Inclusion and diversity are two essential pillars for creating a thriving work environment.

Adopting this theory and acknowledging what it takes to create this environment requires a lot from those in leadership. 

As Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic said in Business Insider, “Culture is primarily the results of the leader’s values.” If you are thinking about building an inclusive environment that nurtures diversity, you have to adopt certain traits as a leader. 

In this article, we have listed some traits of inclusive leaders that are key to promoting diversity in the workspace. 

Humility

First comes humility; when leaders promote and accept different opinions, perspectives, and ideas, a business becomes ideal for achieving the desired objectives.

It is important to set aside the ego and remain humble, being a leader does not mean you have all the answers. Having a leader that welcomes difference is more likely to give their team a comfortable and expressive environment. 

Curiosity

Curiosity drives you to meet new people and learn about their perspectives. An organization having such a leader can prosper in leaps and bounds. 

Curious leaders are less likely to hire people with similar thinking and ideology and are open to working with someone who can bring diverse ideas to the table. According to a 2015 PwC survey published in the Harvard Business Review, over a thousand CEOs cited curiosity as a favorable leadership trait that becomes key in especially difficult times.

Collaboration

Similar to humility, collaboration involves setting the ego aside. Leaders who make decisions without considering other input may be more likely to miss important details. If you choose to work in collaboration with your team, you open the door for those who would not have spoken up otherwise.

Leaders who choose to have diverse voices in their team are more likely to have more mature and well-analyzed decisions. Regardless of the seniority level and position, if you want to have an inclusive and diverse environment, start working in collaboration with your team. 

Courage

A leader can be curious, humble, and collaborative, but it also takes guts to change deep-rooted traditions and cultures in the business world. Implementing change may not be easily accepted across the organization and that’s when leaders can shine. 

To create a diverse yet inclusive culture, we need courageous leaders who are willing to fight for positive change within the organization. 

Cultural and Emotional Intelligence

To foster an inclusive environment, empathy is a significant trait. A leader who wants to be truly inclusive must listen and understand the difference of perspectives. Empathy demands you move beyond your own self and experiences to actively listen and consider others’ experiences as well. 

Every person maintains their individuality in life, even with shared experiences, so it is important to navigate your team with the acknowledgment of different perspectives and opinions.

Insightful

A self-aware leader fosters inclusivity when they can recognize their own privilege or bias. Seek insight into the type of person you are now and what gaps you may have to become the person you want to be.

As GiANT Worldwide promotes, knowing yourself is a tool that will set you up for success in life and aid you in becoming a leader that people want to follow.

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Braindom’s Solution

Are you interested in creating an inclusive workplace environment but not sure where to start? At Braindom, we are a team of highly professional and experienced experts who can equip you with all the necessary tools that could take your organization to the top:

1. Educate yourself and explore the tools and videos provided by GiANT WorldWide or
2. Schedule a call and we will create a customized and personalized roadmap for your business!

Gone are the days of flipping through a newspaper to find your next dream job. Instead, technology has forced companies to look for top talent online on job boards and social media. 

The rapid rise in technology has played an influential role in shaping how we work and how employees are hired. From an increasing shift to remote work (in large part due to the COVID-19 pandemic) to a greater push for prospective employees seeking workplace balance, these changes have inevitably impacted hiring trends today.

In this article, you’ll learn about 4 ways hiring trends have changed over time so you can be more aware of how to effectively hire top talent in today’s world.

Increase In Temporary, Part-Time, And Gig Economy Work

The traditional 9 to 5 full-time work model has long been around for decades. However, the increase in employees seeking more work-life balance and flexibility has increased the number of temporary, part-time, and gig economy roles in the workplace.

Companies, rather than hiring a full-time employee with the hopes of that individual staying and growing within the company are slowly disappearing. This is again due to more and more people wanting a balanced career that fits into their lifestyle.

Rise In Remote Interviewing

Just a few decades ago, it was nearly expected that job interviews be conducted in person.  However, due to the rapid shift in remote work, remote interviewing has skyrocketed. 

