources to do their job, with equal opportunity.
- Inclusion ensures everyone on the team is treated fairly and respectfully, despite differences. Garter reports that inclusive teams have 30% better performance. Inclusion is about how employees interact. Are their ideas well-received? Are colleagues uplifting? Do employees offer each other constructive feedback?
- Belonging centers around the employee experience of feeling accepted in the workplace. Every team member should feel that their perspective is valued and adds something useful. Belonging to a team implies a sense of value—that an employee is needed and wanted. A simplistic example is if a leadership team is composed of nine seasoned managers and a young, new manager. This could make the new manager feel like an outlier with little value to offer. But, if the others actively encourage the new manager to voice ideas and input, provide equal opportunity for this manager to lead projects and grow, etc., this helps the new manager to feel valued and respected. It delivers a sense of belonging.
