DIVERSITY, EQUITY, AND

INCLUSION (DEI) IN
LEADERSHIP

www.jigsawinteractive.com
There is a growing push for diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) in business and seeing how
it benefits organizations it's understandable. A high sense of belonging for employees results
in a 50% drop in turnover and a 56% increase in productivity. But what effects do DEI efforts
have on your leadership team and company in general?

What is DEI?

Diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) are practices, strategies and interventions designed to
make businesses focused on designing diverse teams from various races, ages, ethnicities,
and abilities. There is an emphasis on including DEI practices regarding hiring, promotion,
recruitment, retention, and redressing inequalities among team members.

Organizations can employ DEI efforts through action plans tailored to meet objectives
related explicitly to equity considerations. The benefits of DEI include:

● Fosters creativity in problem-solving and collaboration

● Contributes to a robust team that shares different perspectives
● Drives innovation among employees and promotes a competitive edge

Those at high risk of experiencing adverse effects from an exclusive work culture are
employees from minority groups, including women, people of color, and LGBTQ individuals.
Inclusion eases the impacts of diversity by setting up practices that include all employees.

Diversity in leadership and the workplace is about becoming more inclusive. It's about
increasing diversity by considering all types of people, backgrounds, skill sets, abilities, and
perspectives when making decisions. When diverse groups of people work together,
different ideas are brought to the table, and they find creative solutions to complex problems.
When people understand each other and work together towards a common goal, it
strengthens the company and increases employee satisfaction, leading to higher
productivity and lower staff turnover.

Equity in leadership and the workplace refers to employees' fair and equal treatment
regardless of their gender, race, or ethnicity. This ensures that employees have the same
opportunities for advancement, are compensated fairly for their work, and barriers to
participation are eliminated. The benefits of equity in leadership and the workplace include
improved morale, reduced employee turnover, increased creativity, quality and productivity.
When employees feel leaders treat them fairly and equally, they are more likely to be
motivated and engaged in their work. This leads to improved performance and a more
positive work environment.

www.jigsawinteractive.com 1
Inclusion is the act of creating an environment where individuals or groups of employees
feel welcomed, respected, supported, and valued to participate in the company on all levels.
An inclusive and welcoming environment embraces differences and offers everyone respect
in words and actions. Recognition of unconscious or an individual's 'implicit bias' helps
organizations deliberate about addressing inclusivity issues. The benefits of inclusion in
leadership and the workplace are numerous. They include:

· Higher jobs satisfaction, especially among people of color

· Lower turnover
· Higher productivity
· Higher quality of work
· Higher employee morale
· Increased creativity and innovation
· Improved problem solving

Importance of DEI

Diversity, equity, and inclusion in leadership are vital because they ensure that the company
or business is aligned with equal opportunity principles. When businesses are inclusive of
their team members' diverse backgrounds, employees can better identify customer needs
and wants more easily because the company more accurately reflects the diversity of
customers. Companies are able to provide customers with the best possible products and
services because they innately understand the customer better. This ultimately leads
impacts the bottom line of a company.

www.jigsawinteractive.com 2
There are many positive impacts of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI). Many organizations
that embrace and implement DEI efforts report that they enjoy a wide range of benefits,
including:

● Improved financial performance

● Enhanced creativity and innovation
● Greater employee engagement and productivity
● Reduced bias and discrimination in the workplace
● A more diverse and inclusive workplace that attracts top talent

Companies that do not affirmatively try to foster diversity, equity, and inclusion in their
workforce are impacted negatively. They are more likely to experience some of the following
challenges:

● Financial losses
● Low morale among employees
● High employee turnover rates
● Low employee engagement
● Poor quality
● Slow progress on developing new products
● Poor customer service & dissatisfied customers
● Higher legal costs related to discrimination complaints and lawsuits

DEI’s Impact
When organizations have a diverse leadership team fostered through DEI, they grow and
perform better. Leaders retain employees and increase employee engagement because
organizations can connect with and better understand the diverse group of people who work
with them. DEI efforts make employees more likely to innovate and create products and
services that appeal to everyone, not just one specific demographic. Because they have
multiple perspectives on accomplishing their goal, organizations gain more revenue
because they are able to meet goals more quickly and efficiently. Companies can become
more profitable because their diverse team is better at solving problems and creating new
strategies that keep them competitive. Innovation and problem-solving stem from a diverse
team's ability to understand different perspectives in the workplace. Diverse team needs to
be guaranteed that their voice will be heard if an organization is to experience all the benefits
of DEI.

