The notion of inclusivity has never been more prevalent in the workforce. We are now in our third year of gender pay reporting, with ethnicity reporting legislation on the horizon, and the need to show that, as an employer, you are inclusive and do not discriminate employees regardless of age, gender, race, disability, or sexual orientation, has never been more important. 

However, diversity and inclusivity are not just important due to legislative reasons, these factors have a direct impact on the success of your organisation. Research has indicated that a more diverse workforce leads to a better performing and more profitable organisation. McKinsey (2018) identified that gender diverse companies were 15% more likely to outperform their competitors, and ethnically diverse companies were 35% more likely to outperform their competitors.

With businesses constantly expanding, both nationally and globally, its important to maintain a level of diversity within the workplace. Without a way to measure inclusion, HR teams rely on their own subjective notion on how inclusive they are as an organisation. So, how do we truly measure how inclusive our reward strategy is?

1. KEEPING EMPLOYEES' PAY EQUAL. Already subject to an existing legal requirement, men and women should receive the same pay regarding their assigned role and experience. However, this applies not just to gender but age, race, and other protected characteristics. This also applies to progression opportunities, whether a specific demographic of employee tends to ascend more often than others. An equal pay audit can establish any areas where your business may be lacking in this area and help protect you from potential litigation.

2. BENEFITS. Benefits packages should be developed using an all-inclusive approach and constantly evolving based on the needs of employees. By using analytics to decide on what’s meaningful to employees (either via measuring uptake of benefits via your employee experience portal’s management system, or by using methods such as surveys), and tailoring your benefits offer to fit the needs of your workforce, you can ensure that inclusivity is at the forefront of the reward agenda. This is often achieved by using a flexible benefits scheme, whereby the same benefits are available to everyone, but employees can swap and choose benefits which suit their lifestyle; for example, younger members of the workforce may prefer schemes to help get them on the property ladder, whilst staff members from an older generation may prefer more generous pension contributions.

3. DEMOGRAPHICS. By collecting data regarding the demographics of your organisation, you can determine a baseline breakdown of how diverse your organisation is. If a lack of diversity is established, steps can be taken via recruitment and progressions strategies to resolve this. 

4. RECRUITMENT & PROGRESSION. By maintaining hiring records, you can easily look at the people who are joining the organisation and who is being turned away. From this, you can take a view on whether there is an ‘ideal’ employee being routinely recruited and if so, challenge the status quo to improve its diversity outlook and engage in fair employment practices. The same strategy can be used to determine if there is any bias within the career progression, as it is important to be mindful that hiring with diversity and inclusivity in mind isn’t enough – new hires need to feel secure, respected, and like they can progress within the organisation.

5. COMPARE TO NATIONAL AVERAGES. Keeping abreast of the trends nationwide will help give an indication as to whether you could be doing more to ensure an all-inclusive reward strategy. By understanding what other businesses are doing, particularly businesses that are doing inclusivity well, you can find new ways to progress your strategy.

For more expert advice on ways to ensure your rewards and benefits are always inclusive for your staff, speak to one of our team of specialists on 020 3457 0894.

« Back to Insights