Diversity vs. Inclusion: How To Know If You Have a Culture That Is Inclusive

Ogaga is a seasoned project management professional with over four years of experience. She has delivered projects across Africa, Europe and North America.

  Organizational Culture  

According to Bloomberg, an internal survey of 56 Black employees of a major retailer revealed that many Black employees in management and high-ranking positions would not recommend the company to others. The employees who responded to the survey said they faced barriers when trying to advance in their careers, such as having unequal access to growth opportunities and coping with favoritism and internal politics.

This survey isn’t surprising. I did a similar survey for mid-senior level Black employees and got a similar result regarding the barriers faced when trying to advance their careers.

Most organizations have a corporate strategy to promote diversity and inclusion. However, I think due to the ease of implementing and measuring diversity (by hiring underrepresented groups and measuring how many have been hired), we put that as the key performance indicator for the D&I strategy.

While this shows diversity, it doesn’t show inclusion. Diversity without inclusion is a disaster awaiting to happen because you create a workforce of diverse individuals who are demoralized because they don’t feel included and face various barriers. These barriers do exist, and most times they come in the form of unconscious bias (decisions made, though not intentionally, that hinder the growth opportunities of an underrepresented group).

One great point mentioned in…

Please log in or sign up below to read the rest of the article.