There’s no place for racism in the workplace — especially not at your company. Just the same, it can be hard to stay on top of racial conflicts among your employees without being proactive.
Creating an inclusive workplace doesn’t just help combat racial tensions — it also protects your company from lawsuits and other problems.
What can your business do to be the most inclusive?
You probably have metrics for your business, so that you know how many people of color you have on staff. You keep track of incidents between employees that could be construed as racist, and you make sure to provide training on anti-racism in the workplace.
That being said, a lack of diversity at different levels of your organization or seeing that your workforce is primarily white likely means that your company could benefit from some changes. You could be at risk of a lawsuit if an employee believes that there are racist issues happening in the workplace that are preventing people of color from moving up the company ladder to a better position.
To be among the best in terms of trying to eliminate racial issues in the workplace, some of the things you should do include:
- Make inclusion a data-driven process that you engage in to understand how to improve inclusion through each part of the recruitment, promotion, and hiring processes, among others
- Establish programs to teach employees, including upper management, about recognizing racism or stereotyping in the workplace, as well as how to correct it
- Take an active role in monitoring inclusion and adapting for the purposes of retaining people of all colors and backgrounds
Being inclusive takes work, but by making that effort, you can reduce the likelihood of being accused of being a racist or racially-biased company. It’s always wise to examine your workplace policies through an attorney’s eyes, just to be safe.
