This week, you will submit your presentation based on your recommendation report. It will consist of approximately seven slides, accompanied by an audio recording of approximately 7 minutes in total (

12

Diversity and Inclusion in Corporate Culture

Brent Boca

DeVry University

10/19th/2024

1. Executive Summary

Diversity and inclusion (D&I) are essential parts of a healthy corporate culture. By joining people with diverse ideas, backgrounds, and experiences, they fuel creativity, innovation, and collaboration. D&I companies build an environment where employees are valued, respected, and empowered to bring their unique perspectives, enabling organizations to be competitive (Morfaki et al., 2022). This report takes a look at where D&I sit today in corporate environments and the challenges that many organizations face, including unconscious bias, lack of representation in leadership roles, and a view of diversity, focusing on gender and race, amongst others. Furthermore, our report will lay out goals for improvement, such as increasing diversity at all levels of the organization, creating an inclusive culture, and measuring progress against these goals.

Along with outlining these objectives, this report provides key deliverables for a more diverse and inclusive workplace. They include creating inclusive D&I policies, implementation of unconscious bias training, support for Employee Resource Groups (ERGs), and regular diversity audits. The report also analyzes the costs and Returns on Investment (ROI) associated with the initiatives, highlighting that such projects do come with upfront costs, but the long-term benefits of improved employee satisfaction, reduced turnover, increased innovation, and improved financial performance mean that D&I is a good business strategy (Aulivola et al., 2021). Organizations that take D&I seriously are better equipped to recruit top talent, build a great brand image, and cope with the evolving needs of a global marketplace on a positive track.

Executive Summary 2

Current Situation 5

Objectives 6

1.Create an increase in representation at all Levels. 6

2.Reduce Unconscious Bias 7

3.Foster an Inclusive Culture 7

4.Establish Measurable Goals 7

Deliverables 8

1.Unconscious Bias Training and Cultural Competence Programs 8

2.Employee Resource Groups 9

3.Diversity Audits and Reporting from Regular to leadership 9

Costs and ROI 10

Conclusion 11

Reference 12

1. Current Situation

In today's world, most organizations feel it is essential to consider diversity and inclusivity as they allow various cultures to be incorporated into organizational activities. Despite the need for organizations to integrate diversity, it is associated with many challenges. According to our research conducted by Kipnis, 23% of minority employees in the workforce feel fully included in corporate cultures, while about 40% of employees believe that their organizations are truly committed to promoting diversity (Kipnis et al., 2021). Despite businesses embracing D&I, there are cultural activities that are likely to hinder an organization's practices, limiting the effectiveness of its efforts.

Many businesses find unconscious bias to be a tough obstacle while dealing with D&I. It is all about recruiting, promotions, and daily interactions, eventually leading to uniformity in leadership teams. According to the current diversification efforts, companies struggle to get women and minorities into senior roles. For instance, in 2023, there were just 8% of women Fortune 500 CEOs, and less than 1% were women of color (Joshi et al., 2020). This lack of influence reflects the underrepresentation of diverse perspectives in the decision-making process and hinders innovation.

Furthermore, diversity initiatives tend to be extremely narrow, focusing primarily on race and gender and failing to consider disability, age, sexual orientation, and identity status. Therefore, many employees don't feel fully represented and understood. A lack of diversity and inclusivity does not extend to these groups, resulting in poor morale for the employees and high turnover rates for these underrepresented groups.

If organizations and businesses don't embrace diversity and inclusion, the consequences can be incredibly steep. Some of the consequences these companies may encounter include losing their workforce, not engaging their people, and losing talent to more inclusive competitors. In addition, if the team is not diverse, it may lead to teamwork where a group of people with similar opinions keeps on continuing assumptions to solve the problem and fails to come up with new innovative ideas, which can reduce the performance of the business.

1. Objectives

The goal of this report is to outline the steps that organizations can take to improve D&I at all levels. As an organization, you have to create an environment that is inclusive for every employee; even those who come with different backgrounds have equal opportunities to thrive. Some steps that organizations can take to increase diversity and inclusivity include;

1. Create an increase in representation at all Levels.

Organizations should aspire to make diversity a reality at every level, and the highest of these should be in leadership. The goal for companies should be to achieve alignment of the demographics of their leadership teams with their own workforce and with the broader society. Some of the ways that can be used to increase representation include targeted recruitment strategies, mentorship programs, and leadership development for underrepresented groups (Kipnis et al., 2021). Microsoft and Accenture, amongst others, have instituted diversity strategies that have worked, raising representation in leadership positions.

1. Reduce Unconscious Bias

A second objective is to master and eliminate unconscious bias that exists in the workplace. Well-researched and implemented comprehensive training for employees, which educates them on their prejudices and teaches them how to build an inclusive environment that reduces bias. Workshops, role-playing scenarios, and facilitated discussions are good methods of teaching awareness and long-term behavior change.

1. Foster an Inclusive Culture

An inclusive culture is a culture that allows employees to share their ideas and express themselves without feeling threatened. While diversity numbers are important, inclusion goes beyond how employees experience the workplace. This is likely to create a sense of belonging, which includes encouraging open communication, supporting ERGs, and offering opportunities for cross-functional collaboration.

