I recently came across a beautiful story on my FB page-

“I had taken my son to the playground near the place to which we had recently shifted. There were groups of children playing, running around and having fun. My son, being new, sat at a corner, too shy to ask to be included in any group.

I noticed one child came up to my son, introduced himself and then took him and included him in their group. It was such a joy to see my son laughing and playing with his new friends!

I went up to that child’s mom and expressed gratitude for the kindness her son had shown. She smiled and told me- We have always taught our child to include everyone, let no one be left behind, left alone and left without friends!”

A 2020 Why Diversity Matters” McKinsey report stated that companies with greater gender diversity were 25% more likely to experience above-average profitability compared to their counterparts.

There are numerous articles and findings urging businesses to be more Inclusive because it improves the productivity, engagement, making D&I a business case! My question is WHY & HOW will it help? Does it help, when businesses for the sake of productivity, appear more inclusive, set targets or percentages of their staff members/ promotions, to be diverse & inclusive? NO, unless the mindset of the workforce is changed to – “LET NO ONE BE LEFT BEHIND”, things will never change at the ground level. A recently promoted mom, told me, how her peers believed that her promotion was just a reflection of promoting more Inclusivity by the leadership rather than her own hard work and effort. There are so many such cases all around us.

As the same McKinsey report concluded beautifully- “While representation is important, it alone does not guarantee equity and inclusion.”

What then can truly make a difference???

The Facebook story really got me thinking- Inclusivity doesn’t start or end with allocating a certain percentage to your hiring/ leadership composition/ promotions, it starts well before that. It starts at a very small scale in our personal space, in our home, our families, our friends and our community. It starts with a very small and simple thing of teaching OUR children to look beyond color, race, sexual orientation, physical and mental capabilities and APPRECIATE the individual. It also requires us to be ROLE MODELS to our children, answer the seemingly difficult questions when they notice someone and ask “Why are they different from us”.

To do that successfully, society, organizations have to do two things-

1. FOCUS ON THE NOW- The change in the mindset has to come now, the current generation of workforce and society. Rather than assigning a D&I percentage, work on a D&I FRAMEWORK that is focused on changing the CULTURE and values of the organization as a whole. There are so many organizations who are bringing about these winds of change through, Story Telling, Webinars, Setting beautiful examples through their own leadership and management! More and more organizations need to do that. Is it an easy route? No, not at all. But that's the only one.

2. FOCUS ON THE FUTURE- Simply understanding, accepting and being empathetic would not help if we are not able to influence and display the same to our children and younger generation. Not just at home or schools; organizations also need to plan engaging & impactful programmes aimed at explaining empathy & inclusiveness to children or families of employees.

Remember our children will be tomorrow’s workforce/ navigators/ change makers & Leaders!

If we sow the seeds of kindness, empathy, inclusivity and fairness in our children from the very beginning, we won’t need to allocate 20% to ensure our workforces/ companies would be Inclusive or diverse and we certainly won’t need to celebrate a D&I Month in the future.

We would love to hear what YOUR organization is doing to bring about the D&I Cultural Change. 😊

In case you want to brainstorm how your organization can bring about this change, pls drop us a message with your contact details and we will get in touch with you.

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By, Sanghamitra Satapathy

Co-Founder at EdgeNext HR