How can diversity, equity & inclusion initiatives help combat the great resignation?

Now that you’ve dealt with the Great Resignation, it is time to take back control and work in the proactive mode. Using diversity and inclusion initiatives, you can improve your employee experience to come out of this era better. Enhancing that experience to include DEI makes your workplace culture better.

Assess your employee experience. Have you made any effort to develop a workplace beyond free lunches? Shaping a sense of belonging in a place of work is the next initiative HR should include in its DEI efforts.

 

Table of Contents

1. Introduction: The Great Resignation and Its Challenges
2. What Are Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) Initiatives?
3. The Connection Between DEI Initiatives and Employee Retention
4. How DEI Can Combat the Great Resignation
   • 1. Building Inclusive Work Cultures
   • 2. Enhancing Employee Engagement and Belonging
   • 3. Promoting Fairness and Equal Opportunities
5. The Benefits of DEI Initiatives for Organizations
6. Implementing Effective DEI Strategies
7. Real-World Examples of DEI Success Stories
8. Conclusion: Investing in DEI for a Sustainable Workforce

 

 

Read on to find out how the DEI initiative can combat the Great Resignation era:

• Develop a sense of inclusion- the urge to do better

As a matter of fact, when employees feel valued and heard, they become satisfied and more engaged. This groundwork helps employers to opt for DEI initiatives.

Harvard Business Review states that “high belonging rates” are connected to higher profits for companies:

• 56% rise in job performance
• 50% fall in turnover problems
• 75% drop in sick leaves
• 167% increase in employer promoter score

US companies spend more than $8 million on diversity training yearly. Training that skips the point often ignores their employees to make them feel included. A sense of inclusion or belonging amongst employees has been a major element in the broader assessment of diversity and equity that has been missing till recently.

• Equity works as the major factor in an enhanced employee experience

Equity for a company is about developing an equality-based platform in a safe environment. Every employee should get the leisure and comfort to express their perspective and individuality without fearing bullying, retaliation, or reprisal.

The Equality and Inclusion elements proved to be the major factors during the Great Resignation. McKinsey found the top three factors that made employees quit their jobs were:

• Not feeling valued by their company
• Not given equal respect by their managers 
• Not feeling a sense of inclusion/ belonging in the workplace

This was real for workers from the underrepresented association. They left because they didn’t get respect and felt they belonged in that office. And most of these employees were recognized as non-white or multiracial.

This clearly states that using DEI initiatives can create a fulfilling employee experience and lead to employee retention.

Ways to use DEI initiatives to combat the Great Resignation and offer a better employee experience

Diversity is more than external looks. It includes diverse thinking, age, experience, educational qualification, etc.

Inclusion shapes the foundation of belonging. It offers to hear and accept the voices of every individual.

An equitable workplace recognizes that what may work for one employee may not work for the other. However, individual opinions should be treated equally.

So, how are these put together? How can you develop a workplace culture with an exceptional employee experience?

1. Train leaders to show more compassion toward managers

Leaders of companies should believe in inclusive work culture. They should perform the role of enthusiastic cheerleaders. 

The research is completely on this point. Anything that leaders say or do creates a 70% difference in whether an employee feels valued and included. At different levels, it is the team leader who marks the tone and simulates the behavior of employees.

Leaders should motivate and inspire the workforce with trust and compassion. They should spread a sense of pride and community during the tough times by:

• Showcasing care for their team members
• Communicating effectively
• Making their work easy

Leaders and managers can go for coaching to develop or sharpen these skills. UExcelerate coaches help you recognize your shortcoming and develop a supportive and non-judgmental environment for the employees. They will help you identify your strengths and weaknesses and bring out the best in you as a leader. They will help you excel at the next level and bring in the sense of a comrade to share better relations with your workers.

2. Walk the talk: Tiny efforts are important to feel included

It was predictable that companies would lose some talent during the Great Resignation. They simply didn’t put any effort into creating a welcoming culture. It is important for managers not just verbally accept an idea of an inclusive culture but work on it.

Coaching to tackle bias – consciously or unconsciously raises the awareness necessary to develop a feeling of belonging and inclusion. These biases have been taken for granted and ingrained in the broad society culture.

Small amendments can cause major transformations. They share a sense of inclusion and respect and work to develop a workspace secure for everyone. At UExcelerate, you can be trained to uphold your company’s core values and cultures and treat every worker equally with respect.

Some small changes examples are given below:

• Ask the leaders: Do they refer to one gender when talking? Do they treat all participants equally?
• Right pronunciation of the employee’s name: Take time to practice the name of your employees. It will show you care and respect them.

3. Consider inclusivity as your major priority

The more the number of people, the more ideas flow in. inclusion allows those different voices to be heard and accepted.

According to Deloitte research about organizations with inclusive cultures:

• Have twice the chance to hit financial targets
• Have thrice the chance to perform well
• Have six times the chance to be inventive
• Have eight times the chance to generate better business results

Martin Hayter, the EY’s Global Learning Business Partner Lead, attests that diversity and communication are easy ways to inspire innovation in a team. 

4. Make doors, not walls

Allow the voices and viewpoints of every worker to be heard and accepted. After all, there is no one-size-fits-all. What works for one person may not be feasible for the other.

Women and the low management group often get the sting of these barriers. Gender and race-impacted viewpoints make walls all around, making the survival of employees difficult.

Making tangible objectives related to corporate equity ambitions will make pathways easily accessible to all workers. For instance, companies can make great improvements by filling representation gaps through

• Skill development coaching
• Goal setting
• Help develop leadership roles

5. Foster a caring and positive environment

Employees who are not given importance will not stick with you for long. Authentic gestures hold more importance than rewarding employees. It shows you respect them and care about them.

Employees want a culture that welcomes them and makes them feel included. More than half a million workers of the best 100 companies mentioned to Great Place to Work that high-trust culture and inclusiveness mattered.

73% of employers agree that workplace culture has advanced post-pandemic.

• Help retain Gen Z employees

65% of Gen Z employees want to quit this year as per a report. Well, the basic problem with Great Resignation was that Gen Z did not want to work in toxic workplace culture. But, employers did want to retain them.

The uExcelerate coaching methods helped employers keep their teams aligned, coordinated and cohesive. It trained them to understand the needs and passions of the employees. Gen Z expects their work to be meaningful and goal-oriented. Coaching proved to be a means to make elaborate conversations on what satisfactions and dissatisfactions of their employees. Once the employers were clear about it, they focused on employee fulfilment and helped retain talent to drive better business outcomes.

It also helped employers learn how to make employees feel wanted. Feeling that every employee’s input is considered and the difference is appreciated helps employees to stay in their job and focus on their and the company’s goals.

Wrapping Up

Now you have. You can counteract the bitterness that Great Resignation has left. Concentrate on your retained workers and try to sweeten their experience with your dedicated and sincere DE&I initiatives. Most essentially, work on your sense of belonging.

Take control of your hiring and retention strategy and enjoy working with a good team in a good culture. uExcelerate helps you develop positive thinking, adopt strategies to focus on your strengths, and work on your leadership, companionship, and management skillsets. Take the help of the coaches to identify the core values which define your company and uphold them to provide your employees with a better experience. They pay attention to every detail and offer a creative approach to bring out the best in you and your company.