Tags – How to Create a Diverse Culture of Engagement
The idea of supporting a culturally diverse workplace has significantly evolved in the last few years.
Previously, it was seen as simply the right thing to do, whereas now research reveals that it actually impacts a company’s profitability for the better; those sitting in the top quartile for cultural diversity were 33% more likely to have industry leading profitability.
At the basic level, adopting a diverse workforce lies with different employee perspectives, which are formed by one’s experiences, environments and knowledge where they can provide a new way of looking at opportunities.
In other words, the more culturally diverse a workforce is, the bigger variety of perspectives to create new ideas and strategies.
In addition to diversity, employee engagement is just as important – employees who are engaged are 22% more profitable than those who aren’t.
After all, with engaged employees, your company will benefit from increased productivity, better work quality and retain the best talent.
With that in mind, it’s critical for employers to consider how they will create and manage their teams to build a diverse culture with strong employee engagement.
Here are 4 ways to build a diverse culture with strong engagement.
1. Be Transparent and Open
At the end of the day, a strong, engaged culture gives your business a competitive advantage to attract and retain the best talent.
Transparency and openness is all about building trust with your employees to avoid speculations and to build a secure environment.
For instance, if you share your logic behind key decisions and follow through, your employees will trust you and therefore be more dedicated towards the business and their work.
To achieve this, information should be made accessible (of course, there will be some that are highly sensitive), but if decision making processes are shared it encourages employees to take initiative to solve their own problems.
In turn, this opens people up to new ideas and diverse ways of thinking across all departments; tapping into the wealth of knowledge across the whole business will lead to a more connected pool of ideas and better collaboration.
2. Share Successes
By making others aware of employee achievements, this can inspire the team to produce more great work and therefore keeps them engaged and more productive.
To do this, recognise everyone’s contributions; share success stories though meetings, newsletters, social media platforms etc.
As a result, when people can see what successful teams accomplish and how they are publicly recognised it begins to build a winning team culture and everyone else will want to keep up this momentum.
3. Encourage Peer to Peer Conversations
By creating a culture where peer to peer conversations are encouraged, it allows team members to share feedback, support development and grow together.
Similar to how one-to-ones strengthen relationships between the employee and managers, the same applies between peers to improve employee development and a better employee experience.
At the same time, it builds trust between employees, promotes friendship and creates a strong culture of support, resulting in a more productive team.
Whether it be learning a new skill, asking for feedback or brainstorming a new idea, a great team culture is one that fosters appreciation between senior and junior employees by sharing various forms of knowledge and expertise to help each other grow.
4. Celebrate Different Cultures
It’s important to create a culture where diversity is celebrated and commanilites are explored.
If you’re not too sure where to begin, perhaps you could use a multicultural calendar, or invite employees to bring in traditional food from their background.
By doing so, this knowledge will expand the wider team’s understanding and bring people closer together.
And as team members learn more about each other, they can build stronger relationships which will lead to a more productive team overall.
When done correctly, finding common ground and celebrating unique attributes will create an inclusive work environment where everyone can thrive.
The Final Word
Creating a diverse culture is not a “one-off” job and needs to be regularly cultivated to see real value in the long term – engagement doesn’t just happen, you have to focus on employee’s needs and use that to drive a strong culture.
All in all, business leaders must be open minded about what makes a great workplace environment, and adapt and evolve to keep pace with expectations and drive success.
To learn more, get in touch with us today.
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