The International Day of Persons with Disabilities was celebrated on December 3. Dates like these can be an excellent opportunity to reflect and highlight to employees the importance of forming inclusive and diverse work groups. Nowadays, there is a lot of talk about labor and social inclusion, but with the pace of daily work, there needs to be more space to think about it in a deeper way.
In this article, we want to highlight how important it is to form inclusive work groups; and how this can help your company and workers.
Terms you need to know to form inclusive and diverse workgroups
To truly form inclusive and diverse workgroups, you first need to know what these terms mean. It is widespread to hear them, but few people can accurately define them. Knowing what they mean will help you take action to foster a more equitable culture in your work environment.
Inclusion
According to surveys, inclusion is a process but also a goal. In the workplace, it is about creating spaces without barriers so that all individuals can develop their capabilities and participate in the company’s activities. In other words, a worker can carry out a task, but a person can also perform the same task with special abilities.
Inclusion occurs from the smallest details, such as putting an automatic door so people in wheelchairs can enter a place, to the largest actions, such as regulations, laws, and decrees. If you want to form inclusive and diverse workgroups, you should keep this in mind and think about how you can make your workspace accessible to everyone.
The topic of inclusion is very relevant in the context of our time, and that is why academics, journalists, and students are interested in it. Online educational services like paperhelp org review all the most pressing topics and are usually competent. If research problems arise, you can use them.
Diversity
The basic principle of workplace diversity is that all individuals have skills to help a team grow, regardless of gender, ethnicity, language, or age. More and more companies are aware that having diverse talent in their workforce has unprecedented benefits, including achieving a better connection with the social context of which the corporation is a part.
How are inclusion and diversity related?
There is no diversity without inclusion, and when there is diversity, it is good to generate inclusion. It is not enough just to integrate a different group in the workplace (for example, foreigners); it is necessary to welcome them, take their ideas into account, make them part of the company’s social gear and enhance their individual capabilities. It is the only way to create inclusive and diverse work groups.
Some experts mention that people with disabilities are “a group with very low employment rates despite representing approximately one-fifth of the world’s population.” Many efforts in several countries and laws encourage the inclusion and diverse hiring of employees, intending to form inclusive and diverse work groups. For example, in the United States, the Americans with Disabilities Act of 2008 (ADAAA).
Likewise, it is increasingly common for discriminatory behavior such as racism, sexism, xenophobia, and homophobia to be socially condemned.
Why is it important to form inclusive and diverse work groups in your company?
There are many reasons why companies need to be diverse and encourage inclusive practices. For example:
It increases brand performance
According to research by Deloitte and McKinsey & Company, 62% of companies surveyed say that forming inclusive and diverse workgroups increases productivity. Similarly, the study reveals that cultural diversity generates a 33% greater chance of above-average profitability. And when it comes to gender diversity, heterogeneous companies competitively outperform companies with little gender diversity.
Improved work culture
The same study indicates that 78% of companies have experienced improvements in work climate since implementing a paradigm for building inclusive and diverse work groups. This involves making employees feel useful and part of the company, being allowed to suggest improvements, doing challenging tasks, and receiving rewards for doing so. This is especially important for minorities, who historically have had little openness.
Innovate with fresh ideas
People with similar backgrounds may be used to solving problems in a certain way. This, in part, helps unify the work in a company. Doing everything the same way is not a bad thing, but there are times when you need to think a little differently to come up with an innovative idea.
The importance of forming inclusive and diverse work groups is that they encourage the exchange of ideas, and from it, new ways of seeing and doing the usual work can emerge, innovate and be more creative when it comes to solving complex situations.
Better understand the context of your company
Today’s companies cannot be disconnected from the social reality around them. A recent example of this is what happened with Balenciaga: the fashion brand had to apologize for mixing BDSM issues with children without considering that, according to the UN, the number of child victims of trafficking and sexual exploitation in the world has tripled in recent years.
It is important that the company is connected to the reality of its target and the world, and for that, you need people who have their feet on the ground and inclusive and diverse work groups.
How to form inclusive and diverse workgroups in your company?
You already know some of the advantages of forming inclusive and diverse workgroups. However, the next question is how do I set up such a team in my company? There are several mechanisms, most of which start in the Human Resources department. Here we explain them to you.
- Make inclusion and diversity the goals of employee recruitment.
- Be aware of biases in your company.
- Expand your recruiting network
- Build a diverse HR team
Remember that inclusion and integration are different. Inclusion is deeper and is the process and the goal if you want to build a more diverse company. Likewise, true inclusion can be achieved in various ways: by putting in place special codes for blind people, establishing regulations or bylaws, complying with existing laws, and even reforming the hiring team.
Forming inclusive and diverse work groups with these tips will be much easier. We hope you found this article useful and that you will share it with your colleagues.