#Diversity and #Inclusion - How can companies move from talking the talk to walking the walk? In recent days Diversity and Inclusion have come to the forefront of what companies are paying attention to even in the midst of a pandemic. Starting from hiring and promotion practices to processes to the branding offering and more companies are looking at ways to make D&I more real for their employees. How can we take it from a vaguely abstract concept (to most people) to very concrete steps?

1. 13 Ways How -
To create the best
Inclusive environment @work
Deepa Kartha

2. Let's start with the definition first. Even though Diversity and Inclusion are tyically talked about in the same sentence, Verna Myers explained the difference
between the two the best -
Diversity is being invited to the party, inclusion is being asked to dance.
— Verna Myers
The de nes diversity as “the full spectrum of human di erences.” Dimensions of diversity might include visible traits like age, gender, disability and ethnic
background or invisible traits like socio-economic status, marital status and sexual orientation.
To simply put, the workplace should re ect the community or customers served by the organization's products and services.
2018 Gallup report
What is Diversity?
What is the difference between Diversity and Inclusion?
Companies of all sizes have Diversity and Inclusion as one of their core pillars. Even with that, there is a lack of understanding outside the 'Diversity and Inclusion O ce' on what exactly
these terms mean and how a company implements their D&I policies.

3. When employees who are di erent from their colleagues are allowed to ourish, the company bene ts from their ideas, skills and engagement, according to
. The retention rate of those workers also rises with increase in diversity and inclusion.
SHRM/Economist Intelligence
Unit research
What is Inclusion?
The 2018 Gallup report explains inclusion as the following - “Inclusion refers to a cultural and environmental feeling of belonging. It can be assessed as the extent to which employees are
valued, respected, accepted and encouraged to fully participate in the organization.” Diversity doesn’t necessarily imply inclusion. The
it doesn’t
necessarily change the culture of the organization or ensure that these groups feel included or valued in the organization. The author uses the analogy, “Diversity speaks to who is on the
team, but inclusion focuses on who is really in the game.”
Harvard Business Review article
focuses on this distinction. For example adding women to the tech leadership team or promoting all genders are steps in the right direction, but
“Diversity Doesn’t
Stick Without Inclusion”
Diversity speaks to who is on the team, but inclusion focuses on who is really in the game. You get the idea.

4. Why Diversity and Inclusion? Why now?
Inclusion and Diversity is NOT ONLY the right thing thing to do, this is what the consumers are demanding of companies right now.
This becomes even more critical with the movements worldwide for rights and fair treatment. Working from home during the
pandemic is drawing attention to the disparity of playing elds for various employees when they are at home.
It is also what CEO's of companies worldwide are pledging to do. Check out the pledge.
Click for study on Diversity and InclusionMcKinsey
Focusing only on Diversity causes unintended consequences.
Tokenization : Having a 'token' diverse hire or person on the board, or in the management team does not ensure that everyone in the company feels included or valued.
Leader blind spots: Leadership team has a false sense of security just looking at numbers that they have checked the box on diversity but really have blind spots
Employee Trust and feeling of safety : Employees might not have trust in leadership of feel safe to speak up in front of others
Missing out on business opportunities : If the employees do not look like a representation of the company's customers the company is missing out of opportunities to serve their
customers better.
Diversity and Inclusion is not just good to do, it's also proven to be good business. Mckinsey did a study on the impacts on D&I and this is what they found.

5. So how can companies implement Diversity and Inclusion well?
McKinsey study on Diversity and Inclusion
Another Mckinsey study explains that companies need to have a systemic, business lead approach to inclusion and diversity to have a successful and sustained approach
to Inclusion and Diversity

6. Mckinsey study on Diversity and Inclusion

7. Concrete Steps companies can take
Privilege : "Privilege" refers to certain social advantages, bene ts, or degrees of prestige and respect that an individual has by virtue of belonging to certain social identity groups.
Racism and Antiracism: Anti-racism is an active and conscious e ort to work against multidimensional aspects of racism, according to " Robert J. Patterson, professor of African American
Studies at Georgetown University. Checkout additional from the National Museum of African American History and Culture. resources on Anti-racism
Unconscious Bias : According to Unconscious biases are social stereotypes about certain groups of people that individuals form outside their own conscious awareness. Everyone
holds unconscious beliefs about various social and identity groups, and these biases stem from one’s tendency to organize social worlds by categorizing. Unconscious bias is far more prevalent than
conscious prejudice and often incompatible with one’s conscious values. Certain scenarios can activate unconscious attitudes and beliefs. For example, biases may be more prevalent when multi-
tasking or working under time pressure.
UCSF's website,
Training and education on topics - For example
1. Start at the TOP of the company

8. Everything starts at the top. Having your executives educated and trained on what's happening in the world is a very important rst step in any
organization. Keep an account of what training all the company leaders have gone through.
Understanding various movements (BLM, #MeToo etc)
Example: Everyone take Buzzfeed privilege survey confidentially and see
the results across the company- it will be telling

