Diversity and inclusion are integral factors for companies because having a workplace that encompasses a broad range of talents, knowledge and experiences can help the business expand in the long run. It will also encourage wider perspectives to be expressed when brainstorming new business ideas and problem-solving. In addition, this will increase the number of applicants that will apply for roles so you will be able to hire the best people for the job. However, they can not only help boost the success of the business but also can play a part in making employees happier as they will be able to thrive in an open environment.
An important factor which a company should consider when looking to improve their diversity and inclusion efforts is their careers page on the website. Many candidates will go here to find out more about the company culture, goals, benefits and more. This is a key place to get across your D&I efforts and show potential employees how you create an inclusive environment that they’d like to be a part of. In this article, we’ll look at 5 different things you should consider including on your employer careers website to position your company as diverse and inclusive.
Diversity and inclusion initiatives are approaches that are put into place by companies to improve their diversity in the workplace and help keep track of areas for improvement. Examples of D&I initiatives are changes in policies, staff training, implementing blind screening of resumes and highlighting diversity in job adverts. Most often these initiatives will target women and ethnic or racial minorities, however they can be intended for any group that faces a disadvantage or is under represented.
If employees don’t feel respected or valued, they will ultimately leave the organization as everyone wants to be treated fairly, regardless of their race, gender, sexual orientation or age. If employees feel like they are appreciated, they are 9.8 times more likely to look forward to going to work and 6.3 times more likely to take pride in their work. Therefore, it is essential to have an inclusive environment for both the company and the staff.
Research has even shown that having a diverse and inclusive workplace can lead to 5.4 times higher employee retention. To reinforce this, a survey by Women in Tech has shown that as many as 84% of the people asked said that they’d be more drawn to a company that speaks about being diverse & inclusive. This will benefit the company as you will not have to regularly train new employees unnecessarily and are able to build a rapport and trust with your colleagues. In fact, Mckinsey and Company demonstrated that organizations with the most gender-diverse executive teams were 25% more likely to have above-average profitability, as compared with teams that had the lowest gender diversity.
Some good examples of D&I initiatives come from Starling Bank. Throughout 2022 they made a commitment to ensure their gender diversity initiatives kept up with the company’s growth and one of the ways they did this by completing their first Returners programme in partnership with Women Returners and Innovate finance. This involved six-month paid placement, aimed at those who had been out of work for longer than 18 months, due to caring responsibilities. They will be repeating this programme in 2023. They also launched their new manager capability training programme, the Starling Flight Path, which covers leadership, unconscious bias and coaching skills.
Another key gender diversity initiative is explained in this article.
Employee network groups are voluntary groups of colleagues with similar beliefs or backgrounds which create a sense of belonging and community. They are a great way to get to know people in your organization that share a common identity in a safe and supportive space. They can also give employees the confidence to offer opinions about changes they feel the company can make to ensure all staff feel part of a community. Moreover, affinity groups can be a place where you can ask for advice, share experiences and motivate each other.
Some examples of employee networks:
To find out more about starting an employee network click here.
JPMorgan Chase&Co have made good use of networks with more than 20,000 colleagues belonging to over 70 business resource groups within the firm, showing their commitment to having a diverse and inclusive workforce. One of these networks is ‘PRIDE’ which engages and supports LGBT employees and allies, and helps management continue to promote an inclusive environment within the firm. Another is ‘Women’s Interactive Network (WIN)’, that provides access to the tools that enable the successful, development, advancement and retention of women at all levels of the firm. You can read about the other networks JPMorgan Chase&co has here.
Offering employee benefits is a good way to both entice new candidates and to retain your current ones. They create a sense of feeling valued, which will make people more inclined to bring their best selves to work and work hard for the company. In addition, it will help applicants favour your company over another if you have competitive benefits.
Furthermore, they can be used to greatly help with diversity. For example, if you are wanting to increase the number of women in your business, offering flexible working or remote working will be appealing if they have children who need to be looked after at home or dropping off/picking up from school. Additionally, this can also be beneficial to women if they are going through menstruation or menopause these can come with many side effects and so they might feel more comfortable working from home. Another area you can increase your talent pool with employee benefits is by encouraging those with mental or physical disabilities to join the company. Some of these ways can be by offering health insurance, remote working or access to an Employee Assistance Programme.
You can find out more about the top employee incentives for women in tech here.
An example of a company that offers many employee benefits is Planit Testing. These include, but aren’t limited to WPA health insurance, hybrid working, free flu jabs, a generous pension and a 24-hour Employee Assistance Programme. DWP Digital is another excellent example of where the company recognises its employee’s hard work and so offers lots of incentives. These include flexi-time, flexible working patterns, parent a carer leave, 24/7 online health and wellness portal and coach and workplace adjustments. DWP also gives its staff access to diversity and inclusion networks, such as Women in Digital, LGBT+ and BAME.
Showing your companies statistics and figures in relation to diversity is a clear way to show prospective candidates, current employees and the public the work you are doing to achieve a diverse and inclusive team. It also can act as a way for the organisation to keep a record of any areas that need improvement and also any success they have had. For example, keeping track of the percentage women, percentage of each ethnicity and religion you have and aim to improve on this year on year. The ideal aim is to have 50% women, 50% men and all ethnicities and religions as part of your team. This will attract a wider range of talents to your company.
Ways you can help keep on top of this is by using software such as Gapsquare which makes it easier to analyse and track pay disparities. This will hep identify gender pay gaps, which if there isn’t one, or it is small, will make the company attractive to women and more competitive than other businesses. Another factor to be mindful of is the minority pay gap, which shows the difference in the average pay between all Black, Asian and minority ethnic staff in a workforce. The Gapsquare’s software also allows companies to easily present and analyse gap reporting, which is particularly important for employers who have 250 employees, or more. This is due to a law being passed in 2017 that requires them to report and publish their gender pay gap information yearly. You can find out more about helpful D&I tools here.
A company that clearly displays their diversity stats on their website and ways it plans to improve is Capco. Their commitment to diversity and inclusion, respect, and integrity is the foundation on which their business and their professional lives are built. Therefore, they have established aspirational hiring and progression targets for their employees to further advance gender parity at the firm and aspire to achieve many goals, including having 50% women associates by 2025 and 30% of UK employees be BAME by 2025. You can read more about how they are improving diversity on their website.
You can learn more about company’s diversity targets for 2023 in this article.
Displaying your company’s awards and achievements in diversity will help attract a wider group of people to your organization because it will show that you have been proven to be an inclusive employer from an external source. It will demonstrate that the company has built an environment that is comfortable for everyone and is likely to serve the needs of the community.
Sparta Global illustrate this well on their Women in Tech profile page. This shows their achievements in being the Women in Tech Best Tech Employer 2020 award winner, Women in IT Excellence Awards winner in 2019 and receiving an inclusion and Diversity Training Commendation award in 2021, amongst others. This can have a large positive impact on the amount of women that would
You can find out more about the importance of diversity and inclusion in the workplace here.
Showcase your own dedication and commitment to diversity & inclusion by becoming a Diversity in Tech partner! Contact us at sales@diversityintech.co.uk to find out more and speak to one of the team.