What to Do When Your Employees are Passionate About Diversity

April 17, 2018

Are you’re employees excited about diversity and inclusion? Does it come up in every meeting? Does everyone walk out excited but then lacks the know-how to follow up with next steps? Often times this happens because companies don’t know where to start.

We talked to over 50 companies about diversity and inclusion and here are the most common ways to jumpstart your D&I efforts:

1. Define what diversity & inclusion means for your company.

Every company is unique so your definition of diversity and inclusion should be too. According to the Society of Human Resources, diversity is defined as:

The collective mixture of differences and similarities that includes for example, individual and organizational characteristics, values, beliefs, experiences, backgrounds, preferences, and behaviors.

And inclusion is defined as:

The achievement of a work environment in which all individuals are treated fairly and respectfully, have equal access to opportunities and resources, and can contribute fully to the organization’s success.

Does these definitions resonate with your company culture? If not, modify the definitions until they feel right and aligns with your company values. Create definitions that provide tools for your team to engage in a meaningful dialogue about how to address D&I.

2. Create a volunteer task force within your company.

If you have energy around this topic, why not put it to good use? Typically, a volunteer task force is created to help the company think about how to address two main areas: diversity recruitment and the retention of diverse talent.

Diversity Recruitment: This subcommittee is created to discuss your current outreach strategies and identify additional talent pipelines to source diverse candidates. Secondly, they talk about the candidate experience during the hiring process. This is a great opportunity for people to share how they felt during the recruiting process and what areas they would like to see changed to make your company more welcoming when new candidates come in for interviews.

Retention of Diverse Talent: Often times, companies that succeed in recruiting diverse talent struggle to keep these hires because they fail to realize that everyone needs to feel included once they join the company. Strategize with your team to develop ideas on how to make diverse talent feel immersed in the company culture and have a growth plan attached to their performance reviews.

Creating a volunteer task force and defining diversity and inclusion are just two great ways to get started. Stay tuned for more tips on creating a diverse workplace.

Melissa James

President, Founder and CEO

Melissa James is CEO and Founder of the Tech Connection whose mission is to help companies make meaningful connections that empower and engage diverse talent by promoting inclusive hiring best practices. The Tech Connection has a strong track record of building high-performing diverse teams for elite companies.