Diversity and inclusion are close to the heart of many small business owners. But many of the strategies for building a diverse workforce are easier to implement among larger workforces with multiple locations. Here are some diversity management strategies for small businesses that you can use to make DEI a central priority for your company going forward.
Adopt and Enforce Formal Anti-Discrimination Policies
Many small businesses rely on feelings of team unity to make sure everyone is treated fairly at work. But this can create a workplace dynamic where some employees feel unable to report the mistreatment they experience at work. Adopting and enforcing formal anti-discrimination and anti-harassment policies for your company can make your employees more comfortable at work, and provide formal channels to resolve workplace conflict.
Every employee has the right to a workplace free from harassment or prejudice. Adopting formal policies that ban discrimination and hostility sends the message that all your workers are valued, no matter who they are. However, these policies must include a means for enforcement. Employees with access to an accessible, transparent, and fair internal complaint process are less likely to leave the company when interpersonal disputes arise.
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Make a Top-Down Commitment to Model Diversity
One advantage that small business owners have when it comes to diversity is that they work more closely with their teams than leadership in larger companies. That means that if you make a personal commitment to diversity and model acceptance and inclusion it will have a greater influence on your employees as a whole.
Any DEI initiative has to start from the top. Your top management must be committed to promoting diversity and enforcing anti-discrimination policies. However, you can go further by prioritizing diversity in your promotion, hiring, and leadership decisions. Bringing diverse employees into your leadership and management teams will help broaden your company’s vision and improve your commitment to modeling diversity in your business.
Encourage Transparency and Communication
Diversity management requires more than just hiring a variety of people. It is up to you to make sure your employees openly communicate their needs, ideas, opinions, and hurdles. Treat your employees as individuals with their own ideas and concerns and avoid making assumptions about how their backgrounds affect their approach to the work. Encouraging your employees to work and communicate with one another openly can help break down cultural preconceptions or biases.
Provide Opportunities for Grown and Improvement
A commitment to diversity management means accepting employees as they are, including their weaknesses or areas for improvement. Whether it is diversity training for long-term employees or supplementary skills training for new hires, providing additional support and training is an excellent way to support your diverse work force. Training will encourage your employees to value diversity as much as you do, improve your workplace culture, and facilitate team collaboration.
Adopt Objective Diversity Management Criteria Evaluations
Managing diversity means recognizing and accounting for your own biases and assumptions as well as those held by your employees. If you are committed to diversity, you should make sure that those biases don’t affect your employees’ jobs. One way to do that is to adopt objective criteria for any employee evaluations. This can include:
- Hiring metrics
- Sales commissions and bonus payments
- Employee progress reports
- Discipline and remediation
- Personnel evaluations
- Promotions and job assignments
Removing subjective criteria from your personnel policies ensures that your managers, supervisors, and hiring managers are making decisions based on the worker’s skills and abilities instead of assumptions about their backgrounds, desires, and abilities.
Accept Criticism on Diversity Management Techniques
No one is perfect in diversity management and inclusion. As a manager, it is up to you to keep learning and improving your DEI practices. That means you need to be open to criticism from your employees. You must be willing to learn about your employees, listen to their concerns, and iterate on your policies to address whatever it is you have missed.
Diversity management isn’t a one-time event. You need to be willing to adjust as you go along, broadening your own horizons and adapting your policies and procedures to protect and support your employees at work.
David Stanislaw is leadership and executive coach with over 30 years’ experience helping smal business owners with diversity management and workplace conflict. Contact us to meet with David and improve your company’s commitment to diversity today.
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