Remote interviewing has its pros and cons in terms of making an effective hiring decision. There’s no denying remote interviewing is easier for candidates to simply log in rather than dressing up and traveling to the in-person interview. Likewise, remote interviewing makes it more efficient for the company to interview more candidates for the same position.

However, remote interviewing is not foolproof. Rather than having one (maybe two) in-person interviews for a position, companies often schedule at least 2 to 3 remote interviews for a prospective candidate (i.e. a short call with the hiring representative, an interview with the supervisor or manager, potential calls with coworkers/ current employees). 

Data-Driven Hiring Decisions

Companies are constantly seeking the right candidates to not just be qualified for a specific job, but also likely stick around and grow within the company.

High employee turnover rates not only send a bad message to prospective employees applying to the company but constantly hiring new talent is time-consuming and costly.

Therefore, to help make better hiring decisions, companies have shifted to using data analytics to make better hiring decisions. 

For instance, a company can track how long it took an individual to complete an application. If it took an individual a long time to complete their application in one session, this likely means the person is passionate about the role and would likely stay longer with the company if they got the job.

However, if a person quickly copies and pastes generic prompts into an application and completed it in only a few minutes, data analytics will be able to pick up on this person who didn’t spend quality time filling out the application.

Use Of Artificial Intelligence 

If you have a highly desirable position with hundreds of thousands of candidates applying for the same role, it can be time-consuming for someone to go through each and every application. Not to mention, if multiple people went through the submitted applications, this leaves room for bias among individuals (i.e. one person may have liked an application vs. another discarded the same application).

Therefore, the use of artificial intelligence not only helps narrow out thousands of applications to find the right potential candidates for the role. But, artificial intelligence is uniform. This means that as long as you set the same criteria for all submitted applications, there is no human bias in terms of narrowing down the initial applications submitted. 

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With these 4 trends we’ve highlighted, you’ve gained some insight into how you can effectively attract top talent for your organization today.

Another tool to attract and retain employees are workplace benefits. If you are seeking guidance in this realm, feel free to schedule a call with us and discuss your options.

Inclusion and diversity are not the same things. 

Diversity is being invited to the party. Inclusion is being asked to dance.

– American activist Verna Myers.

The workplace of the (near) future will be more diverse, inclusive, and representative of society. Not because it is trending, but because the world is changing and affecting the workplace. 

With the use of remote work devices and software, companies can now adjust their remote work policies. As a result, companies are accepting a wider pool of candidates to attract the best talent and industry specialists no matter where they live. 

Diversity fuels innovation and creativity leads to better financial performance and is an opportunity to unite people with all their differences. Diversity of candidates is one step in the right direction, the next is to ensure the company has inclusive practices to support their employees.

Diversity and inclusion are still barriers to progress in many workplaces however, in the coming years, it is predicted to become one of the top priorities for companies. In fact, within a year (September 2019-September 2020) Indeed’s job postings related to diversity and inclusion rose by about 56%.

If you’re interested in training tailored to your situation, schedule a call with us! If you want to learn more about bringing a positive change to the workplace, view our “Self-Learning” page for resources provided by GiANT Worldwide.

Technology has become essential for business success, even more now that the COVID-19 pandemic has uncovered remote work possibilities.

Innovative technology has helped workers become more efficient, redefining our work settings, communication styles, and processes. 

Technology allows employees in an organization to focus on creativity, innovation, lateral thinking, intuition, judgment, and collaboration.

With the constant evolution of workplace trends and business best practices, technology has fully integrated into nearly every aspect of consumers’ lives and business operations. 

Top 5 Benefits of Technology in the Workplace 

1. Technology simplifies redundancies and accelerates processes
2. Work anywhere – Tap into the non-local talent
3. Overhead cost savings on a physical location and equipment
4. Better serve customers
5. High employee productivity and satisfaction

Unfortunately, the many benefits can lead organizations to focus on technology implementation obsessively. For technology to sustainably create a competitive advantage, it must be paired with a strong people culture.

