Author: Brian M

Value Match are a value-orientated organisation and hold social value at the core of our beliefs.  Our values are broken down to four core groups: Value People, Value Relationships, Sustainable Prosperity and Value the Environment.  Inclusivity in the workplace directly aligns with Value People and Value Relationships and as such at Value Match we ensure all our candidates, colleagues, customers, and partners are made to feel included and valued. 

Working in an inclusive work environment is critical in the modern day.  In any professional setting not feeling included has huge repercussions for the individual and the business.  To create an inclusive environment everyone must feel as though they are being treated with dignity and respect, where the talents and skills of different groups are valued.  This will increase moral, and productivity.

This is how to improve your inclusivity

1. Take ownership of Inclusivity.

Be forthcoming about the potential changes that will be made to improve inclusivity.  These will need to be based on your companies needs and requirements.  The goals may involve promoting more female managers, establishing recruitment incentives for certain demographic groups or cultures, or including technology training for employees so they feel included, and their contributions are being noticed.

When you take responsibility for inclusivity it can work as a benchmark that employees can aim for.  It also means you’re able to measure the growth of inclusion allowing you to reach these goals.

2. Incorporate Diversity

With the improvement of technology, we can be connected to each other in seconds on a global level.  Exposing ourselves to different cultures, people religion, personalities and collaborating will bring a better working environment.  Understanding different colleagues background, cultures, and beliefs will also help everyone feel more included.  .  

3. Inclusivity Training

Conducting inclusivity training and investing in your team and employees demonstrates that your organisation is making a conscious effort towards making the workplace an inclusive environment. This could also involve diversity training and sensitivity training.

4. Keep an Open Dialog.

To maintain inclusivity within the workplace you will need constant nurturing, dedication to embed an inclusive ethos at the core of your organisation.  Internal engagement surveys are perfect to analyse areas that need improvements and if employees are feeling engaged, included, and valued at work.  This data will allow you to pinpoint further areas that need improvement.  

By taking charge and seeking out feedback that is focused on  inclusion  demonstrates that you’re making a conscious effort to make improvements.  Focused feedback provides a diplomatic process for open dialogue and mobilises employees to work towards larger objectives.

Lead by example through articulating a clear vision by starting new initiatives, and inspiring employee’s commitment through data collection and positive feedback.  The most important thing is that all employees feel included within their working environment.  This will help your business to become more progressive and build on better moral.

Whilst we ourselves embed our values at the core of what we do, we also ensure we’re as inclusive as possible externally.  Due to our blind screening of CV’s we don’t include our candidate’s ethnicity or disabilities and we don’t ask about their sexual preferences or gender identities.  This ensures our candidates are screened based on their talent, removing the chance of unconscious bias.

Value People – We value People for their uniqueness, capability, capacity for change and for what they do.

Value Relationships – We value Relationships that are built on integrity, mutual support, trust, and a sense of purpose.

Sustainable Prosperity – We believe in creating sustainable prosperity through commercial interventions that supports responsible and inclusive growth for both individuals and organisations.

Value the Environment – We believe in enhancing our Environment through the way we operate, championing environmental best practices and delivery through our service lines.

We also have various projects that we are involved with such as KitAid, Kiva and a Carbon offsetting programme through Carbon Footprint.  These all just a few of the ways we ensure we are inclusive and demonstrate and embed our values.

We also work with Me Learning to provide courses based around diversity through our own Social Value courses, both our own courses and their Equality and Diversity courses will help you develop an understanding of the importance of diversity in the work place and can serve as a benchmark for you and your employees.