If you want to retain your employees, you need to offer typical benefits. Some employers will offer raises, bonuses and recognition programs. All of these are great ways to keep your talent engaged with your business. However, it is not going to help retain your workers if your workers do not feel comfortable in the environment. For instance, if someone feels as though they are going to experience discrimination in the workplace, he or she will not work there for very long. There are many different ways that an employee might differ from his or her colleagues.
Religion, gender, sexual orientation, socio-economic background, and generation are all important factors that will make up a person. It’s important that someone can be themselves at work without worrying about any negative consequences. The key to inclusion is to figure out who your employees really are. The best way that you can do this is through surveys, one-on-one conversations and focus groups. Here are some practices that will help you with inclusion.
Surveys
While most companies conduct employee engagement surveys, many do not segment the data. It’s important that if you do these surveys that you use criteria such as ethnicity, gender, generation, geography, and other factors to determine issues with smaller groups. Often majority views will overpower a minority. If you want a more inclusive environment, you have to listen to everyone. Segmenting surveys allows you to follow up and find out why there are certain issues amongst particular groups of people.
Focus Groups
Focus groups allow you to get an insight into what your talent care about. If several groups are having problems, then this is one way you can find out why and help find solutions to it. For instance, say your managers are frustrated about having meetings on Fridays and have to use the weekends to write emails and your workers are frustrated by weekend emails. In this case, you could find out that there is a solution for both parties.
One-on-One Talks
Of course, talking with your workers one-on-one is another way that you can find out about different issues amongst talent. You need to hear out everyone’s issues and find solutions that work for your workforce. If you have a large company, you can sit down with different managers to come up with solutions.
A diverse workforce is important! However, it is even more important that you have an inclusive workforce. Everyone should feel comfortable in your company. It’s important to make your employees feel welcome and appreciated or else you will lose them.