DEI initiatives are at the forefront for businesses looking to attract and retain top talent, boost employee engagement, and drive innovation. When every employee in your organization feels included, heard, and valued – no matter their background – it fosters an environment where they can perform their best and feel committed to the company.

However, it goes beyond checking a box on race, gender, religion, or sexual orientation. You need the right elements and systems in place to not only build but promote a culture focused on inclusion. 

We’ve identified four key aspects essential for these initiatives to be successful. In this article, let’s take a look at the building blocks needed for businesses to create a culture of inclusion.

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1. Empower Employees to Reflect on Their Inclusion Journey

Promoting a culture of inclusion starts with personal accountability. One key step is encouraging employees to reflect on their own beliefs, biases, and progress regarding inclusion. 

Through individual self-awareness, organizations can drive more meaningful participation in DEI efforts. Solutions like Pulsely’s Inclusion Culture Survey can be useful here. We provide self-assessment surveys where employees are scored across three different dimensions that enable them to be inclusive at work – their beliefs, strength of opinion, and ability to speak up.

The personal and confidential reports employees receive can help individual leaders identify areas for growth. Organizational level reports allow you to see how employee mindsets shift over time – measuring some of the early indicators of whether or not your initiatives are effective.

However, this process needs to be more than a simple reflection. It needs to invite individuals to continually assess their thoughts, actions, and the impact they have on creating inclusive spaces. 

When employees regularly engage in this introspective practice, they can improve their own DEI competence, while also contributing to an environment where everyone feels valued, without having to assimilate to uncomfortable workplace norms in order to be accepted or heard. 

As people become more aware of their biases and limitations, they are better equipped to engage in meaningful DEI initiatives, helping to build a more inclusive workplace culture.

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2. Recognize the Different Belief Systems

Understanding different belief systems within a workplace is essential for fostering inclusion, as each employee comes with a different mindset and life experience. Recognizing and working with these varying perspectives helps create a more inclusive environment that drives change. 

Pulsely can help you identify these three key categories of employees within your organizations – Traditionalists, Investigators, and Inclusivists.

• The Traditionalist believes that the workplace operates as a meritocracy where effort and skills are the only things that matter. While this is an admirable goal, they may not immediately recognize how systemic barriers affect others. For example, a Traditionalist might assume everyone already has equal access to opportunities, which can limit their support for inclusion programming.
• Investigators are curious and open to learning more about workplace diversity and representation. They will be your bridge between traditional views and more progressive thinking. They may question why some groups are underrepresented and seek out diverse viewpoints to enhance their understanding. But they may also believe that assimilation to existing norms is the goal rather than adapting the organization so that all employees can fully contribute their skillsets.
• Finally, Inclusivists fully acknowledge systemic advantages and proactively support change. They advocate for policies and practices that address inequalities and work to create a culture where everyone feels like they belong. They often lead by example and demonstrate how to incorporate inclusivity into daily work practices. And yet, inclusivists must learn to create space for honest dialogue that enables others to question and learn from mistakes. 

You need a keen awareness of these mindsets so that you can tailor your inclusion strategies and initiatives more effectively. It allows your business to engage each person where they are in their journey. 

When you address each group’s needs, you can cultivate behavioral changes and encourage collective growth, ensuring no one feels left out of the process.

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3. Tailor Training Programs to Meet Individual Needs

Offering the same training to everyone, especially in diversity and unconscious bias contexts, can lead to significant backlash. Research from Harvard Business Review shows that one-size-fits-all programs can cause resentment and reinforce stereotypes, ultimately increasing resistance to inclusion efforts. 

Another study from HBR also found that unconscious bias training often backfires when it’s framed as mandatory, leaving participants feeling disempowered and more likely to act on biases rather than mitigate them effectively​.

To counteract this, training needs to be tailored to specific organizational needs and focus on equipping individuals with practical tools for behavior change. For example, the HBR article mentions Microsoft’s training offers best practices for overcoming bias like “examine your assumptions.” It asks employees to look at when they make judgment calls about someone’s background or identity and ask themselves how it could be an asset.  Normalizing the fact that we all make assumptions, and that makes us human - not bad, is the first step toward learning to mitigate bias. 

Pulsely can help in this area with our Workplace Inclusion Diagnostic, where we help organizational develop data-driven DEI plans with targeted programs to identify inclusion gaps and drive inclusion initiatives at all levels.

These programs need to emphasize long-term learning and personal development, so they’re more effective than short-term sessions​. The ultimate goal is to develop customized training that resonates with each individual’s role and context, so organizations can move toward genuine progress.

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4. Measure Individual and Collective Performance

Implementing these inclusivity initiatives is only part of the process. It’s crucial to also track employee and overall performance over time. At Pulsely, our solution provides several key DEI metrics to provide a clear picture of how inclusive your organization is and where improvements can be made.

Inclusion Data helps organizations understand how employees perceive their workplace, highlighting differences in experiences among diverse groups. Through employee surveys, patterns of inequity are revealed, showing where systems or processes may unintentionally hinder inclusion. 

For example, you may discover that employees from underrepresented groups experience less managerial support in their roles, leading to lower engagement compared to others. Identifying these gaps allows your organization to take targeted action in order to fully leverage the capacity of its workforce.

Performance Indicators link DEI efforts to tangible business outcomes. Our analysis correlates inclusion with key metrics such as employee engagement, capacity to innovate, and intent to stay. These indicators help build a strong internal business case for DEI by showing leadership how addressing gaps in inclusion directly impacts business success. 

Another metric we look at is Inclusion Competencies, which evaluate individual employees' skills in fostering inclusion. Pulsely assesses competencies such as openness to change, difficult conversations, addressing bias, and inclusive interactions. These skills are crucial to creating a truly inclusive environment where everyone feels valued. They also help point out where individuals fall within the inclusion maturity spectrum mentioned above.

Research consistently shows that inclusive teams are more innovative and engaged, and they make better business decisions 87% of the time. And 80% of job seekers now look at inclusion when deciding where to work. All of this means investing in DEI initiatives is no longer optional – it’s a business imperative. 

Partner with Pulsely to build a more inclusive, high-performing workplace!