Every employee brings their own unique experiences, perspectives and backgrounds to the table. Recognising and encouraging this diversity can make way for better creativity and innovation and give companies the competitive advantage they need to stand out in the market. 

This Celebrate Diversity Month, let us look at what workplace diversity means and how your company can recognise and promote it. 

WHAT IS WORKPLACE DIVERSITY?

Contrary to popular belief, diversity is so much more than ethnicity and age. Diversity refers to all the individual characteristics employees possess that make them unique. These include gender, race, language, sexual orientation, physical abilities, age and ideologies. It also consists of a person's life experiences and styles of thought. 

FOUR WAYS TO PROMOTE DIVERSITY IN THE WORKPLACE

1. Educate managers and leaders

Any change or implementation in an organisation always starts from the top with the C-suite, supervisors and managers. And promoting diversity is no different. Empower your managers to recognise, support and grow a diverse team by scheduling proper training. When your managers understand the importance of celebrating diversity, you will find that the potential of your workforce is unlimited. In addition to training managers, also assess reporting structures and employee feedback methods to ensure a clear communication channel between managers and their reports. 

2. Create and amend policies

Now that you are on your way to being a more diverse organisation, the next step is to implement diversity-friendly workplace policies. Evaluate all your current policies to see if they might be why people aren't applying to your company or staying within the company. Then amend these policies to cater to a broader audience. Below are a few examples:

• Strict office working hours may put new parents or parents with school-age children in a fix. Family-friendly policies like childcare, flexi-time and even work from home or hybrid working policies can help parents balance life at home and get a chance to succeed at work. 
• Research what religious holidays aren't officially observed by your company and allow employees to take a day off on those days.
• Review the facilities in your office to provide an inclusive atmosphere to employees, such as non-gendered washrooms, prayer rooms, separate rooms for breastfeeding, etc.  

3. Communicate clearly

Although training managers and amending policies are essential, there's more to be done to ensure a workplace that promotes diversity. Clear communication is necessary to ensure all initiatives are effective. Employees should feel comfortable coming to their team leaders with any concerns regarding how they are being treated at work due to their gender, age, ethnicity or other factors. Managers also need to feel confident while communicating with employees by steering clear of assumptions and by using inclusive language. 

4. Provide diversity training to employees

No matter how bias-free we think we are, almost all of us have judgements ingrained in us due to our socialisations and life experiences. Help employees overcome unconscious bias by providing them with implicit bias training. Implicit bias training helps raise awareness around unconscious attitudes and helps create a safe space for employees. Here are several Implicit Association Tests you can access if you're interested.