Creating a workplace where everyone feels included and valued, regardless of their background or characteristics, can help your business gain a competitive edge, increase profitability, advance innovation, and give you greater diversity of thought. It also takes good leadership.

Here’s our round-up from specialists and business owners on how to implement a D&I strategy that works.

If you want to be inclusive and successful in managing a diverse team, take it seriously. Establish clear and inclusive policies and practices in your strategy from the start. These will help employees to progress and participate in any decisions or changes that affect them.

Ensure all employees have a voice. Create a culture of safety where employees are comfortable to share their views and put mechanisms in place to encourage this. 

It’s not one-size-fits-all, so consider some equality, diversity and inclusion training. An adherence to fair and open promotion practices will make an immediate difference. 

Businesses can lose contracts because they are not credibly the best when they have little diversity at the top levels, including socio-economic diversity. 

A combination of older and younger workers can boost productivity because each generation brings different skills and talents to the table. As part of your D&I strategy, talk about age, make rules for conduct and communication, make time for knowledge sharing, and mix up your teams.

Companies will be going through a recruitment process to diversify skills and diversify the make-up of their boards. The inclusion part means making people feel comfortable.

Recognising bias towards or against certain traits is a first step to avoiding knee-jerk reactions in your recruitment decisions – and it allows you to put checks and balances in place to stop those behaviours happening. Look at your ‘in group’ – the set of people who you consider to be your closest confidents and allies – and if it’s very samey, that’s a potential risk.