1. Establish Measurable Goals

It's important to set clear and measurable goals for you to track the organization's goals. It is important to ensure that objectives are specific benchmarks, such as increasing the number of women and minorities in leadership roles by some percentage or improving employee satisfaction scores regarding inclusiveness. More specifically, regular checks will also keep companies to account for their D&I commitments.

1. Deliverables

For the purpose of achieving these objectives, there are several key deliverables that must be put into place and monitored, and they should continually be refined. To implement diversity and inclusivity, organizations need to implement D&I policy on the requirements of D&I. The policy should be clear, outlining what the employees are required to do with the aim of achieving specific goals. When organizations focus on diversity and inclusivity, they should also focus on their hiring practices, workplace conduct, and discriminatory policies to get the best from diversity. The role of the diversity and inclusivity policy is to set expectations for the organization.

1. Unconscious Bias Training and Cultural Competence Programs

Unconscious bias training and cultural competence programs are necessary to achieve awareness with your employees. These programs enable people to recognize and counteract their biases in decision-making, interaction, and perception (Morfaki et al., 2022). Instead of one-time workshops, embedding these changes requires regular training.

Also, cultural competence programs teach employees how to work well with cultural differences and how to show respect and understanding. These training initiatives have been implemented successfully by companies like Google and Salesforce and are enabling more inclusive workplaces, enhancing their success.

1. Employee Resource Groups

Another critical deliverable is to establish Employee Resource Groups (ERGs). ERGs offer employee support groups that have something in common, like women, people of color, LGBTQ+ folks, or those with disabilities. Mentorship, community building, and professional development are some essential concepts that should be considered when focusing on diversity (Fraone et al., 2024). In addition to serving as a platform for feedback and a means for leadership to learn about the struggles of underrepresented employees, they're also a space where others can validate that the struggles are real.

1. Diversity Audits and Reporting from Regular to leadership

However, maintaining accountability requires that you regularly track and report on diversity metrics. To increase diversity, companies should undertake diversity audits to measure workforce composition, promotion rates, pay inconsistencies, and employee satisfaction. Organizations should consider the implementation of transparent audits, which should be shared between employees and external stakeholders. Transparency builds trust and shows that the company is seriously committed to D&I.

1. Costs and ROI

A successful D&I strategy requires investment. Some costs involved may include the hiring of diversity consultants, the creation of training materials, and the implementation of mentorship programs. Furthermore, resources must be set aside for tracking and reporting diversity metrics, which may need assisted software or external audits.

However, there is a big ROI from a well-executed D&I strategy. Research indicates that companies with more diverse teams are 35% more likely to outperform companies with less diverse teams. A 2019 Kinsey report showed that companies in the top quartile for ethnic diversity on executive teams are 36% more profitable than those in the bottom quartile (Aulivola et al., 2021). Diversity drives innovation, as diverse employees give you different perspectives and bring unique ideas to the table, which helps them be creative and solve problems.

In addition, inclusive workplaces also tend to have higher employee engagement and retention. It's easier to keep employees when they feel valued because it reduces turnover costs and increases productivity. D&I initiatives also help improve brand reputation as a company becomes more attractive to top talent and a wider range of customers. As customers become more sensitive to their product needs, more companies are finding that they need to hire a wide range of people to design and develop the product to meet their needs.

Finally, companies that invest in D&I practices are in a better place to maneuver their way through an increasingly complex and globalized business environment. Organizations that build a diverse, inclusive workforce can more appropriately respond to market shifts, demographic changes, and cultural trends and can gain a competitive edge.

1. Conclusion

Diversity and inclusion are not things that companies should consider; they are things that an organization should embrace as part of its culture. D&I embrace is not only likely to boost an organization's satisfaction but also to stimulate innovation, resulting in a financial boost in performance and allowing companies to be competitive. Although diversity and inclusivity practices can be expensive to implement, they have long-term payoffs. With the help of setting clear objectives, targeted initiatives, and continuously tracking progress, companies can create a culture that embraces and leverages what every individual has to offer.

1. Reference

Aulivola, B., Mitchell, E. L., Rowe, V. L., Smeds, M. R., Abramowitz, S., Amankwah, K. S., ... & Eidt, J. F. (2021). Ensuring equity, diversity, and inclusion in the society for vascular surgery: a report of the society for vascular surgery task force on equity, diversity, and inclusion. Journal of Vascular Surgery, 73(3), 745-756.

Fraone, J., & Levine, L. (2024). Employee Resource Groups: Leveraging Community to Enhance Inclusion and Belonging.

Joshi, P., Santy, S., Budhiraja, A., Bali, K., & Choudhury, M. (2020). The state and fate of linguistic diversity and inclusion in the NLP world. arXiv preprint arXiv:2004.09095.

Kipnis, E., Demangeot, C., Pullig, C., Cross, S. N., Cui, C. C., Galalae, C., ... & Williams, J. D. (2021). Institutionalizing diversity-and-inclusion-engaged marketing for multicultural marketplace well-being. Journal of Public Policy & Marketing, 40(2), 143-164.

Kogut, C. S., & da Fonseca, L. (2023). Diversity and inclusion: a local or a global issue? Revista Eletrônica de Negócios Internacionais: Internext, 18(2), 187-201.

Morfaki, C., & Morfaki, A. (2022). Managing Workforce Diversity and Inclusion: A Critical Review and Future Directions. International Journal of Organizational Leadership, 11(4).