Diversity and inclusion in business: Integrate your employees and succeed together

No more self-talk. Today's professional world requires diversity and inclusion. The diversity of talents goes hand in hand with the diversity of skills. By creating an inclusive and suitable work environment for all, you promote well-being of employees while supporting the growth and efficiency of your business. In order to support equal opportunities and increase the resilience of your company, vocational learning can then be very useful. Let's find out right away what diversity and inclusion are exactly, why they are important, and how promote them through learning.

What is inclusion in a business?

A policy of diversity refers to an approach that guarantees access to all company positions for all employees, without distinction. In doing so, there should be no discrimination. Age, gender, sexual orientation, ethnic or cultural origin, but also health status should not have a negative influence on everyone's professional equality.

Implementing actions to promote diversity is an essential component of the next step, which is inclusion. . In fact, real diversity only occurs when all employees are fully included in the employee group.

Why is diversity and inclusion important?

First of all, diversity issues aren't just for big companies. Any company with more than 20 employees must therefore employ at least 6% of people with disabilities. (Public service, Private sector: what is the mandatory employment of disabled workers (OETH)?, 2024). Group diversity is therefore first and foremost a legal obligation, but it is also an essential ethical consideration that impacts your business on many levels.

Increasing diversity within your company, highlighting women and men, but also the fight against racial discrimination is important for your brand image. Consumers are now eager to acquire products or services from committed businesses. Acting for diversity is therefore acting for your CSR policy (Corporate Social Responsibility).

In addition, if you want to attract a great diversity of profiles, it is essential to demonstrate your leadership on this point. In fact, 84% of job candidates believe that inclusion is one of the most decisive criteria to integrate a company. (Tetu Connect, Diversity & inclusion: numbers to remember, 2023).

Cultural, ethnic or gender diversity is also a powerful source of performance. In this respect, the studies are unquestionable:

• Boards with more women perform better; (Catalyst, Why Diversity and Inclusion Matter, 2020)
• All inclusive teams outperform their peers by 80% in team evaluations; (Deloitte, Waiter, is that inclusion in my soup?, 2013)
• Gender-diverse and ethnically diverse businesses are 15% and 35% more likely to outperform their peers respectively; (Josh Bersin, Why diversity and inclusion has become a business priority, 2019)
• For companies that are most committed to diversity and inclusion, research shows that they are more likely to have a higher cash flow per employee, to be prepared for change, and to identify and develop leaders more easily. (Josh Bersin, Why diversity and inclusion has become a business priority, 2019)

The value of diversity is therefore very important, as it has a positive influence on your branding with consumers and talents while allowing a marked improvement in the overall performance of the organization.

What is the role of learning in promoting diversity and inclusion?

To ensure diversity and promote inclusion, it is essential to create an adapted work environment. To do this, the human resources management, management and employees must align their practices and their level of awareness to these issues. It was then that the vocational learning demonstrates all its relevance.

First of all, the awareness of unconscious biases makes it easier to recognize prejudices in order to eliminate them. The learning workshops will allow each employee to: question yourself and adopt more inclusive behaviors. Communication and interactions will be more fluid and effective within the company. Note that this work also has an impact on careers, because parity will be respected in the context of recruitment.

Learning can also help develop inclusive leadership capabilities. During dedicated learning sessions, managers and team leaders acquire methods for managing teams built around the principle of diversity. They will then be in a better position to promote inclusiveness, ensuring fair treatment And of taking diversity into account participants during exchanges and collaborative work.

To facilitate understanding and communication in the context of the internationalization of companies, learning is also essential. The workshops of intercultural communication will strengthen the respect and effectiveness of teamwork through a better understanding of cultural, ethnic or religious differences.

What strategies should be adopted to develop them through vocational learning?

Vocational learning meets the challenges of diversity and inclusion. The latter makes it possible to strengthen diversity and fight discrimination effectively by promoting respect and communication between the members of your company.

However, for fully exploiting the potential of learning, we recommend that you adopt some strategies:

• Commitment from the whole company: To achieve your goals, it is essential that all stakeholders are actively involved in the change. Employees, managers, but also management must therefore follow learning courses related to diversity and inclusion and support the actions put in place.
• Continuing education: Diversity and inclusion learning should be an ongoing process and not a one-off process. In this way, you ensure that these issues remain a major concern at all times.
• Evaluate the impact: It is important to measure the impact of learning courses. Satisfaction surveys or behavior evaluations make it possible to identify areas for improvement. So you can take action to improve the situation further if necessary.
• Integrating inclusiveness into daily life: This strategy should not remain at the theoretical stage. On the contrary, each employee must implement inclusive practices on a daily basis. From recruitment policies to organizations that celebrate diversity, these questions need to deeply integrate company culture.

Step by step, by deploying a global and adapted strategy, you will move closer to a more inclusive organizational model

From the quest for diversity to the quest for performance

As we have seen, deploying a diversity and inclusion strategy is much more than a moral commitment for your business. Such an approach will positively impact all levels of the company and promote living together. But you might also see an increase in performance. To do this, you will have to make your employees aware and give them the tools they need to take concrete action on a daily basis.

For example, implement regular learning activities and integrate diversity and inclusion into the very heart of your organization: corporate culture. In this way, build a pleasant workplace for all where everyone feels valued and integrated.