Nearly two thirds of US employees feel companies could do more to improve diversity and inclusion. Even if nobody talks about it anymore, allyship in the workplace still makes a difference. It’s important to everything from a business’s productivity to its profitability.
And an inclusive culture can still be fostered without it being a marketing slogan.
Audiences are savvy enough now to not fall for this. That means if they feel like you’re using inclusivity or allyship as a slogan without really meaning it, your company could suffer as a result.
Why does allyship in the workplace matter?
Companies that have higher rates of cultural and ethnic diversity are more likely to achieve above-average profitability. It’s a huge factor in a business’s ability to adapt, because more perspectives mean more people problem solving from different angles.
Therefore more potential issues identified before they can happen, and more solutions implemented before anything can go wrong, too.
If everyone comes from the same background and has faced the same barriers, they’re less likely to notice gaps in their own knowledge.
Companies with a culture of allyship in the workplace also have higher employee retention rates and better employee performance.
How to build allyship in the workplace
Look at your culture and systems
Company culture and systems are built over time, by the people within an organization. With the right leadership, they can change quickly.
But if your culture is competitive or antagonistic, it’s going to take time to bring everyone in line with a culture of allyship in the workplace.
Ask around and see what people think of your company culture right now. Pay attention to how everyone speaks to each other in meetings, too. Are they polite, or do things turn aggressive?
An aggressive tone in meetings can be off-putting to some people, which might mean your quieter employees feel unable to speak up. They may choose to leave rather than help you grow your business.
And their perspectives could be the very ones your organization needs to grow.
Get everyone onboard
Every employee, at every level, must reinforce your company direction and commitment to allyship in the workplace. It doesn’t matter whether they’re part of an underrepresented group or not.
Success is built on the support of people in positions of power and everyone working toward the same goal.
Communicating this goal regularly, in different locations and around different people, is pivotal to success.
This might include:
- Raising it at the start of every meeting
- A sign on the wall at the office entrance, or outside meeting rooms
- Including it at the start of company newsletters
Show what it looks like
What underrepresented team members want from allyship in the workplace may be different from what their colleagues provide. Explaining what allyship looks like, and how everyone can support their colleagues, matters.
For example, you could create a meeting structure that gives everyone the opportunity to share their opinions. This would start with sending the agenda around in advance, giving those who need more time to think through their answers the opportunity to do so.
This also prevents meetings from lacking direction and wasting time.
Then, during the meeting, the person chairing it could ask those who speak up a lot to give others in the room space to speak. Pointing out to those who hog the floor that they’re doing so champions women in the workplace, disabled people, and other underrepresented groups, as these are all folks who are often left with less room to speak during meetings.
Remember: it’s a process
Allyship in the workplace isn’t a one-and-done thing. It’s an ongoing process.
Just because your business was full of allies five years ago, that doesn’t mean it is now. Ongoing training, ongoing support, and being vocal about supporting colleagues all play important roles towards building a culture of allyship in the workplace.
Bad habits, like excluding colleagues, are easy to slip into when someone is stressed.
When someone feels stressed, they want to focus on their job and keeping it. It creates a dog-eat-dog culture, rather than one of collaboration and support.
If employees aren’t constantly in a state of stress, it’s easier for them to be allies and create a more welcoming culture for everyone because they have time to consider other people’s needs.
Set up employee groups
Your employee groups allow anyone who’s from an underrepresented background to connect with others from the same group.
They’re vital networking tools, especially if employees come from backgrounds where they might’ve been excluded simply because of who they are.
Using Workrowd, you can organize your employee groups so that you get more information, faster. Everything becomes easy for employees to find, so they connect with their colleagues more often — building vital relationships that reinforce allyship in the workplace. Get in touch today to book your demo and find out more.
Send feedback surveys
Employee feedback surveys are one of the most useful tools for finding out how your team members really feel. Especially if they can fill in their responses anonymously.
Those insights can help you spot gaps in your employee initiatives before they spiral into something that affects morale, productivity, and profitability.
You could ask questions like:
- Do you feel like your colleagues support you to do your job? (Yes/No/Sometimes)
- Why/why not?
- Do you feel supported by your manager? (Yes/No/Sometimes)
- What could senior leaders do to better support you and your team?
A combination of closed and open-ended questions gives you quantitative data you can view at a glance, and qualitative data that will provide insights into how and why things happen. You can then use these answers to lean in to what works and repair what isn’t working.
Using Workrowd, you can send employee feedback surveys at set milestones. So you don’t have to remember to send them to everyone on their first work anniversary. But you’ll get the data to compare how things are changing for new hires over time.
You could also send them after new employee initiatives, once a year to everyone, or another milestone that works for your business. Get in touch to book your demo and find out more.
Conclusion
Allyship in the workplace matters now, more than ever. But employees are left without the energy to support each other because the world, and the workplace, has become so divided.
With the right company culture and tools, you can see what’s working and double down on it, while preventing issues from spiraling beyond your control.
