Building a diverse company, and creating a workplace where folks of different identities and backgrounds feel welcome is a long-term process. But it all starts with inclusion — and that comes from the intentional actions and behaviours that make people feel welcome and included.
“Very often, we understand inclusion from a perspective of someone feeling included,” says Emil. “In reality, it’s an act. It’s the actions your organisation takes to make sure everyone in your company has an equal chance to have a meaningful input, to get paid fairly, to participate in discussions.”
“Inclusion means that you have the infrastructure and processes that mean everyone has a chance to not just be heard, but also for their work to be meaningfully incorporated into the structure of a company,” says Emil. “It’s about having structure around decision-making that eliminates bias, and that gives everyone a fair chance to be considered and actively included.
“If you don’t have the processes that actively include people — rather than just making them feel included — then diversity can’t work. Without inclusion, employees from marginalised groups are either going to leave, or they’re not going to have the support or channels to add value to your organisation.”
At its core, inclusion has a strong link to psychological safety. Psychological safety describes how we feel able to bring our full selves to work without fear of negative consequences. In a team context, it creates an environment where team members feel safe expressing ideas or opinions.
“Psychological safety is a necessary part of creating inclusion,” Emil explains. “But in the workplace, psychological safety has to be intentionally created and maintained. When psychological safety isn’t present, people don’t feel safe to fully participate, make mistakes, or disagree. Over time, this harms innovation and inclusion.
“If your goal is to build a more diverse and inclusive organisation, you have to realise that you will be bringing in people from different backgrounds that may have workplace baggage and workplace trauma. Psychological safety gives them the forum and channels to contribute — it’s the cornerstone of active inclusion in the workplace.”
