How to Instill Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in the Workplace

According to Jobstreet by SEEK’s Decoding Global Talent 2024 report, 34% of global workers choose Singapore because of its welcoming culture and inclusiveness. It makes sense considering the country’s high-income economy. Fortunately, since Kantar ranked Singapore as the second-worst globally in terms of workplace diversity in 2019, the company has risen in the insights company’s index by 45% in 2022. That said, it still has a long way to go given how multicultural the country is.

Numerous studies have revealed that diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) practices improve a company’s bottom line. These policies can enhance your company’s standing, making you more attractive to top talent. They also boost employee satisfaction and retention rates​, which have had a direct impact on productivity and efficiency. So, in case you were wondering, the time to make DEI efforts a priority for your organisation is now.

In the war for top talent, DEI could be the tipping point to give your company the edge. Here are ways you or your human resources team can implement inclusive initiatives that will take your workplace to the 21st century. 

It’s easy to say you want to be more diverse and inclusive, but you have to understand what it entails for your company. Hiring one woman for the “look” doesn’t exactly make for proper DEI practice.

You need to create a baseline based on your company’s current situation or industry benchmarks. Audit your current DEI setup – or lack of. Do you need more managers of a certain age? Is your staff mostly men? Are your policies outdated and designed for exclusion? From here, you can see which areas need work the most, allowing you to set steps and priorities.

Laying out specifics, such as hiring more parents, introducing religion-related leave, or installing wheelchair-friendly access points, and having a concrete direction to achieving them turns abstract plans into action.

If you want to make an impression on potential talent, you need to show your DEI culture, beginning with your job ads. Use unbiased language, such as genderless nouns and pronouns. For instance, you can use “chairperson” or “chair” instead of “chairman.” Avoid exclusionary terms that refer to race, economic status or elitism, gender, or disabilities. 

During the interview stage, try to use diverse hiring panels to alleviate unconscious bias. You should also make purposeful efforts to recruit from underrepresented groups. One way to do this is to partner with institutions that work with minorities or the differently abled. For example, the National Library Board collaborated with the Autism Resource Centre, training workers on the autism spectrum to convert old library materials into a digital form for the public database.

Your DEI efforts do not start and end with HR. Every member of your organisation must demonstrate this culture of openness and inclusivity. Organise training sessions that will teach your people about unconscious bias, cultural competency, and inclusive leadership.

DEI practices evolve and so do your employees, so hold these programmes regularly to keep up with the company’s needs and societal changes. Remember to include all levels of employees, from entry-level talent to top management. 

One example of a successful DEI training scheme is Microsoft’s Allyship Programme. Available to the company’s worldwide team, it features self-paced online classes designed to cater to various learning styles. It includes 10 diverse segments with video scenarios, which show employees how they can react to different situations.

Think of ERGs as a focus group or committee dedicated to ensuring you’re keeping up with the latest diversity and inclusivity practices. These groups feature employees from different backgrounds, positions, races, ages, and even interests. You can even form ERGs based on specific groups, like LGBTQIA++, women, or parents. 

ERGs not only help devise policies that better resonate with the DEI needs of your people, but they also offer support to underrepresented employees. Some ERGs go as far as organising mixers or networking events to make members belong and feel more comfortable. 

While some of these groups may start informally, you can make them more legitimate by allocating resources and funding. It would empower them to perform their role more effectively and give them more visibility within the company. 

Citigroup, Nike, and Coca-Cola are some companies that have launched ERGs. 

According to the Ministry of Social and Family Development, the pay gap among genders has been progressively narrowing in recent years. However, many organisations still have a long way to go when it comes to pay equity. 

You can ensure salary fairness by conducting regular pay audits. This can help you spot and address disparities. You could also promote transparency when it comes to salary bands and compensation policies. Being open about how salary levels are set can foster a culture of trust. It could also enhance morale and improve employee engagement.

Moreover, remember that an employee’s pay doesn’t just end with the amount they receive in their bank accounts. Come up with benefits that support different needs, such as parental leave, mental health support, or flexible working hours.

