4 Ways To Actually Create Diversity And Inclusion In The Workplace

Over the past week the awareness and allyship around the Black Lives Matter movement has caused companies and brands to reevaluate how diverse and inclusive their teams really are. While social media, podcasts and books have been a great place to start, there is much work to do internally for many. Only four Fortune 500 companies have black CEO’s and although black people account for about 13.4% of the U.S. population they only occupy 3.2% of senior leadership roles in large corporations.

Becoming more diverse in the workplace shouldn’t be a trend-it should be a standard. Not only is it the right thing to do, but there are several added benefits that diverse companies have over their counterparts. Companies that are diverse are able to perform better because they are able to understand different perspectives, tap into different markets and make better decisions that accurately reflect the society we live in. Racially and ethnically diverse companies are proven to perform 35% better, 87% better at decision making and are 1.4 times increase in revenue. So if you are at the beginning stages of understanding how to become a more diverse company, here are four ways to actually create diversity in the workplace.

Develop Permanent Training Programs & Policies

Racial trauma and mental health therapist, Ashley McGirt shared how important it is for leadership to take on the responsibility of developing programs and policies around antiracism. “If you are already in a position of leadership create policies that promote an antiracist culture, address microagressions, and discrimination in the workplace. Create a policy around racism just as there are policies in place to prevent sexual harassment. If you don’t have a plan to be anti-racist then you plan to be racist. 

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