Top 10 Workplace Inclusion Strategies - leveraging talent to stay competitive

Harvard Business ‘Driving Performance Survey’ find Diversity a source of creativity, innovation, and competitive advantage

Harvard Business interviewed 24 business leaders who run organisations recognized for their diversity, found the CEO’s believe that creating an inclusive culture is both a moral and business imperative—and they approach diversity as a personal mission, not an initiative to be delegated.

The Harvard Business survey found the eight best organizational practices for instilling an inclusive culture emerged from their interviews were:

1. Measure diversity and inclusion.

2. Hold managers accountable.

3. Support flexible arrangements.

4. Recruit and promote from diverse pools of candidates.

5. Provide leadership education.

6. Sponsor employee resource groups and mentoring programs.

7. Offer quality role models.

8. Make the chief diversity officer position count.

In addition, I would include:

9. Design and fund an inclusion and diversity implementation program.

10. Raise the profile of role model employee good practices.

Inclusive behaviour needs to be promoted top down, and instilled bottom up, during recruitment. To achieve this, we need to be mindful of ensuring inclusion compliance, comprehensively throughout organisation’s, informal and formal communications and systems.

Everyone, needs to become an ‘Inclusion Compliance Police Officer’, so that when we look or hear non-inclusive behaviour, its like watching those 1970’s programmes like “Love Thy Neighbour” and “On the Buses”, which at the time seemed OK, but in hindsight are not socially acceptable.

References:

1) Harvard Business Review – Great Leaders Who Make the Mix Work – September 2013 http://www.exed.hbs.edu/assets/Documents/hbr-great-leaders-mix-work.pdf?spMailingID=6208700&spUserID=NTkyODc0NDEzMzMS1&spJobID=165651458&spReportId=MTY1NjUxNDU4S0