To ensure technology adds to people-centric company culture, it requires a foundation of solid communication, feedback collection, removing biases, and closing process gaps. 

Currently, the whole world is going through one of the toughest economic crises. Covid-19 has not only disrupted the health of people but their businesses as well.

In times like these, businesses demand innovation from the organizational leaders. Success awaits those leaders who assess the situation, adapt, and pivot their businesses.

As Charles Darwin says, “It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent that survives. It is the one that is most adaptable to change”.

Regardless of the scale of change, the right person always respond to change by adapting well.

Here, we’ll discuss why leaders need to introduce innovation, lead with the heart, and act with the mind.

Leaders should bring innovation

In times like these, when every business is required to adapt and pivot, innovation is the only way forward. Organizational leadership is the one responsible for bringing innovation to their businesses.

A company’s response to the current crisis should be handle by innovating and adopting a fresh solution that can enable the resumption of services. Let’s assume a food chain is running out of business due to Covid-19. To provide stability to the business, leadership should design a process that would enable the consumers to order online.

To learn how to adapt and innovate, leaders can ask for professional guidiance about innovation and leading an organization in a crisis.

Leaders need to lead with the heart

Inarguably, compassion is the need of the hour. With businesses going down, a huge number of employees are laid off from their jobs or furloughed. They are the ones who need confidence and support from the leadership.

To manage such a crisis effectively, leaders need to lead with the heart. If a company seek high-performance from its employees, leaders should be more understanding of individual personal challenges and how to create a safe place for them to feel liberated. It’s undeniable that heart-led leadership builds trust and becomes the leader worth following. Such companies that thrive on heart-led leadership receive optimal performance from their employees.

Now is the time that leaders should learn the art of leading with the heart first and use their head for reasoning. Today, businesses need new perspectives to sustain in the current global economy.

Act with the mind

Today, new normals are replacing traditional working models. The perfect blend of leading with the heart & acting with the mind is the need of the hour. Leaders shouldn’t only be sincerely empathetic and compassionate; they also need to reason and act on organizational culture and values. This combination would help them support their employees and simultaneously protect the organization’s financial performance.

Being compassionate and rational enables the leadership to liberate its employees and thrive in a crisis.

Understandably, the crisis like the one we’re going through now is new to the majority of organizational leaders around the world. Hence, they need training from experts to learn the art of innovating in a crisis, leading with the heart and simultaneously acting ethically to achieve the organization vision and meaningful impact to the community.

How does an organization maintain their enthusiasm during a storm of endless uncertainties?

The attitude and enthusiasm to grow the organization to serve more people will inspire and excite individual to contribute for the greater good.

Once we accept our challenges and tackle it with enthusiasm and gratitude for the opportunity, the mindset shifts from survivor mode to thrive mode. The vision and community impact becomes clearer and more defined when the leadership team is in a thriving mode. Below are 3 examples of how the leadership can help the organization be in thrive mode during this storm.

1. Employers should adjust their communication and leadership style to help the team be aware of their natural tendencies under stress. With the overall awareness of the teams pattern, the leadership team will know how to navigate through and know when the provide support and challenge. As we become more aware of our surroundings, we also become more intentional with our actions, and reactions.

2. By showing empathy and compassion for individuals within the organization, employees will feel valued as a person and will be more productive. During this current environment, employees want to know that there are procedures in place and resources available to maintain the safety of their health and their family’s health.

3. Everyone faces different challenges when working from home, and we want to liberate our team to be there for their family and the community the organization serves. Leadership team can help alleviate the anxiety by clarifying the responsibilities and role of each team member.

The difference between a thriving and surviving team is influenced by the leadership team overseeing the team or organization.

Every year, organizations spend millions in budget to conduct leadership development sessions & training classes. Even after such huge spendings, they fail to achieve effective results. Have you ever wondered what the possible solution could be to achieve maximum effectiveness out of leadership development programs? Leadership development is more effective when it’s internal development.

