Remesh recently conducted an online focus group where they asked American professionals how they perceive diversity and inclusion (D&I) programs at their organization, whether D&I is important to employees, and what steps employees recommend for organizations to take further action on diversity in the workplace.
The results showed that employees do believe that D&I is important, but not just for employees. Diversity in all its forms (race/ethnicity, gender, and even work experience) promotes different points of view that foster better work environments and thus greater productivity – ultimately enhancing the employee experience and positively impacting an organization’s financial health.
Employees are critical of current efforts; they do not believe their workplace is greatly committed to D&I initiatives and would like to see diversity at all levels within the organization.
1. Employees perceive D&I programs as Important
The majority of employees in the study believe D&I are important for their organizations. They believe that organizations will benefit from hearing different points of view from employees, and that diverse points of view can lead to better products and services for customers. In other words, they are suggesting that successful implementation of D&I initiatives are likely to impact the bottom line.
Employees also believe that different points of view in the workplace can lead to better insights, and that the overall work environment is more welcoming and productive when co-workers or managers are open to new ideas. Employees believe this combination is important for the organization’s success – which is no surprise, since this kind of environment is closely linked to innovation. With diverse perspectives comes more creativity, better problem solving, and a variety of perspectives to “tackle problems.”
The potential benefits of implementing D&I programs vary, according to respondents, from the generation of new ideas to better decision-making as a result of a variety of ideas. Some employees believe that profits will be higher, and that their work environment and their workflow will improve as a result of increased D&I efforts.
2. Organizations are falling short on formal D&I programs
Nevertheless, very few companies have formal training or programming related to D&I. Could it be because they do not see the financial benefit of such a program or effort, or because the voice of employees has not been amplified? This shortcoming in organization-employee alignment may even point to a larger trend of a communication gap between employees and key decision-makers.
The majority however, do have informal programs or efforts and work to include D&I as part of the company culture. It is noteworthy that while nearly half (48%) of the participants reported that their companies are doing “very well” at making employees feel welcome, there is a gap of opinion between how well organizations are performing in this context which is even more potent when broken down by the profile of the respondent, specifically by race or ethnicity.
Asian and African American employees are more likely to say that their organization is “not very committed” to diversity, but gives it some attention. About a half of Hispanic or Latino employees say the same, while the other half believe their organizations’ diversity efforts are “in the dark ages” or “not at all committed or active”, compared to Caucasian respondents who are most likely to report that their organization is “very committed and active” in diversity efforts.
3. More diversity across the board
Overall, employees in the study would like to see diversity at all levels within the organization.
They seek transparency in the implementation of D&I practices and want more policies in place to prevent discrimination. When hiring, they recommend that managers consider diverse backgrounds outside of more than just race and this is consistent with further advice to be genuine about diversity initiatives, rather than treating diversity as a numbers or PR game. Finally, employees ask hiring managers to “do a lot of research and realize that your own bias could cause issues.”
Another notable type of diversity in this study is work experience.
While a majority of employees (77%), regardless of work experience, say that focusing on D&I is important for an organization, junior employees (with 5 years or less of experience) are much more likely than their more seasoned counterparts (20+ years of experience) to react positively to the opinion that “focusing on those (D&I) things can even be a bad thing.”
When compared to Caucasian employees, employees with other racial or ethnic backgrounds more strongly expressed a variety of noteworthy responses. For example, African American employees react positively to the statement that diversity would increase internal competition at their organization. Asian American employees reacted positively to the statement that increased diversity would lead to an “improved work environment.” Finally, Hispanic or Latino employees have an overwhelmingly positive reaction that more diversity would help solve problems that may arise between employees with different cultures in the workplace. Overall, Caucasian employees are more likely to not agree with this statement than Hispanic or Latino employees by 36%.
Overwhelmingly, it seems there are greater differences of opinion across race/ethnicity than across gender as men and women tend to express similar views on the benefits that D&I would bring within their organization.
4. Implementing D&I Programs at your organization
While there was a wide variety of opinions about D&I within this study, only 25% of participants reported ever having experienced formal training in this area. In fact, most employees (62%) responded that their place of work does not have formal metrics in place to track the success of D&I efforts.
Based on participants’ responses, a good place to begin implementing formal metrics is at the management level, and a majority of respondents agreed with the following statement: “while there’s lots of diversity overall, (my organization) might focus better on making sure that there’s a good mix at every level of management etc.”
When asked what specific steps employees would recommend for increasing awareness of D&I, they suggested:
- Hiring a person to take the lead in this area
- Offering training and workshops on D&I
- Documenting efforts in annual or quarterly reports
- Hiring more minorities
There are two clear takeaways from this study. The first is the risk of not taking D&I programs seriously, and the potential that dismissal of these programs can impact an organization’s bottom line. The second is that, if organizations do act on recommendations from its employees, the enhancements will provide a competitive advantage.
