It’s no secret that more companies are looking to diversity recruiting initiatives as a way to spark innovation on their teams, especially as data continues to show the competitive advantage of pursuing diversity and inclusion. But building inclusive teams that give members with different backgrounds opportunities to be heard is challenging… How can we overcome language barriers, accessibility issues, and improve company cultures? And how can we create teams where members feel included across time zones, continents, and lifestyles? Even more daunting, how do we measure our success? These are just a few of the questions that were tackled at the SF Tech Inclusion 2016 conference, an event centered around diversity and inclusion initiatives for both global brands and budding startups.
After two days at the conference we boiled down three actionable strategies in this infographic that you can implement today to reach your D&I objectives for your teams (scroll to the end of this post for additional resources!).
Additional Learnings
The Tech Inclusion conference reminded us that seeing the business and cultural benefits of having diverse teams doesn’t just mean reaching diversity numbers, but also requires clear communication and interaction between members; hitting diversity numbers is not the same as reaching a diversity goal that will provide business results. The Diversity and Inclusion keynote reiterated that ignoring inclusion objectives guarantees low retention of diversity candidates in the long term, and that Psychological Safety through empathy is the key to avoiding a loss of integrity and motivation from employees.
