As we wrap up Pride Month, there’s been a lot of conversation on how companies are celebrating. Some of the dialogue has been negative highlighting the capitalistic motives behind some of the rainbow branded products. Though, there has been a lot of positive work done. Many organizations have donated funds to local and national organizations to support the LGBTQ+ community. While other organizations have kept it low key with social media campaigns or changed their social media thumbnails.
It’s great to show the world your organization’s support of diverse communities. Even better to walk the walk by creating a more diverse and inclusive workplace. Diversity and inclusion initiatives tend to fall under an HR function, but they should stretch across those business silos.
Here are a few key business areas your diversity and inclusion team or HR department can partner with to build a more inclusive and diverse space.
Communications/Community Relations/Public Affairs
Communication is an integral part of building and supporting an inclusive culture. It’s how your employees know what your culture is and believe in it. Effective communication plans perpetuate stories and theme lines that show how your organization supports inclusive culture.
Additionally, your communications team probably handles almost any external affairs. This includes social media, community outreach, and public relations. Connect with these business partners to identify ways to extend your culture of inclusivity outside the organization. Like partnering with local organizations to diversify your talent pool or identify community outreach opportunities.
Procurement/Supply Chain/Purchasing
Right from the start, having a diverse group of suppliers is just smart business. Diverse supplier programs can have triple the returns for the company. They also provide innovative and unique product offerings that your organization may have missed out on. The economic impacts are far-reaching as well. Supplier diversity supports small businesses and puts money back into the local economy.
Recruitment/Talent Acquisitions
Recruitment and talent acquisitions (TA) are responsible for building a diverse workforce. A good partnership to foster will be between TA and the community relations team. Community relations can help TA identify where the diverse talent pools are and community partners who provide workforce readiness programs.
TA will also promote the organization’s employer brand to help attract talent. Talent acquisition takes the internal org’s culture and shows to the public how inclusive the company is.
Organizational and Business Leaders
The most important partnership will be with the organization’s business leaders. The recent call to action and commitment led by 150+ CEOs shows this. Diversity and inclusion should be worked into the organization’s overall strategy. The leaders will also need to live by example. If the culture is to take hold, they need to show the importance of it by waking the walk. This makes D&I initiatives less of a corporate or HR initiative and more of a key component to day-to-day business operations.
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