How to promote diversity and inclusion in the workplace

In the last few years, employees have had to contend with multiple, challenging events — including racial injustice, war, and a global pandemic — all while carrying on with their usual work and caretaking duties. Both in the United States and further afield, this increased strain has pushed stress and burnout levels to an all-time high, leaving companies struggling with everything from recruiting to employee retention.

As employees’ social, emotional, and environmental needs have become more pronounced, employers have realized they need to do more to support their teams — or risk losing them. This includes more interests and investments in diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs in the workplace. 

While this shift is promising, it’s also been subject to a lot of confusion. We spoke with DEI experts and thought leaders to clarify what true DEI entails, the foundation of building a strong DEI strategy, and tips on making it successful.

What is diversity, equity, and inclusion in the workplace?

One of the biggest mistakes I’ve seen companies make in my 15 years working in DEI has been to treat diversity as a box-checking exercise. Companies will solely focus on the numbers — such as the percentage of their workforce that are Black, Indigenous, and people of color (BIPOC) or how much they’ve donated to a cause — and miss all the organic, granular details that actually really impact their employees.

Because DEI is so much bigger than that.

True DEI isn’t just about checking boxes in your hiring practice. I always find it helpful to start by breaking diversity, equity, and inclusion down in order to understand what each of those terms mean.

Diversity	Diversity refers to the fact that people come from a wide range of backgrounds, identities, and lived experiences. This can include their gender, race, age, ethnicity, sexual orientation, and socioeconomic or educational background. Every employee has their own unique background of intersecting identities and experiences who make up who they are.
Equity	Equity refers to the process of ensuring all employees have equal access to an opportunity, regardless of their unique circumstances. Everyone operates within their own unique contexts in life: some are caretakers of children or parents; some live with disabilities; others don’t have access to running water or affordable healthcare. Making a workplace equitable means ensuring that all employees, regardless of their unique circumstances, are starting off on an even playing field.
Inclusion	Inclusion, in a workplace setting, means understanding that everyone is coming from different backgrounds and perspectives, and yet still inviting them all to have a seat at the table.

Truly integrating DEI into your workplace means critically advocating for diversity, equity, and inclusion across every aspect of your business. It means learning to look at every action within every department through a DEI lens — from the partnerships you choose to support to how well you advocate for your employees outside of the office.

DEI is about the things we can see, but just as importantly, the things we can’t: how supported our employees feel, if they feel a sense of belonging in the workplace, and if individuals feel they can talk openly with their managers.

The impact of diversity, equity, and inclusion

It’s hard to overstate the impact of diversity, equity, and inclusion on both your company and your workforce.

Of course, it seems obvious why diversity, equity, and inclusion matters to employees. People want to feel at home at work: they want to see people who look like them, be able to fail without fear, speak up safely, and feel that they don’t have to hide aspects of their personalities at work.

For a long time, I didn’t envision a pathway to being an executive, because I was a Black, single mother of three. Earlier on in my career, I felt I needed to have the perfect response to every question and make sure my hair wasn’t in its natural state in order to succeed. It was only after I chose to join companies that met me where I was at that I realized that all the things that I thought weren’t my power were actually my power. And I’ve heard so many others share similar experiences.

The data supports these stories about how a strong DEI culture impacts employees. According to research conducted by BetterUp, employees who feel a strong sense of belonging in the workplace show, on average:

• A 56 percent increase in job performance
• A 50 percent reduction in the risk of employee turnover
• A 75 percent decrease in the use of employee sick days
• Employer net promotion scores (eNPS) that are 167% higher

A sense of belonging is also consistently correlated with increased employee engagement at work, as well as higher commitment to their organization, pride, and motivation, according to Culture Amp.

These are clear benefits for employees, but they’re also invaluably beneficial to the companies that prize DEI. On top of the myriad benefits that come from an engaged workforce, lower turnover, stronger job performance, and reduced absenteeism, companies with higher diversity are also more likely to see above-average profitability, a higher return on investment, and a higher percentage of revenue from innovation.

These are the types of results that come not just from ticking boxes, but from putting in the effort to ensure employees feel psychologically safe. When employees feel they can take risks and still feel supported or that they can safely go to their managers with any concerns or ideas, companies reap the benefits.

That is when employers get to hear their teams’ brightest, boldest ideas and the type of critical feedback that can truly improve an organization.

How to build a diverse, equitable, and inclusive workplace

If you’re ready to build out a DEI strategy that goes beyond ticking boxes, we’ll break down the steps you’ll need to take to begin understanding and actioning your priorities.

