Culture: A Key Component of your DEI Strategy

Company culture is a key–but often overlooked–component of developing a sustainable diversity, equity, and inclusion strategy. While most DEI work focuses on policy change, policy alone isn’t enough to create an inclusive environment. Welcoming cultures that provide all team members a sense of belonging are intentionally designed but not a natural byproduct of inclusive policies. Organizations should continue to prioritize staff policies and compensation strategies that are equitable and accessible while also considering the design of an organizational culture that supports employee wellness and belonging. 

How can organizations design intentionally inclusive cultures?

• Support the creation of affinity groups or employee resource groups; provide organizational and financial support for the success of the groups.
• Develop inclusive recruiting and retention efforts, creating feedback loops to discover areas for improvement and the barriers that may have been created in these cycles. Developing inclusive recruiting policies alone won’t change internal culture unless an effort is made to also retain team members. 
• Survey employees about their daily experiences at work across all levels, follow up on what is learned to reduce barriers and points of friction as part of your retention efforts. 
• Allow for employees to self-identify in the ways that matter to them in the words that they choose.
• Offer staff trainings to the entire team that focus on inclusion, anti-bias, and cultural understanding. When offering team training, develop a compensation policy that ensures trainers are fairly compensated. Avoid asking team members with underrepresented identities to carry the labor of training their peers without compensation. 
• Allow for mentorship programs that promote opportunities for all team members to access. Mentorship can be an invaluable resource in team members accessing promotions and managerial roles.

Developing DEI strategies is an attempt to right-size policies and organizational infrastructure to produce more equitable outcomes. This alone won’t change all facets of a business. With intentional effort, organizational culture can supplement DEI work to provide an inclusive workplace for all.