According to Jobstreet by SEEK’s Hiring, Compensation, and Benefits Report 2024, more employers in Singapore have been providing more family-friendly working environments. For example, Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) offers 26 weeks of paid parental leave for new parents within the first year after the birth or adoption of a child. The company’s Parental Transition Support initiative also gives new mums and dads the flexibility to work part-time for up to three years.

As a cultural melting pot, Singapore’s workforce features a diverse mix of ethnicities and religions. Celebrating these cultural, religious, and identity-based events and holidays can make employees feel more accepted. Greenpark Digital, a Singapore-based company that hires global talent, offers special holiday leave based on religion and location. During Ramadan, it also has a strict no-meeting policy after 6 p.m. to accommodate employees breaking fast. 

While ERGs can be a terrific way to gain insight into how various groups in the company feel, this atmosphere of openness without judgment or retaliation shouldn’t be limited to these small spaces. They must feel free to speak their thoughts within the entire organisation. Encourage open dialogue and feedback through anonymous polls, employee engagement surveys, small group discussions, and even town halls. 

For example, Sodexo Singapore has its Speak Up Ethics Line, which allows everyone working in or with Sodexo to raise concerns about possible misconduct, including discrimination or harassment, in a safe and confidential environment.

Inclusion isn’t innate. However, it could take some effort to erase unconscious and pervasive biases. Setting up rules that encourage DEI could be the jumping-off board to introduce and enforce an open mindset in your workforce. 

Fortunately, an increasing number of Singaporean companies are focusing on DEI efforts. According to Workday, which surveyed 2,600 businesses, 88% already allocated a budget for DEI initiatives, while 55% planned to increase their investment for 2024. Here are some of the standard policies that combat workplace toxicity:

• Zero-tolerance non-discrimination policies

• Parenting policies, such as childcare support, family rooms, or family-friendly events

• Accommodations and accessibility schemes, including wheelchair facilities or Braille signages

• Well-being policies, like mental health days or counselling

Foodpanda is an ideal example of a company that has gone out of its way to invest in accessibility. Its Singapore headquarters has equipped all meeting rooms and staircases with Braille signs. It also has height-adjustable desks and wheelchair-friendly paths. On top of that, it has quiet rooms for sensory-sensitive employees and wellness spaces to encourage relaxation.

Career development opportunities are always a good idea, but it’s a special boon to minority groups. Research also confirms that members of marginalised communities who had advanced into leadership roles had one thing in common: mentorship.

Mentorship programmes connect employees from these underrepresented sectors to company leaders whom they may otherwise not have access. Apart from helping improve skills, the one-on-one interactions provide employees with a vital network that could launch their careers. Studies also reveal that mentorships are more effective at propelling minority mentees into leadership positions, which could further drive your DEI initiatives. 

Dell Technologies’ MentorConnect, which was established in 2019, is a successful demonstration of mentorship as a means to bigger opportunities. In 2023, it launched a women-focused edition that gathers mentors from different tech enterprises to promote leadership development via networking and company-to-company best-practice exchange. Its ultimate goal is to increase female representation in the traditionally male-heavy industry.

Apart from mentorships, you can also invest in professional development programmes that offer training and advancement opportunities specifically for diverse talent. Or better yet, ensure that promotions are based on merit and performance – a policy that seems more obvious than it is common.

Representation can be a motivating force for your employees. Seeing someone they could relate to (and vice versa) in a leadership role could show them what they could be, inspiring them in the process. It also gives employees from underrepresented groups a voice. They feel more secure knowing their needs are being expressed at the top level.

Business-wise, having leaders with different backgrounds and experiences guarantees a more well-rounded decision-making process. Diverse teams can evaluate situations more holistically, decreasing the chances of bias. 

In 2020, Singtel topped the Board Diversity Index ranked by Willis Tower Watson, the Singapore Institute of Directors, and BoardAgenda. Singtel chairperson Lee Theng Kiat believes a diverse board contributes to good corporate governance and strategic oversight. He says that the various members of their leadership committee provide new perspectives that allow the company to identify and analyse opportunities and risks objectively.