Take stock of where you are now

The first thing you’ll want to do is get an understanding of what DEI currently looks like at your company. This can be a scary step if you haven’t started your DEI journey yet, since it can be daunting to see where your gaps lie. However, this is an important step — because if you don’t collect foundational data, you can’t track the progress you make over time.

A good way to get started here is by launching an engagement survey and collecting self-identified diversity data on your current employees.

Keep in mind that the data you collect tells a story — not just about your DEI efforts, but about what’s happening in the world more widely. For instance, you can’t compare employee engagement in 2019 to employee engagement in 2020 without talking about the impact of the pandemic. By that same measure, keep in mind the context of what’s going on locally and globally each year to help you better understand the factors influencing employees’ lives.

Go on a listening tour

While a survey can help you get a wonderful initial picture of employee engagement at your organization, don’t stop there. Surveys are a great source of data, but if you don’t talk to people directly, you’ll miss critical insights and feedback.

I generally recommend approaching this by coordinating meetings directly with the CEO. Often, employees’ opinions don’t make it back to leadership, since they trickle up through management chains. This is an opportunity for the CEO to have a conversation directly with a particular group and truly hear their feedback, concerns, and opinions.

I start by asking people to voluntarily join groups based on diversity dimensions (such as BIPOC or LGBTQIA groups). There’s never a cap to the number of people who can join the group, since we want everyone to be heard. I chat with each group first and let them know that during the meeting, there will be time for the CEO to ask questions and another period of time for questions and feedback from the group.

Then, I coach the CEO on the types of questions they should ask employees in order to garner useful feedback. The CEO will always craft their own questions too, of course, but I also suggest they ask questions such as:

• “What are some actions that you think will help this company?”
• “What are some things that you think would help me as a leader?”
• “What do you think will further our company goals?”
• “Here are the top goals I’m working. Right now, from your seat, what do you think will hurt or help these goals?”

Prioritize needs

Going on a listening tour and launching an engagement survey will typically uncover dozens of DEI areas for a company to potentially work on. This is totally normal — after all, when it comes to DEI work, there are always ways that an organization can continue to improve the employee experience.

However, the reality is that most companies have limited time and budgets to implement DEI initiatives. In fact, according to research carried out in 2022 by Culture Amp, only 34 percent of Human Resources and DEI practitioners feel they have sufficient resources to support their DEI initiatives.

Clearly, prioritizing is necessary. But how do you know which tasks to tackle first?

Start by sorting through all of the data, feedback, and insights you’ve collected through your listening tour, engagement survey, and data collection. I generally find that I can bucket the insights into three broad categories:

• Tasks or initiatives that we should have already carried out (but haven’t yet)
• Current needs
• Long-term goals

Once you’ve categorized the insights, go through and analyze each by risk. Which needs are currently putting the company at risk from a legal standpoint? Anything that’s putting the company or its employees at risk should become your highest priority.

After that, take a look at initiatives that may be low-hanging fruit or that might be more pressing. Be realistic about what can be handled each quarter, then plot your plan of action out on a roadmap.

Keep in mind that DEI work is iterative. A company’s DEI needs will constantly be evolving, and that’s okay — leave some wiggle room on your roadmap, and don’t be afraid of having your future needs change.

Engage leaders and managers in DEI training

According to James K. Harter, Gallup’s chief scientist for workplace management, managers influence at least 75 percent of the factors that lead employees to resign. And yet, only 41 of managers report attending training or education focused on DEI.

That leaves far too wide a gap in which managers may unintentionally be harming DEI at a company. A manager may not know how to equitably manage a hybrid team, or they may not be aware of the micro-aggressions they’re committing on a day-to-day basis. 

Fortunately, explicit training can tackle these issues, helping managers bring a DEI lens to everything they do — from interviewing to onboarding to conducting effective one-on–one meetings.

Don’t stop at managers when it comes to training, either. Company leaders may not have as much one-on-one time with teams, but true commitment to DEI needs to start from the top. Leaders need to be involved in DEI beyond just making a public statement on a website, and training through video, in-person, or collaborative hybrid sessions can help them ensure they bring a DEI lens to every decision they take.

Measure your success — then share it

As you tackle initiatives on your roadmap, don’t forget to monitor and measure the results of each. For instance, if your goal is to have a higher percentage of BIPOC employees in leadership roles, keep track of your efforts and your successes. Consider identifying and measuring the following:

• How much have you increased the percentage of BIPOC candidates in your pipeline?
• What ways have you diversified the job boards you advertise on?
• How many BIPOC employees are you promoting into senior roles?

