- September 14, 2022
- By Joshua Reid
- Advice , Diversity, Equity and Inclusion
- accessibility , benefits of inclusivity , company policy , inclusion , inclusive , inclusive culture
What Are the Benefits of Inclusivity in a Company?
Within a company, being inclusive and ensuring that all employees feel a sense of belonging is a part of a company’s responsibility. As the world continues to try and implement initiatives and policies that benefit society, businesses play a role in implementing those initiatives at work. When it comes to inclusivity, there are benefits that a company receives when they have a work environment that enables employees to work proficiently and feel at ease.
How does having inclusivity in a workplace enable a company to be more productive?
According to writer Rick Goodman, businesses want to have an organizational structure that welcomes all kinds of people. For Goodman, there are several questions he asks when thinking about inclusivity in a company:
- Do you have an organizational structure in which everyone feels like they can be part of a team?
- Do you have a culture that sometimes pushes people away, intentionally or otherwise?
Inclusivity benefits a company because, as mentioned in my previous article, it gives employees the opportunity to have their voices heard and make sure the company has what it needs to make the employees feel like a part of a team. Making accommodations for employees with physical or psychological disabilities and perhaps creating initiatives where employees could talk with each other or a counselor are examples of providing employees with an inclusive workspace. For Goodman, value that comes with inclusivity.
Goodman goes on to argue that for a company, inclusivity not only helps build team cohesion, but also gives companies a variety of perspectives to listen to and develop creative methods for the workplace. Whether through different initiatives or marketing strategies, boosting productivity and developing goodwill between employees and the leadership team benefits companies.
Whether that be through developing creative methods like initiatives or different marketing strategies for their brand or boosting productivity, the benefits of having inclusivity in a company should provide the leadership and management team of a company a basis for how they can incorporate inclusivity into their company.
“[Make] inclusivity a real priority at your business… not just [talk] the talk, but really [put] strategies into place for pursuing an inclusive organizational culture.”
Rick Goodman
Additionally, for Goodman, one of the benefits of having inclusivity in a company can also come from the organizational structure of a company. There are several strategies that Goodman argues leaders could do to make a company’s culture inclusive..
- Start with leaders and managers.
- Create an inclusivity council.
- Accommodate employee differences.
- Listen to what your employees are telling you.
- Create inclusive meetings.
- Measure and communicate (Keep track of goals and report progress to the team.)
Through these measures, inclusivity isn’t just a “check box” for the company but a tangible solution for companies who are lacking inclusive actions in their work environment. Ryan Jenkins seems to agree with Goodman’s measures. In his article titled, “Here Are the Benefits of Inclusion and How to Create an Inclusive Culture,” Jenkins argues that organizations with inclusive cultures are “two times as likely to meet or exceed financial targets, three times as likely to be high-performing, six times more likely to be innovative and agile, and eight times more likely to achieve better business outcomes.”
While I haven’t verified if those statistics are true, the fact remains that the benefits of inclusivity in companies should outweigh a company’s hesitancy to be inclusive in their workplace. If companies want to continue in a post-COVID era, embracing inclusivity and ensuring that all employees feel like they are a part of a team is a start. By creating and keeping track of goals and communicating the progress to the team, a company makes everything as a whole better and gives the employees more to strive towards.
Sources
Goodman, Rick. “Do You Have an Inclusive Organizational Culture?” Business 2 Community,. Accessed 27 July 2021.
Jenkins, Ryan. “Here Are the Benefits of Inclusion and How to Create an Inclusive Culture.” Inc.,. Accessed 27 July 2021.
Photo by Agence Olloweb on Unsplash
