Over the last decade, organizations across the major global economies are becoming more proactive about valuing and promoting an inclusive work environment. While, the focus on equal opportunity, inclusive workplace, and respecting diversity may have been a legal and compliance issue in some markets, now employers are appreciating that cultivating an inclusive work environment supports organization building, and overall culture. This may also serve as a case for attracting quality talent, as people, when they feel respected and valued would love to be a part of an organisation.
Inclusive – may involve providing equal opportunity, respecting diversity – ethnic, gender, etc., valuing people and their opinions regardless of their job roles, and perpetually placing an organization wide effort at doing away with biases while dealing with people. An inclusive work environment, where leaders respect and value the opinions of people can lead to higher level of satisfaction, trust and innovation – all of this leading to higher organizational value creation.
Workplace diversity practices are also emerging some of the key factors for attracting and engaging talent these days. In one of the recent studies on Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, conducted by Ziprecruiter, an employment market place – it was concluded that workplace diversity ranks high on job seekers’ list of priorities when looking for a job. In the study, over 86% of job seekers mentioned workplace diversity as being an important factor while looking for a job.
The study involved a survey of 6,178 active job seekers (from the U.S.) and 350 employers on the Ziprecruiter platform between September 2019 and October 2019 to gauge their attitude on Diversity, Equity and Inclusion in the workplace.
Apart from workplace diversity, salary and flexible schedule were identified as the top job search criteria. Millennials, and Gen X placed a higher value on work place diversity. As is understood based on the survey – millennials are likely to stay nearly twice as long, as against their average tenure of 2.8 year at an employer that fosters diversity, equity and inclusion.
According to Ian Siegel (ZipRecruiter, Co Founder & CEO), “Millennials and Generation X together account for over two-thirds of today’s U.S. labor force. When close to 90% of them say that a company’s concrete commitment to workplace diversity affects their decision to work there, it means that employers who deploy DEI programs can have a competitive edge in the war for talent.”
Jasmine, an M.A (English) from Miranda House (Univ. of Delhi), is a freelance writer. She is Founder & Chief Word Crafter at word-craft.in, a content services venture offering content development and translation services. She has earlier worked with NIIT, Rupa publications, and PTI in areas of Instructional Design, Editing, and Journalism.