Workplace inclusivity has become an essential component of business success. It refers to employees feeling heard, accepted, respected, and safe at work. While HR departments often try to make other employees feel comfortable and feel a sense of belonging at work, it can only happen when HR personnel feel the same way themselves.
A company cannot become truly inclusive, diverse, and progressive if its HR department does not reflect these values. If you want to make your company truly inclusive, begin with HR. Here are three ways inclusivity in HR department promotes overall workplace inclusivity:
Leads to Inclusive Employee Handbook
Employee handbooks define workplace conduct, policies, and procedure. They are mostly written and put together by employers and human resource personnel. This means that when no diverse individuals are present as HR personnel, the employee handbook can lack essential inclusive and diverse practices.
On the other hand, inclusivity in HR department allows the HR personnel to contribute inclusive and diverse ideas and practices to the company’s code of conduct, procedures, and policies. They can also contribute to the company’s mission, vision, and values to reflect inclusivity, diversity, and progression.
Promotes Respectful Communication
Inclusivity and diversity may be different concepts, but they always work in parallel. Hence, a lack of inclusivity in HR department can make the workplace unwelcome to diverse employees.
When the HR department is full of employees similar in their gender, sex assigned at birth, ethnicity, background, religious beliefs, and sexual orientation, they may not be well-prepared to talk to diverse employees or potential candidates. Their conversations with other employees can be awkward, if not offensive. They may also offend other employees.
However, inclusivity in HR department can eliminate all such issues. As HR personnel work together, team members learn about each other’s cultural struggles and sensitivities. Learning from each other allows HR personnel to communicate with other employees positively and efficiently.
Allows Employees to Feel Represented
While workplace inclusivity is more successful and supportive, work friendships are often formed on commonalities. Employees who don’t find commonalities to break the ice or bond with others can feel alienated. Even if they can manage their day-to-day work well without being too comfortable, they might feel awkward when presenting their concerns to HR.
A feeling of “them” can arise, making the diverse employees feel alone at work, leading to demotivation and needless stress. For example, female employees may feel awkward about their maternity leaves with an HR team of all men. They may suppose that men will not understand their struggles and needs at such a crucial stage. On the other hand, inclusivity in HR department allows employees to present their struggles with whoever they can feel most comfortable with.
Finally, it must be noted that the HR department cannot comprise individuals representing every employee. However, even a small but suitably inclusive HR team can teach and encourage each other to be more empathetic and see things from new perspectives.
