Does an equitable workplace result in equitable services and products?
By: Shivika Sood
Tags: Equity, Change, Inclusive Design, Inclusion, Equality

Photo credits: Jon Tyson/Unsplash

“I can’t breathe”. These two and a half words marked a moment in an already momentous, historic, and tumultuous year of 2020. These searing words, now synonymous with the black lives matter movement are a rallying cry against police brutality. The killing of George Floyd — yet another unarmed black man, represents an extreme example of the nature of inequality, exclusion, inequity we face in a modern society today.

The resulting riots and protests had cascading impacts across North America. The impact was felt in the world of businesses with the promise of CEOs to address inequality in the workplace instantaneously. For many companies, this promise meant an upgrade in their corporate programs. A step forward from just diversity hiring, to staff training in equity and inclusion, open talks with leadership, and implementing other ways to make the actual workplace environment more inclusive to be in. Such laudable initiatives will surely have positive outcomes for both the business and the worker. For company executives, the internal organization is an easier, quicker, and an impactful space to promote equitable practices and show the business cares.

Even so, action by businesses in the context of equitable practices can go beyond fostering inclusive workplace environments. There is scope to explore the opportunity to act and express their value of equity & inclusion in another key part of the business- the customer. It might be an assumption that equitable staff will produce inclusive and equitable customer interactions. Nevertheless, businesses need to put measures in place to ensure that. Additionally, businesses and their staff must work to extend their equitable and inclusive work culture to their customer with comparable, if not higher, priority. This most likely and hopefully is the plan.

A business that goes out of its way to remove barriers to comfort i.e. removing uncomfortable interactions in their customer’s lives- will inevitably be the winner of customer loyalty and love. Businesses that action a customer-centered plan, to put in place frameworks and programs to design and deliver inclusive, equitable products and services. Services such as a clinic that offers the option for ethnic, cultural or gender matching for selecting service agents will help customers dealing with trauma feel most comfortable and will go a long way in building deeper relationships. Don’t we all need someone who understands us, sees our perspective, and gives us the benefit of doubt? Another example of an inclusive service could be that of a business’s IVR that offers alternative assistive options to accommodate people with impairments like hearing, speech, or even language. Such services that enable a person, their family or friends with the help they need, will show without a doubt the company’s values. Services that drive equitable values, go a long way when it comes to customer loyalty and show up as data in NPS and of course in driving growth. Including extreme users when designing services will lead us to design for everyone.

It is now easier to design and deliver more equitable services for customers, with organizations understanding and becoming increasingly inclusive on the inside. “We truly understand something when we can relate it to something we already understand”. — Richard Saul Wurman

So, as an immediate next step in the drive for diversity, equity, and inclusion; businesses can work towards creating strong equitable and inclusive customer policies, frontline staff hiring & training, and performance measures.

George Floyd was like any other customer shopping at a retail store in Minneapolis. His checkout had a common misunderstanding that was treated in a prejudiced not-so-ordinary way, which one might say triggered the chain of events that led to his death. Businesses would be making swift and immediate changes to remedy how interactions happen with marginalized customers; when they begin designing inclusive services into their customer experience and frontline interactions.

An equitable workforce might drive equitable outputs, but a real impact will occur when businesses shine a light on the external i.e. on enabling an equitable delivery of their products and services. Doing this will not only drive business growth and goodwill, but also have an impact on how the human community of 2021 works. Services in their offering, interaction and usability that are designed to serve everyone without bias and with equity to equalize; will eventually take us to the enabled and empowered future that the world is campaigning for today.

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Question for you: How are businesses in your world catering to people with special needs or catering to people who belong to minority groups, or serving people who are in any other way extra-ordinary?