Building a diverse team in today’s workplace is not only looked upon highly but is seen as a necessity for a successful business. Diversity breeds productivity, education, and growth within a business. It isn’t just about hiring a diverse team. It’s about nurturing and supporting your employees too. Bringing together people from different backgrounds and beliefs helps develop them as individuals and makes companies more innovative and creative.
Diverse teams bring multiple perspectives to the table with people coming from various backgrounds and experiences. Diversity fosters broader ideas and new perspectives. A great way to promote inclusivity is by following these 7 ways to build a more diverse team.
Look for Lingering Biases
Whether you want to admit it or not, no matter how driven you are to build a diverse team, you have to weed out biases. Start with your recruitment process, fine-tooth comb your onboarding, and take a hard look at your leadership and company culture. Don’t expect these to jump out at your either. Most biases in the workplace might be subconscious. Be honest about what you’re witnessing and tackle them.
Cover all Your Diversity Bases
What does diversity mean to your organization and you as a leader? Universally we think gender, race, and religion, but it’s more than that. Other things that need consideration are age, disability, sexual orientation, personality, or appearance. Do biases occur within your company based on these aspects? Addressing every part of diversity within the workplace encourages team members to work better together.
Revamp Recruiting Practices
Diversity has been implanted into your company culture, so now it’s time to make sure you’re recruiting a diverse group. How can this be done?
- Move away from masculine or feminine language in job posts
- Expand your search by recruiting at community colleges or trade show, wherever you haven’t been yet
- Connect and partner with organizations that support diversity
Offer Leadership Development Opportunities
Research networking events, trade shows, and industry conferences so that your company can learn about new information, gain new skills, and network. Treat those attendees as reporters for your organization, coming back and sharing what they learned with the rest of their team.
Leadership skills are key to putting together a diverse team. Leaders need to be empathetic to what all employees are going through and what challenges they face. The development of leadership skills can also be as simple as listening to colleagues and learning directly in-house.
Promote Discussion
Open discussion between those from all levels of an organization encourages an inclusive workplace. Some topics might not come easy to discuss but are important if the goal is to reach a shared understanding of a company’s diversity process. DEI depends on every employee’s feedback to be successful, not just those at the top. Having these discussions alleviates the chances that discrimination will take place.
Celebrate Differences
If you’re doing this diversity thing right, you should have cultural differences amongst employees. This doesn’t just mean religions, holidays, or languages spoken are different. It goes deeper than that if you want actual progress.
Value Everyone
If you’re serious about diversity and inclusion, let employees know they’re appreciated when it’s appropriate to. Feeling valued gives employees a reason to stay at an organization. One way to do this is by creating an employee recognition program. What employee doesn’t want to be recognized, appreciated, or rewarded by their employer for a job well done?
Join the conversation on LinkedIn and check out When to Take a Chance on an Okay Job Candidate.