Other companies included in the index were Singapore Exchange, Mapletree Commercial Trust, Mewah International, and Sembcorp Industries. 

Slowly but surely, more companies are warming up to diverse management teams. After all, Singapore’s Council of Board Diversity recommends that women should comprise 25% of boards by 2025 and 30% by 2030. In 2023, the top 100 primary-listed companies had women holding 22.7% of board positions. 

Your company’s long-term goal should be to ensure that diversity isn’t just cosmetic but strategic as well. After all, this will benefit your company in the long run. You can develop a pipeline for diverse talent to progress to leadership roles by offering training and mentorship.

Recording your DEI milestones guarantees that your initiatives are far from tokenistic. Regular assessments ensure that your strategies are being implemented. And seeing the policies you’ve put up and the results they’ve achieved can help you formulate even more effective DEI ideas. 

Measuring your progress should be a mix of qualitative and quantitative methods. First, review your workforce. How many are men against women? Do you have members from the LGBTQIA++ community? Do you have members from ethnic minority groups? What about your management? How many employees did you hire from non-“top-tier” schools versus last year? Check your retention rates. These demographics can help you make better, more holistic hiring choices in the future.

You should also study your feedback channels. Consistent surveys and forums are good, but they give you a whole-picture, majority perspective. Categorise your data according to gender, age, ethnicity, geography, and more. This forces you to look at the specific needs of your diverse workforce. Try this segmentation with your focus groups and compare the feedback with broader town halls. See if there’s a difference in the level of openness you achieve.

You can even go as granular as appraising regular meetings to see who speaks up the most. Learning about imbalances would empower team leads to adjust their styles, using a no-interruptions rule or a roundtable policy so everyone could have an opportunity to speak up. 

Johnson & Johnson is a company that has actively recorded and publicised their DEI campaign. Their website measures their progress in real-time, from the total budget they use to encourage these efforts to the number of teams who actively push the DEI agenda. 

Just as working styles evolve, so do DEI strategies. Several decades ago, diversity and inclusion were nice-to-haves. The focus was on equal rights for men and women. Now, it’s become a driving force behind business progress and caters to various sectors and demographics. Your employees and their needs will change. For example, the fresh grads you hire now may become parents in the next decade. The economic landscape may experience drastic shifts. The government may enforce new laws. 

Conduct periodic checkups of your current DEI policies against current circumstances as well as the learnings you gleaned from your regular feedback, surveys, and ERGs. Identify gaps in your policies and see how you can adjust accordingly. Sustaining a company is a massive test-and-learn project, ensuring your strategies remain effective and responsive to evolving organisational needs.

You don’t have to be a social enterprise to extend your DEI protocols and ambitions beyond the walls of your organisation. Many companies in Singapore partner with external communities to address your DEI goals, much like the aforementioned National Library Board. Fragrance and flavour company Firmenich Asia partnered with the Singapore Association of the Visually Handicapped (SAVH) to find professional sensory panellists. Currently, 20% of their panellists are visually impaired.

DBS Bank offers a social enterprise grant to fund and support enterprises that aid marginalised communities. It includes various scholarships and internship programmes aimed at nurturing young talent from diverse backgrounds. The goal is to develop their skills and prepare them for employment within the bank.

Encouraging employee participation in DEI-centred community service and volunteer programmes embeds an outlook for openness and acceptance in your organisational culture. 

Another way to stretch your DEI exertions is to look at your company’s supply chain. Are you supporting vendors and suppliers from minority-owned businesses? Having a network that embraces the same values as you could drive your inclusion efforts further. 

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Gen Z talent demands diversity to be the norm, not a novelty. In several years, they will take over the majority of the workforce – and by then, most companies should have installed DEI measures in place. But don’t wait for that to happen before you make strides in your company’s DEI efforts. After all, the benefits of diversity, equity, and inclusion are well known, from higher employee engagement to greater profits. It’s time to contribute to better-evolved workplace practices now.