Once you’ve documented the progress your company is making, share that story with the company at large through a town hall or asynchronous video update. This lets employees see that you’re actually actioning their feedback from the listening tour, while also communicating the progress you’ve made.

6 tips to promote diversity, equity, and inclusion in the workplace

There are many ways to drive DEI in the workplace, and every organization’s path will be different. However, there are a few tips you can use in order to find opportunities to improve your DEI.

1. Lean in to difficult moments

Some of the greatest DEI impacts you can make at work arise from challenging moments. For instance, during the pandemic, it became really clear that flexibility was important to employees. While moving to a long-term hybrid or remote model wasn’t easy for any organization, the companies that ran towards that challenge — rather than away — are those that are now enjoying higher levels of employee engagement and retainment.

Another example of this can be seen in the hiring freezes many companies are currently experiencing. A hiring freeze can be difficult to navigate, but it can also provide the time and space needed to re-evaluate what your recruiting and hiring processes look like. Lean into this moment to ask yourself:

• How can we diversify our Careers page and our interviewing panels?
• How can we ensure that diverse candidates can see themselves at our company before they arrive?
• How can we ensure our interviewing process — whether remote or in-person — accommodates those with disabilities?

In every challenging moment, there’s an opportunity to improve.

2. Don’t focus solely on outcomes

As you plan out your DEI initiatives, it can be easy to set goals that are solely focused on outputs. But don’t forget that inputs are also a powerful driver of change.

For instance, your output goal may be to increase employee diversity by X percent. This is an important ultimate goal to set — but it’ll be impacted by many, smaller actions that you take, such as:

• Committing to filling your hiring pipeline with at least 50 percent minority candidates
• Ensuring 75 percent of the job boards you post to focus on minority candidates
• Revisiting your benefits plan to ensure women and transgender employees are being supported

Use that level of intentionality while you set your DEI strategy, and you’ll find many more positive changes made throughout your company.

3. Create spaces that drive connection

At Vimeo, we’ve created Employee Community Groups (ECGs) to help promote a sense of belonging among employees. Hundreds of employees are part of our six ECGs, and each group receives an annual budget, mission, and executive sponsorship in order to run workshops and events.

ECGs and similar groups (whether they take place in Slack, in person, and on video calls) can create psychologically safe spaces for employees to connect and unwind. And as we’ve seen, that’s invaluable to the mental health, happiness, and belonging of your teams.

4. Respond to social justice moments

Companies today are increasingly global, which means that — at any one point — there will be employees affected by global concerns. Whether that’s the war in Ukraine, the loss of abortion rights, or an earthquake in Haiti, leadership needs to respond to moments that matter to employees.

Not every social justice moment will require a public statement from your CEO, of course. Those can be incredibly impactful, but when we think of responding to these moments, that mainly means looking out for your affected employees. Ask yourself:

• How do you respond when an employee has a death in the family?
• How do you support employees when they lose access to certain rights?
• How can you create space and support for employees undergoing a traumatic event in their city?
• How are you acknowledging employees’ experiences?

When you respond to social justice moments with support and empathy, employees notice that you see them and are there for them. When that moment is missed? Employees leave.

5. Don’t ignore smaller opportunities for change

When carrying out your DEI strategy, it can be really easy to focus solely on your goals. However, really embracing DEI means seeing all actions through a DEI lens. When you do that, you can suddenly start to see smaller, cost-free ways to improve DEI at your company.

For instance, at Vimeo, we’ve started to take a closer look at our partnerships. It doesn’t cost us anything to partner with an organization in order to make an impact, so how can we expand that program? How can we better use it to support more Black-owned businesses or folks improving their lives in the prison system?

Companies are often so busy looking at their North Star that they miss opportunities like these. Slow down and notice the smaller opportunities.

6. Don’t forget about your product

At the end of the day, all of your employees are hard at work on delivering a product or service to end consumers — so make sure you’re including DEI in that. Is your marketing inclusive? Are you supporting diverse needs? Do your features take everyone’s needs into account, or are they accidentally exclusionary?

These are massive elements that are critical to the success of your company, so make sure that they’re part of your strategy.

Take the first step in your DEI journey 

It’s never too early to get started in promoting diversity, equity, and inclusion in the workplace — and making progress is a never-ending job. If you’re ready to dive in deeper, learn how to ensure equity in a hybrid workplace by curtailing proximity bias.