February 23, 2021
By Nurhuda Syed, Human Resources Director Canada
There are a slew of tools you can tap on to push your diversity and inclusion agenda. According to your resources and organisation’s bandwidth, you can bank on things from formal policies and practices, to technology, D&I champions, and leaders role-modelling the right values. They’ve all proven to help improve the company’s state of inclusion in some way or another, with the most ideal solution being a good mix of tools to maximise your efforts and enable a genuine culture across your organisation.
However, there’s no denying that policy changes, such as in employee benefits, or getting tech-related tools to help avoid personal biases in company practices like recruitment or promotions, can be a costly investment. This is why after getting leaders to ‘walk the talk’, a practical step to take towards fostering a culture of inclusion is to encourage employee-led business resource groups (BRG).
These can offer minority groups of employees, whether based on identities like gender, race, sexuality, age or people with disabilities, a safe space to convene and discuss critical issues they face or opportunities for growth in their careers. Simply said, it allows employees to feel seen and heard. A gold standard of BRGs that shows just how effective they’ve been at driving real change is this: its success in enabling allies for the cause.