DEI is an acronym for diversity, equity, and inclusion. DEI culture is a practice of adopting strategies that encourage the involvement and representation of diverse groups of people, irrespective of age, ethnicity, gender, abilities and disabilities, religious conviction, culture, and sexual orientation. DEI culture in a workplace promotes equality and fairness. It recognizes the importance of diverse voices, inclusivity, and employee well-being as the main factors that drive success.
Why Is DEI Important?
Having a corporate culture that is diverse, equitable, and inclusive is no longer a nice to have but the right thing to do. Many companies are getting the message: diversity is good for business; thus, they are now fostering diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) policies.
Diverse and inclusive organizations connect several ways of thinking to drive innovation and productivity. But to make diverse workforces successful, you have to ensure equal access to resources and opportunities to all and make everyone feel included.
Organizations that create and embrace the culture of DEI are more successful. With the current surge in remote working, investing in DEI is becoming even more important not only for workplace but also for business well-being.
Some of the benefits of a DEI culture include:
- Improves employee productivity and performance
- Fosters creativity and innovation
- Widens the pool to attract top talent
- Reduces employee turnover
- Grows a company’s market and increases profits
Building a Culture of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) in the Workplace
For your organization to thrive, you need to build a diverse, equitable, and inclusive culture. But, how do you do it? Below are some best practices you can follow to build and promote DEI at your organization:
- Identify unconscious bias in talent management. Ensure all employees have access to the same opportunities and growth. You can also create programs to teach employees the importance of DEI in an organization.
- Listen to all voices. Let the employees express how they feel about the company culture and what they expect and want in the organization’s DEI culture. Leaders also need to be vulnerable and share their own experiences of how they can make the program successful.
- Examine the company’s policies and procedures to ensure that they allow all employees to contribute in a meaningful way. Ensure your organization strategy and culture incorporates DEI policies, and your goals are concrete, actionable and quantifiable.
- Provide accessible facilities to accommodate people with disabilities. This may include ramps, elevators, and roll-in toilets, among others.
- Provide a comfortable work environment, for example, incorporate assistive technology to help people with disability perform their duties with ease.
Work with Applied Development to Create an Effective DEI Culture
Building a diverse, equitable, and inclusive culture requires resilience, dedication, curiosity, and empathy. At Applied Development, we can help you build strategies to create a more diverse and inclusive work environment that promotes equity. We champion the rights of people of all abilities to work and communicate effectively. Our services include sign language interpreting, Communications Access Real-Time Translation (CART), Section 508 compliance, and strategic communications.
Looking to build an effective DEI culture for your organization? Contact us online or call us at (410) 571-4016.