What is one way to incorporate diversity, equity, and inclusion into your business practices?

To help your company incorporate diversity, equity, and inclusion into its business practices, we asked HR experts and business leaders this question for their best inclusion practices. From diversifying your hiring process to considering gender pronouns, there are several ways your company can incorporate diversity, equity, and inclusion.

Here are ten ways to incorporate diversity, equity, and inclusion into your business practices:

• Get Employee Feedback
• Diversify Your Hiring Practices
• Create a Culture That Values Differences
• Provide DEI Training
• Start With Leadership
• Encourage Collaboration
• Promote Pay Equity
• Review Your Company’s Frameworks
• Consider Gender Pronouns
• Build In Communication and Recognition
• Get Employee Feedback

Businesses need to recognize that we are living in a time where diversity, equity, and inclusion are important priorities when running their companies. I reach out to my employees for feedback on how I can create a more welcoming and open environment. From their feedback, I’m able to put diversity policies in place. These diversity and inclusion policies allow open conversation and better practices within our workplace.

Henry Babicheknko, Stomadent

Diversify Your Hiring Practices

Diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) should be important to the mission, vision and value of your business. The best way to incorporate DEI starts with your hiring practices. When you hire with DEI in mind it will more naturally become a part of your culture and business practices.

Randall Smalley, Cruise America

Create a Culture That Values Differences

Every individual at our company knows and understands their role in our culture. We encourage all our employees to identify and celebrate their differences and find ways to use those differences to add value to their position. A top-down approach doesn’t drive commitment, so when you get all employees at all levels involved, you can make lasting change.

Ryan Nouis, TruPath

Provide DEI Training

Successful organizations understand that a long-term commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) is good for business — increasing innovation, employee engagement and retention, customer satisfaction, brand reputation, and profitability. While there is no single approach, experts agree that a comprehensive strategy is needed to embed DEI in the workplace culture and the decisions, policies, processes, and practices that support it. Diversity training that is behavior-based can play a meaningful role in creating an inclusive workplace in which underrepresented or marginalized groups are encouraged to participate, contribute, lead and succeed.

Andrew Rawson, Traliant

Start With Leadership

The best way to incorporate diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) in your business is by starting with a top-down approach. Start the necessary conversations with leadership to get buy-in from the top, then move throughout your organization to get everyone proactively involved. This way, it can be solidified in the company’s culture.

Rronniba Pemberton, Markitors

Encourage Collaboration

The more people work together and learn from each other’s experiences while working on a project, the more inclusive the workplace becomes. It can also help build a sense of community in the office. That’s why we prioritize collaboration and teamwork in the workplace.

Scott Rosenberg, MaryRuth’s Organics

Promote Pay Equity

Managers should level out the playing field and offer equal opportunity for each employee. Companies may leverage various analytics to ascertain which employees are underpaid for similar responsibilities and roles. People analytics can diligently help managers identify any pay holes that might exist among the team and the leaders. This way, they can assess patterns within significant departments to fathom the root cause of those issues. This leading insight will help ascertain various trends and patterns where a definite group of employees is underpaid within specific business areas.

Caroline Lee, CocoSign

Review Your Company’s Frameworks

When it comes to supporting BIPOC workers and creating a diverse workforce, the change needs to start from the ground up of the company’s core values, company culture, and hiring process. It is not enough for a company to talk about the present-day issues of race and systemic inequality but not take on any active initiatives to fight against it. It is crucial to develop systems of inclusion and go above the minimum standards that have existed for decades yet haven’t pioneered any change. It is time to be proactive rather than reactive when it comes to inclusivity and diversity in the workplace. The only way to truly make an impact is to dig deep into the foundations of companies and redevelop the frameworks that guide them in their daily operations.

Dr. Robert Applebaum, Principal Owner

Consider Gender Pronouns

One simple way to incorporate diversity, equity, and inclusion into your business practice is through embracing the fact that people identify with different gender pronouns. This creates a more inclusive and accepting workplace, especially for the marginalized community, the LGBTQ+. Aside from putting their names on their employee IDs, the company can include the employee’s gender pronouns.

Joe Flanagan, VelvetJobs

Build In Communication and Recognition

Many people in the workplace face communication challenges, whether they are dealing with a homogenous or diverse population. The key is to over-communicate and negotiate expectations continually. If you are in maniac mode racing from meeting to meeting, you will never be able to build inclusive organizations. If leaders can engage their colleagues more effectively and consistently, people will feel safe to step up and speak up. Finally, we must hit the pause button regularly to celebrate successes and recognize individuals, teams, and the entire organization.

Katharine Halpin, The Halpin Companies Inc.