Celebrating UK National Inclusion Week with the RICS
Created and run by Inclusive Employers, now in its seventh year, the UK National Inclusion Week is an annual opportunity to raise awareness of inclusion in the workplace.
The Diversity & Inclusion team over at RICS HQ, led by Barry Cullen, have written an interesting piece to mark the event [here] and officially announced DiverseCity Surveyors as one of the leading diversity networks across the country [now with a growing presence in Atlanta, Georgia on the South-East coast of America]........no pressure then for the DCS Board!
But what is UK National Inclusion Week and why should it matter and be of relevance to 'built environment professionals' and other employees in the workplace?
Policies alone are not enough to build an inclusive workplace, and inclusion shouldn’t be a box-ticking exercise. At its most basic level, it is about ensuring that no one feels left out because of their age, disability, gender reassignment, race, religion or belief, sex, sexual orientation, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, or other factors such as social background. Ultimately an inclusive working environment allows people to be themselves at work and bring their whole-self to work. Equality & Diversity / Diversity & Inclusion can bring with them many challenges, so to promote 'workplace' inclusion, there is an ever pressing and pivotal need to consider how a diverse group of professionals / employees will work together on a daily basis.
QUESTIONS TO CONSIDER
Are your training sessions structured in a way that lets everyone get involved?
Are the benefits and perks you are offering accessible to all of your employees, or just a select few?
Do your employees feel comfortable expressing their needs and do you work together to create solutions that benefit you both?
Are you letting employees express their ideas, which can create innovative business solutions?
Achieving 'true' diversity in the workplace is 'a journey' not a destination. It's about ensuring that the people who work within and throughout the organisation are representative of wider society and still able to achieve their 'individual potential'. Diversity is the eclectic mix of individuals that make an organisation unique. The evidential benefits of 'true' diversity are multi-faceted and frequently lead to better corporate outcomes, including greater staff retention and higher morale.
The multi-generational challenges presented by the D&I agenda are deservedly thought provoking and potentially as impactful as they need to be, but along with the pain, there is much to gain. As many employers have come to realise [as seen reflected on their bottom line] the financial benefits, both cashable and non-cashable, make NOT doing the right thing terribly expensive for the wrong reasons, if that makes sense?!
You can observe and read more about the UK National Inclusion Week here