According to Harvard Business Review, leadership development is not developing leaders because:

• Leadership development programs are not practical and don’t activate the emotional circuits inside participants’ minds
• Leadership development programs don’t create self-awareness in participants
• The organizations send their employees to training programs, but don’t place development into its wider & systematic context
• Let’s find out what makes leadership development programs more effective.

Leadership Development Is More Effective When It’s The Internal Development

Various comprehensive research studies have identified the reasons behind the ineffectiveness of leadership development programs. The key missing component in leadership development programs is the internal development of participants. Employees translate themselves into great leaders when they’ve self-awareness, and they understand their natural behaviors & responses.

Instead of delivering lectures from set curricula, trainers should adopt a practical approach. Leadership training programs prove more effective when focused on building emotional intelligence in employees.

Creating Self-Awareness In Employees Must Be A Part Of Leadership Development Programs

Organizations have seen huge impacts of building & developing emotional intelligence in their employees. Rather than using conventional leadership development programs to introduce leadership qualities in employees, you should use a different approach.

Your leadership development program should train employees to understand themselves. When they have self-awareness of their natural responses & behaviors, they perform efficiently & effectively. So make sure you spend your leadership development budget in the right direction.

Leadership Development Programs Should Promote Individual Skill Development

Individual skill development & building self-awareness should be at the forefront of any leadership development program. The program should teach how to understand yourself in the first place and how to be mindful of yourself. Introducing a feedback system can play an important role, as well. It would help participants identify their skills & potentialities. To get the highest possible efficacy from a leadership development program, create self-awareness in your employees.

Liberated Leadership Development Programs

Various studies prove that liberated leadership development programs evolve employees into a great workforce and leaders as well. When you free them from confinement, they strive to take the best actions. As a result, the organization attains huge heights of success, and employees evolve quickly and become effective leaders.

Ensure that managers or trainers share a vision and let the participants decide what is best for the company. Communicate respect with them and make sure they have complete self-awareness.

Are you looking to hire the best talent pool for your organization? If yes, then you should leverage the power of employee benefits to recruit and retain quality employees.

Often, small businesses or startups don’t have a huge budget, so they can’t offer high salaries. A high salary alone cannot help you to recruit and retain quality employees. Because even if you offer an impressive salary, you won’t be able to hook the employee for too long. Whenever an employee finds a position that offers him/her employee benefits to create a balance between work & life, he/she immediately grabs the opportunity.

Why should you offer employee benefits?

Smart employees always seek job opportunities that enable them to create a healthy work-life balance. If you want to attract smart & efficient employees for your organization, then offering employee benefits should be at the forefront of your recruiting process.

When you offer employee benefits like paid leaves, health insurance, retirement plans, and maternity leaves, then you actually target the smartest pool of job seekers. Smart working people know that work-life balance is critical to their productivity, and they always go after jobs with employee benefits. It assures them that they won’t be paying anything to insurance companies and they have a healthy retirement plan as well. It adds to their loyalty for the organization, and their productivity improves.

How to leverage employee benefits to recruit and retain quality employees?

Follow the below principles to attract the smartest talent pool for vacant positions in your organization:

• Mention employee benefits in your job posting

Don’t be too late to start the employee benefits conversation with the job seekers. The best way is to mention the employee benefits offering in your job posting/advertisement.

Tell them why your business’ employee benefits are better than others. Mention all kinds of employee benefits and try to offer both traditional & non-traditional benefits.

• Offer a variety of employee benefits

If you want to use employee benefits as a recruiting tool, then include a wide variety of employee benefits to your business’ offerings. Try to create a mix of traditional & non-traditional employee benefits. Apart from traditional employee benefits like health insurance & annual paid leaves, introduce some non-traditional employee benefits too.

Flexible working hours, permission to work remotely, wellness support, learning & development sessions, and paid time off for volunteer work. 

Non-traditional employee benefits provide a better work-life balance and help you attract, recruit and retain quality employees.

Quality employees mean higher productivity & low overturn rate

By offering employee benefits, you can recruit and retain quality employees. This impacts your employees’ work-life balance, and they feel happier coming to the work. Consequently, your organization gets higher productivity and a lower overturn rate.