9. Sta meetings
Town halls
Written communication
Company wide initiatives
2a. Communication and Messaging
Leaders should demonstrate their commitment to D& I through their communication both with the larger teams and in their leadership meetings
Walking is walk is as important as talking the talk. If companies pay lip-service to diversity and inclusion, it becomes very obvious very fast to their
employees. Some of the areas of communication are the following.
2. Accountability and Responsibility at the top
Example: Keep communication visible, transparent and accessible

10. To make any company level goals concrete they need to have goals assigned with nancial outcomes for the leaders. Create SMART goals
based on speci c results as well as employee feedback on their experience with Inclusion and Diversity in the company
Results like diversity percentage at each level in the company
Number of inclusion and diversity initatives sponsored/attended by leaders
Con dential feedback from employees
Focus groups and action plans implemented
Communicate the goals, progress and outcomes at all levels
2b. Inclusion Goals and Outcomes
Example: A company wide visible Diversity and Inclusion dashboard and workspace

11. Example: Sharing employees differences through fun directories
3. A Diverse Inclusion working Group
Jennifer Brown, author of Inclusion: Diversity, the New Workplace & the Will to Change (Purpose Driven Publishing, 2017) and president and CEO of Jennifer Brown Consulting in New
York City suggests creating an inclusion council as a “a channel for communication” between the rank and le and the C-suite, and that includes advocating for inclusiveness in
discussions with top executives when necessary. These councils could do the following
Be super diverse, include multiple levels in the organization
Involved in goal setting, hiring, retention, address issues etc
Has the ability to make decisions and has the 'ear' of the exec team
Involved in making recommendations on new and emerging needs of underrepresented employees
4. ERG's and BRG's
The o cial de nition from Catalyst for an Employee Resource Group is “a voluntary, employee-led group that serves as a resource for members and organizations by fostering a diverse,
inclusive workplace aligned with organizational mission, values, goals, practices, and objectives.” ERG's can help with the following
Celebrating employee's di erences
Help with attracting and recruiting diverse talent
Talent engagement and development
Market or business development to new customer segments

12. 6. Voice of the Employees
The best way to know what your employees feel is to get it directly from the horse's mouth. Ask them. Having periodic con dential surveys will
help you understand how your employees feel. These are survey questions with special focus on diversity and inclusion. Leaders can use these
surveys to assess the employee D& I experience and modify their culture as needed.
Example: Diversity and Inclusion poll from SHRM

13. 7. Celebrate Employee Differences daily
Companies can get everyone involved in celebrating diversity in the workplace. These could be through special events and celebrations organized
by ERG's or HR. It is important to make these events inclusive and also ensure leader participation in them. It should all about focusing on the human aspect and less about a check list.
8. Leveraging your diversity for business growth
Create diverse teams for new product launches, new market expansion and more. Use your ERG teams an your diverse workforce to get unique perspectives and celebrate the wins.
Engage your employees to be part of the solution. Celebrate successes and share learning with everyone in the company.
Example: 'Day of the Year' inclusive events and capturing feedback

14. Consider doing a group for employees to share their experiences with each other. So this could be like a 'Humans of the company' where you
highlight a di erent employee a week from a diverse background so everyone in the company gets to know others and appreciates their life
experiences.
9. Sharing experiences with each other

15. 11. Meetings and daily interactions
Daily interactions of employees determine their inclusion experience in any organization
“Cultivating inclusion is an evolving process with constantly moving targets. You’re never done,” Thomas points out. “A company’s goals and tactics must evolve along with the needs of
current and potential talent.
This includes the following
Preparation for the meeting
Ability for everyone to participate
Meeting time zones
Meeting minutes
Communication styles, materials before and minutes after, courtesy to ensure that everyone gets to participate, addressing bad behavior etc are all part of that
Creating an inclusive mindset is not a linear process, Guillory says. It will take time and a consistent e ort. “There will be stops and starts” along the way, he says.
10. Share out goal and progress with the company
It is important for leadership to share out the goals, the results, the progress and even the mistakes or missteps to the employees and make the
employees be part of the problem solving.
article on how to be an inclusive leaderHBR

16. Conduct a full audit of your people processes—from recruiting and hiring to developing and retaining employees. Couple the data with engagement and other workforce survey data to gain
a full measure of your climate.
This is an area where even well intentioned teams fall prey to boxing the team members in stereotypical roles, functions and expected behaviors.
Managers should be trained to pay attention to these 'auto-pilot' moves and they have to constantly be interrupting the biases.
12. Team Roles
13. Create visibility and process around the tangible results of inclusion
Create visibility in your company, an open door policy, open processes that are followed - take the mystery out of how employees can rise in the
organization. Be open and explicit about inclusion in all aspects of the company culture.

17. Example: How to bring all the Diversity and Inclusion activities together