Diversity is easy to measure, so to speak. It’s a numbers game, like how Adidas only has 17% of female board members and 0% Black people. It starts with brands and companies pledging this and committing to that and more or less they end up walking the walk simply because they are held accountable. This sounds not so bad in theory until you realize that just because the diversity checkbox has been complete, the inclusion that should ideally follow as a consequence doesn’t quite work out that way. Being the token Black person or the token female in a room for the sake of it is nothing but a PR move.
Diversity and Inclusion have always gone hand in hand, at least from a corporate lens. Over the years D&I departments and roles have been adopted throughout various industries. This may take shape within CSR or HR and have titles such as ‘Diversity & Inclusion lead’ or ‘EDI Head’. The responsibilities can cover an array of topics — one of the most crucial being gender equality. While we are nowhere near a gender-equal world, it’s becoming more clear, especially in the wake of the #MeToo movement, that businesses have a role to play in social issues. Those that say otherwise are either living in a bubble. Why? Because 84% of millennials say that a brand’s social commitment would influence whether or not they purchased from said brand. And knowing that by 2025, 75% of the workforce will be made up of millennials that’s a pretty big number to ignore. Over time, frameworks have been put into place for companies to navigate and track their gender footprint. A notable example is the Bloomberg Equality Index which aims to track the financial performance of public companies committed to disclosing their efforts to support gender equality through policy development, representation and transparency.
The tricky part comes, however, after all the fanfare and all the surface level metrics. It comes internally and it comes once you look around and ask yourself, “what has really changed?”. You need to be honest enough with yourself, your colleagues and your team to acknowledge that if nothing has changed then something is wrong. Someone once told me that “Diversity is being invited to the party; Inclusion is being asked to dance.” For me, diversity is being invited to the party but inclusion is feeling like you can dance, all on your own, without anyone needing to ask you because it’s just that kind of party. A culture of inclusion is one that is hard to foster but once instilled, it should empower employees to feel comfortable with being themselves.
So, how do you measure inclusion?
Unfortunately, there is no one-size-fits-all answer to that because one-size doesn’t really fit all nor should it. This is what I do know: change comes in the grey areas, in the middle-murky waters that no one feels comfortable stepping in. Like in politics, two people with polarizing viewpoints and an unwillingness to listen won’t make progress on either side. You must force yourself to have uncomfortable conversations with people, to confront the unknown and sometimes, to just put your hand up and say “I don’t know”.
Unlike diversity metrics, inclusion can’t be top-down. It needs to be bottom-up. This means employees get to have a say in how they feel about company policies. It means your entry-level employee’s voice should be as important to you as your VP. Before starting ila, I was a junior-level strategist working at a leading advertising firm when I started our company’s first CSR initiative. It was an organic initiative borne out of my need to create social impact and see how we could utilize our employee skills to go beyond profit. Little did I know that it would resonate with so many. Soon young professionals from other departments, people I didn’t even know, joined in, motivated and united by a singular purpose. We had created volunteering schemes and mentorship programs; we put our brains together to see how to create ads that didn’t just look good but did good things too. Storytelling will always be powerful, and when used for good, it can change mindset and even policy.
Looking back now I realized that this coming together of people could be classified as the foundation of corporate social innovation. It shifted the focus off of what a corporation had a responsibility to do and moved towards this space of creating shared value. In other words: inclusion. While I admire new initiatives that have been created as a result of #BlackLivesMatter like the Pull Up or Shut Up campaign that demands companies have diversity on their boards, we must continue to be vigilant and critical of what goes on beyond the numbers. There are multiple ways we can start to infiltrate the layered maze of inclusivity. Much like the party of diversity, companies can create spaces for that dance floor. My previous company gave us the freedom to take the initiative and pursue causes that would be beneficial to the business and our personal growth. It was a pretty nice floor to dance on. At ila, our unique, socially impactful employee engagement program focuses on gender-sensitivity in practice by facilitating 1:1 volunteering between employees and sexual violence survivors. We believe that gender-based violence is the most extreme form of gender inequality so why not harness that to tackle other forms of discrimination within companies.
I’m not saying that to understand gender bias you need to spend time empathizing with someone who has undergone gender-based violence nor am I saying that to better understand the experiences of a Black person you need to extend your circle of White friends. However, what I am saying is that you can’t begin to tap into a truly inclusive culture without deliberately creating spaces for it to happen. Also, new friends never hurt anybody.
By: Net Supatravanij, Co-Founder at ila
As a multi-awarded social enterprise, our aim, at ila, is to champion a purpose-driven and socially aware workforce. Our innovative tailored programs and world-class advisory team have extensive experience working with HR professionals, leadership teams and employees to champion a diverse and gender equal culture in the workplace.
Visit ila at https://www.ilageneration.com/home to find out more about us, the work we do and how we can help you in taking the first step towards a new way of working.
