Photo by Eunice Lituañas on Unsplash
Businesses can’t continue to grow if everyone thinks the same, acts the same and has the same interests. A diverse environment boosts creativity and innovation, providing a more realistic perception of the world.
It’s no secret that inclusion & diversity are essential for the success of a company. By paying attention to an inclusive hiring strategy, you may have a positive impact on the statistics – but for a real change to happen, diversity and inclusion have to be values that are ingrained in the company culture.
But it’s not only an HR thing, inclusion has to be ongoing — not one-off training. It’s crucial to question how inclusive your work environment really is, and what you and your colleagues are doing to improve. Look around, question whether your LGBTQI+ colleague feels empowered to speak up without intimidation, whether the career opportunities are flexible to gender’s specific needs, whether maternity and infertility talks have been swept under the rug or whether the existing policies are being put into practice.
We are not here to point fingers, and we know things don’t change from one day to the next. But we need to take the first steps! To help you with that, we brought some small but powerful tips to make your working environment genuinely inclusive and diverse:
- Try not to make any assumptions about people’s lifestyles, but rather aim to create an atmosphere where employees feel like they can open up about their personal life if they wish to
- Be sensitive with the language used in the office and jokes that might be hurtful to some people
- Support and celebrate your employees’ differences
- Equality doesn’t mean offering the same career plan to everyone but offering a plan that is compatible with one’s individual needs, so everyone can enjoy the same opportunities
- Support diversity training and teach your employees how to benefit from their diverse backgrounds
- Infertility and miscarriage are sensitive topics, but they need to be destigmatised in the workplace. Please, assure your policies regarding fertility & family-forming can support and comfort your employees
- Make sure your policies don’t discriminate any gender or sexual orientation, especially concerning family planning
- Debates and talks are fundamental, the opinions of your employees are even more so
A diverse team will not only create positive impacts on the company but also on society. Remember to reflect on internal policies that can be made, and make sure that your policy debates also include individuals from minority groups. To put the tips into practice: professional guidance can be powerful. And to measure your progress, employee feedback is essential.
We hope that our tips will be useful to you! If you want to learn more about how Apryl’s fertility and family forming benefits can promote diversity and inclusion in your organisation, get in touch.
