What is DIB’s?

Let’s start with some understanding

• Diversity – a fact, everything that makes us unique, the seen and the unseen
• Inclusion – the act of creating fairness
• Belonging – a human need to belong in our unique way

These 3 elements highlight that diversity is not a numbers game, having a truly inclusive culture is embracing the facts that make us unique, the act of creating fairness and helping to ensure everyone belongs in the workplace in their unique way.

Confronting Bias

Everyone has a culture, we are all taught about what’s important, what’s valuable and how to act. From these learnings we adopt small behaviours or comments and the way we behave, these can be small, but lots of people have done the same thing, some examples of these micro-inequities are:

• Forgetting a more junior member of staffs’ name
• Always mispronouncing someone’s name
• Only making eye contact with those of one sex when talking to a mixed group
• A suggestion made being met with a sigh or a roll of the eyes

To confront our bias, we need to adopt the platinum rule – ‘treat people the way they want to be treated’. This requires us to pay attention, ask questions, to be much more curious, think about not only our own lens but the lens of others.

There are a few reasons why people say the wrong things:

• Basic discomfort with difference
• Cultural lens – the way we see the world
• Unconscious bias – shows up in what we say
• Concept of privilege – we are not noticing how difficult something is for another person because we don’t have that difficulty

What should you do if you say something wrong?

Apologise – ask what should I have said, what was the impact, and how does it feel? Empathy is really important to know how it feels like to be on the other end of your statement. 

Stay engaged, learn from the mistake, and grow from the experience. Our consciousness courage and compassion will help us be more inclusive.

How can you avoid unconscious bias in the workplace?

Ask more questions, why am I making this decision, how much data did I get, what meaning am I making of this data and what am I missing. I always find that asking someone else’s opinion also gives you a fresh perspective.

Inclusive leadership

Becoming an inclusive leader requires a shift in behaviours, an openness to different ways of doing things, being receptive to some discomfort and demonstrating courage to embrace the unknown and unfamiliar.

Here are some common pit falls to avoid:

• Treating everyone the same - remember the platinum rule!
• Showing favouritism
• Being inflexible
• Failing to provide feedback

When leaders live the values of DIB’s they impact business outcomes and enhance the success of DIB’s initiatives. 

The leadership role has changed, because we now have workforces and marketplaces that have become more global, diverse, connected through technology and multigenerational. The requirements of a leader are now to:

• Have an understanding, competence and skill set to lead across cultures and generations
• Requiring an understanding in diverse needs, expectations, and styles
• Being self-aware of own bias, beliefs, style, strengths, and weaknesses

Inclusive leaders build inclusive businesses, and this can only lead to increased employee engagement, retention, and productivity.

Promoting healthy and positive work environment

Is just having policies in place enough to ensure you are a diverse and inclusive employer? In my opinion no, if you asked a manager in your business to give you an overview of your Diversity and Inclusion policy, could they?

Most companies will have policies saying that they are a diverse employer, and we can probably see some diversity in the workplace, but is there inclusion and a true sense of belonging for everyone or do you recognise that some employees may be masking their identity at work to fit in. In a 2018 survey by Stonewall, found that 35% of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people in the UK did not disclose their identity at work. 

Negativity costs businesses, people cannot do top quality work when they are in a negative environment, they experience stress, loss of energy, depression and more and work suffers. There are time costs, how much time is spent dealing with complaints about bad behaviours and turnover costs – employees leave, leading to recruitment, training, overtime and lost productivity costs.

Leaders hold the key in creating a positive work environment. By creating a culture where negativity is abnormal, people who engage in it will stick out like a sore thumb, this will create peer pressure to act with positivity.

How can businesses raise awareness of LGBT+? Here are some suggested ideas used by employers

• Get involved in local Pride events
• Mark LGBT+ History month
• Invite LGBT+ employees to take part in recruitment
• Raise the profile of LGBT+ employees

Did you know that happy employees are 12% more productive than unhappy ones, and disengaged employees commit 60% more errors and have 37% higher absenteeism rate than those who are engaged.

Is it time to review your policies and procedures to ensure they do not unfairly discriminate against LGBT+ employees and are free from bias? If you need support with this review or guidance on how you can become a more diverse, inclusive, and a belonging employer schedule a call with me today.