How diversity, inclusion and wellbeing can set the workforce up for greatness

Working from home restrictions have been lifted yet again in England; but whatever an employer’s approaches towards home working, there are still challenges ahead when it comes to getting the balance right.

Human resource (HR) departments have proved themselves key to protecting their colleagues’ interests when they can – often by evolving and adapting their wellbeing and mental health strategies so that their fit for purpose in a “new normal” – and they’ll need to rally again to get it right in 2022.

But there’s no hiding from the fact that, from an HR perspective, there’s still more work to be done.

They must consolidate, define and nurture the new ways of working developed in lockdowns.

To do so relies on applying a much more purposeful and data-guided approach to diversity and wellbeing initiatives – all of which should be inclusive of all groups of people.

Inclusive mental health support

The challenges brought on by COVID-19 meant that one-third (37%) of employees are suffering from worse mental health now compared to pre-COVID-19. As offices closed, diaries started to fill with digital meetings instead of real ones.

Fortunately, organisations across the UK quickly recognised that this was unsustainable and made changes fast.

And employees have been more vocal about their working experiences over the last 21 months, be it burn-out, mental health, working hours, or just about their personal life overall.

Take mental health. Groups of people are often impacted by mental health in different ways.

Reports suggest that black people are four times more likely to be detained under the Mental Health Act than White people, while older South Asian women are an at-risk group for suicide.

It’s therefore essential HR teams design inclusive and equitable initiatives, such as implementing ‘human-less’ alternatives to mental health first aiders – like an app or “open up the floor” and create safe-space roundtables where colleagues can all learn from different minority groups.

Inclusive, hybrid working

Many organisations have stated that hybrid working can lead to increased levels of diversity.

What a lot have not done is stress-tested this to ensure it is genuinely doing so.

If businesses get it right and pay deliberate attention to ensuring hybrid working sustains opportunities for all diverse groups, they will certainly benefit from increased workforce diversity at all levels.

For instance, understanding how new working environments impact various groups is key – for example – research shows that more women have been furloughed than men.

This is particularly important for the tech sector where harnessing innovation is a ‘must’.

Yet as the sector is gender under-represented, organisations that do not take on board these new considerations will quickly fall behind their competitors that do.

HR must remove any unintentional barriers to individuals’ career progression, like women who often pick up the child caring responsibilities.

In fact, the Centre for Global Development found that women took on 173 additional hours of unpaid childcare last year, compared to 59 additional hours for men.

Avoiding this will hinge on implementing flexible policies for parents and carers,

Ultimately, presenteeism does not equate to value or capability.

We must hold onto that lesson and remember that those out of sight require the same levels of support as everyone else.

Great resignation

The Great Resignation is a growing concern, leading to employee resignations – and subsequent staff shortages – in high numbers.

People are now considering what’s important to them in life. While HR may see this as a concern to be addressed in the short-term, this presents a brilliant opportunity for D&I and wellbeing.

Organisations that nurtures its culture; implementing what employees are demanding will not only be able to offset this trend but also welcome wider pools of talent. For example, this could be recognising female empowerment and female safety trends.

In the wake of Sarah Everard, women have been calling out inappropriate behaviour. Organisations can play their part, be it creating safer environments, offering martial art lessons or putting in measures for female’s lone working.

Elsewhere, it could be sustaining LGBT+ inclusion when working remotely.

For example, by hosting virtual global Pride events or visibly demonstrating LGBT+ support by adding rainbows to profile pictures or virtual lanyards.

Organisations that identify social aspects and moments with inclusion at the centre are the ones that won’t see swaths of people leave, and better win over some of the best talent.

Data tells HR stories

People analytics is key here and data teams are a massive crutch when supporting an organisation’s D&I strategies.

At Fujitsu, we use our ethnicity pay gap data – which we published voluntarily in 2021 – to inform the actions we need to take to ensure all ethnicities can thrive.

This is a great example of how the use of diversity data can inspire further change in an organisation – meaningful change for not just employees but society.

Adopting data strategies to drive decisions is critical, especially now with the highly dynamic working conditions.

Although, now HR should look to use the likes of employee insight, engagement survey results and people data to track wellbeing.

The HR function should be deliberately making strides to keep engagement high, and employees satisfied.

The ultimate fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic remains to be seen.

What is clear, however. is that HR and DE&I professionals can carve out their own, more positive legacy from this difficult period to ensure the next generation of their workforce are empowered to be even better than the last.