Actionable Steps for Achieving True Diversity & Inclusion
By: Greg Frankson
Tags: Management, Leadership, Equality, Diversity And Inclusion, Business

Equity becomes possible only when access is prioritized for everyone

The journey from recognizing and valuing diversity to creating and maintaining a truly inclusive workplace is paved by access.

In many ways, companies are missing the boat on D&I because the necessity and importance of accessibility is treated as a completely separate matter. Your company may have an officer specifically tasked with managing accessibility issues and/or you may have an accessibility policy framework that is not explicitly linked to D&I. This is because accessibility can sometimes be narrowly thought of as ramps to building entrances and wheelchair buttons to open doors — in other words, as physical rather than occupational access.

Most physical and mental disabilities/challenges are invisible. Therefore, if your company wants a more equitable work environment it must cultivate greater sensitivity to the imperatives of access.

How workers define their identity is as unique to each of them as their fingerprints

Your accessibility policies should take into consideration a wide range of challenges, such as sensory deficits (i.e. with hearing or sight), mental health, and auditory/visual processing challenges, in addition to physical mobility, manipulation, and ergonomics.

Each employee has to feel like they can experience all functional elements of their work environment in essentially the same fashion as everyone else. That’s when your workplace truly offers equitable access. Then, and only then, is inclusivity possible for all workers.

Photo by Nathan Anderson on Unsplash

Final considerations

An approach that focuses on equity in conjunction with access takes a more comprehensive pathway to diversity and inclusion. Put another way, a company’s operations, leadership, culture and talent mesh best when inclusion of internal diversity is attained using an equity lens informed by the principles of accessibility.

The workplace becomes more cohesive, harmonious, productive, constructive, and attractive. Avenues for effective communication are open and well used. Conflicts and disagreements can be quickly sorted out. A sense of belonging takes hold for everyone who shares the space and participates in achieving the objectives of the business.

How do you get there? Consider the following:

Review your planning, policy, and programs and apply an equity lens to your operations and leadership. Are there aspects of how you do things that can be improved? How well do you incorporate best practices from your industry? Have you been celebrating your wins?

Take a closer look at how you manage your talent acquisition and retention. Have you developed any blind spots? Are you operating on assumptions about your people that may not be true? What can your team tell you about the attractiveness of your workplace to prospective hires?

Examine the cultural dynamics in your workplace between peer groups and across the full spectrum of responsibility, from the CEO down to entry level. Are there areas of friction? How can you enlist your people to help you improve? What can you learn from what’s going right that can be more broadly implemented in other areas of the company?

How do you manage inclusion, diversity, equity and accessibility? Do you have a unified approach or are various aspects managed by different people, or even by different departments? Do you have the resources you need to create and execute a comprehensive company-wide plan?

Creating an effective plan for diversity and inclusion has never been more important, nor more topical, in North American workplaces. However, your company will benefit even more if it provides your D&I efforts with an EA — an effective approach to equity with accessibility at its core.

For business in the third decade of the 21st century, that’s the best IDEA of all for the modern work environment: inclusive, diverse, equitable and accessible.