It is vital for organizational success to make sure they set up a system of checks and
balances to ensure that everyone is being respected and heard. This goes back to all team
members being actively engaged and committing to the respect and kindness principle.
When employees feel included and represented in the workplace, they are more likely to be
engaged and productive. Ethnic and culturally diverse leadership teams are 33% more likely
to have industry-leading profitability.

www.jigsawinteractive.com 3
Supporting a Diverse Workforce

When organizations harness all employees' unique perspectives and experiences, they
innovate and create new solutions to problems. To create a workplace that is inclusive and
supports diversity, it is important to have a leadership team that reflects the diversity of the
workforce.

When leaders exhibit behaviors that support inclusion, equity, and diversity, it helps their
team members to become more engaged and feel better about their work environment. This
results in happier employees who do a better job of creating the products and services that
drive company success. When there is a lack of leadership equity in a business, it can
negatively affect employees and shareholders. As organizations reflect the changing
demographics of society and the workforce, leaders with diverse backgrounds will be more
critical to drive company growth.

A business that fails to include equity measures and diversity efforts may be at risk of
underperforming, because employees who do not see themselves represented will
experience reduced engagement. Finding talent within diverse pools is limited without
equitable hiring practices. Ensuring that all employees can access the same resources and
opportunities, regardless of race, gender, or other characteristics is critical to successful
business. Ensuring that the leadership team is representative of the same DEI principles will
drive additional value in all aspects that have been mentioned earlier in this article.

www.jigsawinteractive.com 4
Digital Effects on DEI

Technology, the digital transformation, and a remote workforce have been

empowering people from all over the world to join, compete, and contribute
to the success of organizations. When technology and a remote workforce
come together, it will influence diversity, equity, and inclusion. The primary
consequence is the loss of face-to-face interaction, resulting in an inability
to identify or understand cultural and linguistic differences.

This loss of face-to-face interaction can cause a lack of collaboration

between employees.... And this to replace the following sentence -
Because there is no way to determine if employees are distracted or falling
behind when working remotely, organizations need to ensure they
implement a process for continual and real-time communications.

These challenges can be overcome by using technology designed for

virtual face to face communications. Virtual collaboration where teams see
each other, work and problem solve together and where the value of
diversity can easily bridge the issues around cultural, linguistic,
collaboration and the overall need to be part of something.

www.jigsawinteractive.com 5
Virtual instructor led training (VILT) is another way that team building, collaboration and
learning can easily build the bridges for inclusion. Because there are many web
conferencing systems available, companies need to vet the technology they choose for this
so they optimize the value of their team. Solutions like Jigsaw Interactive are built
specifically for teams to learn, collaborate and engage.

The digital transformation and a remote workforce are exciting, but they can have some
negative consequences. Digital transformation has created the need for some people to
work outside of their specific disciplines, which has lead to the blurring of traditional
boundaries found in occupations. Professionals may need to have skills beyond their craft,
allowing them to be more integrated into teams so they can better collaborate with people
from different backgrounds. It is crucial that leadership teams build business strategies that
include DEI, digital transformation, changing and remote workforces, virtual work and
training environments.

Technology will continue to be a powerful force for companies to implement DEI practices
and diversify their workforce. Regions that lack diversity, can use technology to ensure their
workforce includes diverse and remote team members. This opens a new talent pool for
these organizations.

Diversity, equity, and inclusion are essential components of creating a diverse workforce. It's
not just about hiring people from different backgrounds or cultures, but about building an
inclusive culture where everyone is ensured the same opportunities for professional
development and advancement.

It includes ensuring all employees feel respected, appreciated and an integral part of the
team. The concept of diversity has long played a part in society, but it is just recently being
acknowledged as an essential aspect of workplace culture and business success.

www.jigsawinteractive.com 6
DIVERSITY, EQUITY, AND
INCLUSION (DEI) IN
LEADERSHIP

www.jigsawinteractive.com