Whether hiring managers want to acknowledge it or not, diversity in the workplace is a pivotal issue when it comes to creating a healthy, thriving workplace—a task that requires equal cooperation by employee and employer.And many groups are stepping up to the challenge by helping both employers and employees to create an inclusive work environment.
Holly Mendelson, of the group Insight into Diversity, defines diversity as “any underrepresented group, from people with disabilities to race to LGBTs to veterans and women.” Mendelson feels that the challenges diversity candidates face are not so different from what any job seeker experiences—meaning diversity shouldn’t be a foreign concept. “With unemployment what it is, the challenges are across the board.” Insight into Diversity helps candidates navigate the job search by managing job boards and publishing a magazine called “INSIGHT into Diversity.” Says Mendelson, “Our job is to offer info to our readers to inform them, stir thought and conversation, provide them with knowledge and find employment.”
Mendelson feels her role is much more of a facilitator than an expert on diversity. They function as a conduit, trying to encourage employers to focus on diversity hiring. Essentially, this means she becomes the eyes and ears for diversity candidates looking for an inclusive workplace. She emphasizes that the definition of an inclusive workplace is by no means universal. “You can ask 20 employers and get 20 different answers,” she explains. Having an editorial board allows them to talk about different sides of the diversity discussion.
While Mendelson doesn’t claim to have all the answers in finding an inclusive workplace, her organization serves to help candidates help themselves. “As a journalist that’s what our job is, to provide information to people, to help them become more knowledgeable.”
Agbeko-Kwasi (A.K.), of the organization The Diversity Group, also emphasizes that acquiring knowledge is crucial for diversity candidates. “The biggest asset we have on earth, the most important resource, is our mind. A company, an organization, any entity is made up of individuals. And our behavior as individuals is based on what? Our state of mind.”
The Diversity Group aims to empower people through teachings, trainings, forums and workshops focused on topics like conflict management and human relations. In this view, creating an inclusive workplace is everybody’s responsibility, and comes about through a process of continual learning—as A.K. puts it, it’s “a continuous educational process of exposing oneself to knowledge, of human values.”
He explains that it’s hard to define what an inclusive workplace looks like, as it’s a felt thing. “If people in that environment are happy and thriving in the sense of how they relate to each other and others who come in, then you know it’s a good atmosphere.” His view is that an inclusive workplace is very simple—it’s a place where people feel they are being treated with respect, as human beings.
On the flip side, managers also have a large burden of responsibility when it comes to creating an inclusive workplace—and have everything to gain in doing so. As Mauricio Velasquez of the Diversity Training Group puts it, “Doing the same thing you’ve always done with your human resources and expecting better results when the workplace, the marketplace, is changing—is suicide.”
Groups like the Diversity Training Group are dedicated to helping managers reevaluate the workplace in favor of a more inclusive environment. Managers and supervisors, Velasquez says, need to learn how to become more approachable and build better relationships. “They have to mentor everybody, not just people like themselves.” This means that diversity hiring isn’t just a tactic used to fill new positions, or a policy a company makes to keep up with current trends; facilitating this type of inclusive space needs to be part of how a company functions on a day-to-day basis.
When managers can successfully create an inclusive workplace, the benefits can be huge. When the job market improves, Velasquez says, “You’re going to see a lot of people voting with their feet. And they’re going to gravitate to the workplaces that are more inclusive, more friendly and more welcoming.”
