It’s 2023, the topic is diversity, equality and inclusion – commonly abbreviated to DE&I – and your small business has no idea where to start.
Fortunately, unlike a few years ago, there are lots of free resources available to help – a list of which is linked in our previous blog, where we explored the barriers for small businesses adopting DE&I practices.
As well as economic returns, the softer benefits of getting DEI right are plenty. Whether it’s boosting staff morale, yielding higher profits or increased staff retention.
So, without further ado, here are 7 first steps your small business can take to make your workplace a more equal, diverse and inclusive environment.
1. Varying team-building and social events
This is #1 because we may as well start with the most fun step!
Part of creating a diverse, equal and inclusive workplace is appreciating the wide spectrum of requirements, preferences and interests.
In the UK specifically, drinking culture is huge. But not every employee wants, or enjoys, a boozy do with their work mates.
Equally, not everyone is thrilled by raft building in the middle of a lake, running a 10K, or climbing a mountain.
So instead of defaulting to a pub trip or big night out, make ‘switching it up’ a priority and plan a variety of team building and social events across the year.
Offering a range of activities that cater to different needs and preferences prevents an exclusive culture (where those with certain interests flourish and others lose the chance to build crucial relationships). Once you have drawn up a shortlist of ideas, why not run a poll with your team to gauge preferences?
There’s lots of inspiration out there – check out these 10 Alcohol-Free Work Social Ideas from Loving Life.
2. Accommodating flexible working arrangements
From an employer’s viewpoint, remote working can cut costs of rent, utilities and other overheads associated with office working.
And as the pandemic showed us, flexible working does not mean employees simply do not work. In fact, for many it meant more time to concentrate rather than being interrupted by office distractions.
Though it may not be possible to offer fully remote working in your sector, offering flexible working arrangements that include options for how your staff want to carry out their role can have some very positive impacts.
For employees, flexible working can help achieve greater balance in their lives. It also allows them to work when they are most productive, produce higher quality work, and cut down the time and costs associated with commuting.
But flexibility doesn’t just mean working from home.
Accommodating flexible hours for big and small life events, like going to the dentist, picking up a poorly child, or for religious reasons, can have just as great an impact. It demonstrates that you value your staff as a whole person, not simply a cog in your business machine.
Ultimately, flexible working is associated with higher levels of engagement and lower levels of absenteeism, which in turn reduces the cost of lost productivity and thus profitability.
3. Challenging microaggressions as they happen
By definition, a microaggression is a statement or action that conveys “indirect, subtle, or unintentional discrimination against members of a marginalised group.” (Oxford Languages).
Classic examples of microaggressions in the workplace:
- Someone remarking that a colleague of colour probably only got promoted by ‘using the race card’
- A person telling their colleague that they don’t even “look” gay
- Continuously or deliberately mispronouncing a person’s name because “it’s too hard” to say correctly.
Microaggressions tend to be strongly linked to our unconscious bias. Preventing and challenging them involves self-awareness.
As a director or manager, it’s crucial to lead by example and challenge microaggressions as they happen. This may involve first challenging your own way of thinking and enrolling in unconscious bias training, or specific training for spotting and dealing with microaggressions.
However you choose to implement this step, you cannot hope to achieve a truly diverse, equal and inclusive workplace without it.
Especially when 63% of UK workers are said to have experienced a microaggression at work (survey conducted by Totaljobs). It is not enough to think it doesn’t happen at your workplace.
Here is a great article with more examples and information on microaggressions in the workplace.
4. Challenging toxic workplace culture
A toxic workplace culture is a fast track to thwarting your DE&I attempts. Toxic workplaces thrive on the very opposite of diversity, equality and inclusion!
According to Forbes, there are eight warning signs that your workplace culture is becoming toxic:
- Lack of exit interviews
- Lack of transparency and communication
- Employee gossip
- Blame culture
- Passive aggressive behaviour
- Unmotivated workers
- Low team morale
- Division amongst departments
Toxic workplace cultures have been called out more often in recent years. And with the pandemic taking many workplaces online, toxic habits were often exacerbated. For example, cliques forming in secret online chats, the dumping of workloads on the person who never says no, overtly discriminatory, racist or sexist conversations between colleagues which can cause offence… the list goes on.
Challenging toxic workplace culture isn’t easy. But it goes a long way to making sure your company remains an open, honest, motivated, and welcoming place for all.
5. Offering mental health support and guidance
Your business is only as healthy as your workers.
Workplace stress is one of the leading causes of mental health issues, with at least 1 in 6 workers experiencing mental health problems like anxiety and depression.
Luckily, there are quite a few options when it comes to help keep your team’s mental wellbeing in check. For example, you could:
- Ensure workloads are managed continuously
- Consider removing unnecessary stressors in the work environment
- Offer appropriate staff training to help people do their jobs effectively
- Provide the option to work from home or flexible hours if possible
- Signpost staff to free mental health support or consider providing subsidised support to your team from mental health professionals
Supporting the mental health of your staff is essential on many levels. Yes, they will ultimately have better outputs in their role. But above all, businesses are nothing without people.
Fostering teams which care about each other on a human level, and not simply on a transactional level, boosts the sense of community in your business. Learning to accept each other’s difficulties and strengths is yet another step to creating an inclusive environment.
6. Regular team interactions: formal and informal
With many businesses now adopting remote or hybrid working, checking in has never been more important. This can be done in two ways:
- Formal: scheduled meetings e.g. to discuss progression or general wellbeing
- Informal: unscheduled e.g. grabbing a coffee for a brief catch up
Both have their benefits.
Scheduling structured chats to discuss your staff’s happiness at the company can display and encourage more caring habits in your team. They are also a great chance to formally bring up any wins or issues.
On the other hand, informal interactions like a coffee or lunch break can go a long way to developing relationships that cut deeper than the usual manager-employee exchanges (though regular interactions should be between everyone, not simply managers and their executives!).
Regular team interactions allow you to resolve any tensions before they become bigger issues, gain perspective over personal circumstances that may affect professional work, build trusting and easy rapport between team members, and boost the sense of team spirit all-round.
Specifically for DE&I, team interactions are key for hearing and understanding the diverse perspectives of your team on a continual basis, which ultimately affects how your business is run.
7. Valuing team input on company decisions
As a small business owner, you sometimes have to make an executive decision, and fast. But where it’s possible to do so, it’s well worth drafting in the team for some joint decision making!
The time taken to implement this step is proven to reap benefits. These include improved cases of employee retention, engagement, productivity, innovation and profitability.
Involving employees in decisions shows them to be a key voice in your business that will be heard and considered.
And it’s no secret that valued staff are more likely to stay. From a statistical point of view, this kind of effective team communication can increase employee retention by 4-5 times!
What’s more, according to a study conducted by McKinsey, companies in the top quartile for executive gender diversity were 25% more likely to generate greater profits than those that did not.
Finally, by including employees with diverse backgrounds and perspectives on company decisions, you are more able to accurately reflect the needs and interests of a broader range of people.
Engaging staff to create lasting change
Implementing the above steps will help you on your way to becoming a more diverse, equal and inclusive workplace.
Once you have conquered the steps that boost engagement and morale, it becomes much easier to adopt the steps that may involve more effort and cooperation to achieve lasting change.
Teams who want to continue to learn and grow, knowing it makes their working day a more enjoyable experience, are bound to be more successful in all areas. In fact, Gallup research found that highly engaged teams are 21% more productive than those who are not!