What can employers do to make things fairer for their employees? That's what we asked members of the public recently in London, UK. Here is what they had to say.
Tom shared that, “First of all, just being very thoughtful about how they go about hiring, promotion, other things like that, to start to counter a natural tendency to try to find people who look and feel like ourselves.”
Whereas Panilla said, “So first of all, it's all about communication and information making people aware that they might be unconsciously biased towards other people, towards other cultures or whatever gender, whatever it is. So information, communicating around it is key. And then probably do some initiatives on, you know, key diversity areas like gender diversity, just to make sure that people understand or that they see it working despite what they might think.”
Louise shared her thoughts, “I just think they've got to be more open and understanding with individuals. I have found in some employment places, you know, they don't have the inclusion that our company has because the company I work for has diversity. We have inclusion days. So it's open to everybody. But some companies, I think they need to start listening to their employees and asking what they can do more so than just thinking what they're doing is the right thing.”
Tom, a real estate solicitor, said, “I think it's about listening to employees and what they think they need, all the tools they need to enable them to do their job in a in the easiest way for them to make them feel uncomfortable and equal to others.”
Amy said, “I think first of all, it's reaching out to your employees and understanding what you're state of play currently is. There are some companies that I think are very good at diversity inclusion, others that are just getting started. We're sort of just getting started.
So I think the first action is just understanding who your employees are, like who is it that's working for you? What do they perhaps think isn't fair about your current workplace and what do they feel can be improved or changed? It's difficult because you're always going to have minority groups that will want something. But I think you need to understand what's your what's your base of employees and actually what matters to you as a company rather than ticking the box of what matters to diversity inclusion in general.”
Charles also shared his thoughts, “I think looking at people's skills and where they need to be upskilled I think is important. I think looking at people who want to grow within an organisation is important. I think understanding those individuals who have and like aspirations to want to grow within an organisation, to increase their own skill and capability with an organisation should be something that all employers should be actively trying to do sort of on a weekly, monthly basis. I think just setting KPIs and monitoring performance is one thing, but actually setting goals for employees, it's really important to see like growth.”
Lisa, who works in insurance, said, “I think flexibility in hours, giving flexibility to work from home when needed, flexibility leave and return and then maybe work from home part of the day, I think makes it much easier for everybody then to get access to the marketplace on an equal basis as well as opposed to feeling that they're missing out or that there's concern that they're not there when they should be. I think that would make it fairer for everybody.”
What are your thoughts? When was the last time you asked your employees what they think you could do better? If you would like to discuss how to bring your DEI policies to life and to really make a difference to employees, get in touch and book a one to one with a member of our consulting team.