When you work on making your company culture wholly inclusive, people joining from diverse backgrounds are more likely to stay and to thrive. Inclusivity has a direct impact on the bottom line of your business, as recruitment costs can quickly escalate if staff attrition increases because people feel unwelcome or unincluded. 

Giving employees a voice and valuing their contributions is the single most effective way to create an inclusive culture. Assess the idea-generation meetings and forums that you already have in place and see if there is opportunity to encourage more of your employees to share their thoughts, feedback and ideas.

Inclusive culture checklist

• Create an environment where you encourage open, transparent discussions. When leaders are prepared to talk authentically about what’s on their minds – both professionally and personally – it sets the tone for others to do the same, sending a message that people can be themselves at work. For example, weekly ‘Town Halls’ or virtual ‘Fireside Chats’ hosted by the Founder/CEO is an effective way to both generate interesting ideas from employees and remind your team of the important roles they play to help meet your company’s overall objectives. 
• Schedule weekly sessions to keep D&I on the agenda, such as regular ‘all hands’ or anonymous forums, which allow employees to ask related questions about the company. These mechanisms should be underpinned by constant data gathering. We have outlined the best ways to gather D&I data in the section above. 
• Set manager expectations so that every line manager knows that it is their role to shape an inclusive environment where colleagues can share issues and raise concerns, and have confidence that any issues will be addressed quickly. Make D&I a vital part of your company’s objectives and goals, ensuring that it becomes part of everyone’s work within your organisation. 
• Tailored initiatives can be a great way to engage colleagues and help people to bring their whole selves to work. Choose the most appropriate initiatives, based on the make-up of your workforce, taking into account:
• The celebration of all religious festivals and cultural celebrations. Google can automatically add these to your team’s calendars. 
• Inclusive social activities (e.g. choosing venues for a celebratory meal that caters to all dietary requirements, such as veganism or halal options).

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