Top tips for an inclusive workforce

Rachel Clift, health and well-being director at automotive charity Ben, has shared her top tips for creating an inclusive workplace.

She said that creating an inclusive and engaging working environment is a win-win outcome, with colleagues performing better and businesses achieving better results.

Setting the right tone at the top of the organisation is critical, she said, while embedding inclusion into a company’s culture is also paramount.

Clift said: “To truly embed any initiative into an organisation not only requires robust policies and procedures but also ensures the inclusion is considered at every touch point in the employee life cycle. Embedding training and development specifically to maintain an inclusive culture should be a focus from induction and throughout an employee’s length of service.”

Clift also urged businesses to embrace diversity in characteristics, values, beliefs, experiences, backgrounds and preferences, while constantly focusing on ‘employee experience’.

She concluded: “Inclusion can’t be static; it needs to keep moving, evolve and continually develop over time. An organisation needs to stay closely connected to its workforce to ensure it continues to move with it.”