The bottom line Offering a variety & quality of employee benefits can make a difference between attracting & retaining a highly talented pool of employees. However, make sure that you’re offering a market competitive salary package as well.

People seek guidance from leadership during difficult times, especially with the current events of a global pandemic and the peaceful march to fight for equality, fairness, and justice. At the workplace, our leadership team has a strong influence to build and nurture diverse and inclusive teams, to be more collaborative and make impactful change together. 

Some companies have Employee Resource Groups (ERG) to educate and bring awareness of different cultural backgrounds, such as African American, Asian Pacific Islander, LGBTQ, Veterans, etc. These groups are driven by employees wanting to make a difference and build a community of support for personal and professional growth at the workplace. They bring awareness of their cultural background, barriers, and common biases they face, internally and externally. Although the groups may be employee-driven, the leadership team has an influence to provide support and encourage more diverse collaboration amongst their peers and within the organization. 

When we focus on personal development to understand our natural tendencies and unconscious biases, we become more aware of how to be intentional and create a trusting and liberating environment. As various ERGs share their barriers and support to each other for career advancement, the leadership team can be more conscious in their decision-making process and be aware of their unconscious biases.

Although equality and fairness is part of a company’s culture and value, it is the leadership team that will determine how equality and fairness is portrayed to their employees. It is okay for a company to say, ‘our company’s culture and value is not a good fit for you.’ 

By being aware of our natural tendencies and being more intentional with our actions and reactions, it will contribute to an impactful change for the individual, not only at the workplace, but also in their personal life.

Do you know companies with a self-care culture are more likely to experience prosperity & employee engagement? The question is how self-care culture is created in an organization. Well, the short answer is “leadership can foster a self-care culture” because leadership and self-care culture are directly linked.

Building a certain culture in any organization always starts with developing a certain environment. This includes holding yourself accountable as a leader to create an environment and foster a culture. Over time, with your experience, skills, and continuous effort, you can retain & attract a talent pool whose values align with yours.

However, there are certain steps that you need to take as a leader to influence your organization’s culture and foster a self-care culture. Let’s look into these steps.

• Leaders should be self-aware

The first & foremost requirement is that leaders should be self-aware of their emotions and trigger moments. When leaders have self-awareness, they have a huge amount of understanding, wisdom, and emotional intelligence. Self-awareness enables leaders to engage themselves selves investing in others (employees).

Self-aware leaders communicate more effectively with their employees and therefore tend to transform the environment. Self-aware leaders create a safe work environment and encourage employees to make mistakes and learn from them, which eventually helps employees to become a better person & professional.

• Leaders should lead by examples

Effective leaders always lead by examples, not by explanations. As a leader, you’re responsible for fostering a self-care culture in your organization. One way to do this is to introduce an environment of self-care in your workplace—set examples for your employees to follow. Adopt self-care strategies and effectively perform them at your workplace. If you’re an effective leader and perform those self-care practices creatively, then your employees will learn and adapt as well.

Leadership and self-care culture are directly linked to each other.

Some practices include:

• Encouraging your employees to take lunch breaks away from their desks.
• Give them enough time to visit a nearby café alone or with their colleagues so they can divert their minds from work for a little time.
• Encourage staff to talk short breaks during the whole day to keep their mind & body refreshed.
• Teach self-care to your employees

When leadership is aware of the importance of self-care, it is more likely that employees will feel secure & safe because leadership and self-care culture are directly linked to each other. It all links to building an environment where employees can practice self-care. One way to foster a self-care culture is by sharing self-care tips with your employees. Leaders should share their personal self-care practices and the following as well.

• Encourage employees to take time for activities they enjoy.
• Enforce them to stay hydrated throughout the day and ask them to eat their meals on time.
• Teach them the importance of incorporating physical activity into their lives – set up a gym in your company as well.
• Encourage them to be more open and share their feelings with a friend whenever they feel overwhelmed and anxious.

Incorporate mental health sessions in their workweek or month.