The tangible and intangible benefits of DI&B (diversity, inclusion and belonging) are immense and as brands compete to attract and hire high-performing talent, DI&B becomes a game-changer for them. It helps to develop highly solid and influential brands that stand out in the ecosystem However, many Indian brands struggle to design and implement DI&B policies. A recent study by Indeed revealed that over 70% of Indian companies do not have formal DI&B policies. Surprisingly, it is not the metro cities – Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, and Bangalore – that lead on DI&B awareness; it is, in fact, tier 2 cities and upcoming hubs Chandigarh and Ahmedabad. More than 73% of employees across the country wish to work at organizations that actively promote DI&B initiatives, making a strong case for brands to embrace the same if they want to become strong hubs for talent and business.

Psychological safety is “a shared belief held by members of a team” (Edmonson, 1999, p. 350).

Psychological safety at work talks about individuals being authentic and comfortable to put forth their ideas and views without being judged or reprimanded for sharing their thoughts. It is an unsaid expectation and culture driving element, wherein people do feel free to think out loudly while their thoughts are still in the formative stage. It speaks volumes of the boundaries drawn by the leaders, which says that they value every individual’s view, authenticity and thoughts as they are. It is an important aspect of Employer Branding to drive authenticity.

Harbouring psychological safety is important to Indeed and they want to drive the message that the factors that positively impact psychological safety and allow to express ideas need to be given importance so that the future and work is better work for all. To further their commitment in this space, Indeed has issued a new report that shed light on significant insights.

It says that employees facing fear due to various reasons, could adversely affect psychological safety. Fear of burnout (34 percent) and fear of failure (25 percent) are dominant among employees in psychologically unsafe workplaces. Various unconscious biases play a huge role, common ones being gender, sexual orientation, religion, caste and ethnicity. Additionally, any form of disabilities also add a toll to hampering psychological safety – given that the employees are facing any kind of bias. Additionally, 79% of the employees report that they are unable to be their authentic self. In order to neglect and avoid the judgement, they assume fake personalities to ‘fit in; and be ‘likeable’.

Hence it is all the more important that the companies put in effort to create a creative, psychologically safe and a motivating environment for their employees. The HR Fraternity supports this notion and puts forth a very interesting equation,

Safe space = better retention and higher productivity and higher performance.

Organizations must align their Brand Strategy with their Corporate Diversity, Inclusion and Belonging Initiatives

 The ideas of psychological safety and creating a safe space are very closely linked to the root of driving diversity, inclusion, equity and belongingness. With these becoming the foundation for businesses to harbour authenticity and the upcoming dynamic age, the criticality of building a robust ecosystem of DI&B initiatives is more than ever.

Alignment of values of the brand that an organisation wishes to build from DEI perspective is very important. The world is shrinking of what is external and internal. Leadership must sign up, especially with a flowing culture from the top to down – subscribing to the diversity initiative. The actions must also be deep enough to ensure commitment to the cause. Reemphasizing the point on how a company’s DEI message and Brand value must be in sync.

Employer Branding to Drive Commitment and Foster Growth

Employer branding during the very high points in the Employee life cycle, like, onboarding / joining experience play a crucial role. When companies go the way of campus recruitment and interview and hire women before men, they get the tag of ‘Diversity recruits’, which negatively affects the employer branding. Another such touchpoint is during promotions, when women aren’t awarded with higher and meaningful promotions. Exiting the company for better opportunities also speaks a lot of the employer branding and the atmosphere the company is creating for their employees.

Psychological safety, trust and authenticity can be driven in a lot of ways. The leadership team plays a key role and can positively influence employees to be motivated at their job, provide a sense of security at work, and improve relationships with other peers or colleagues, as per the Indeed report.

As remarked earlier, education is the fore front runner in the list of initiatives to drive and inculcate sensitivity training. Trainings, Values based workshop with caselets are also effective in bringing a difference in the perception. Individuals should also focus on having a lot of allies in their workplace, have the courage to call out like insensitive jokes, like on the physical attributes or some section of the society. We, as a society, need to introspect and enable others to walk on the same path.

Unawareness of Biases will bog down the Future of Companies

Unconscious biases are the biggest challenge. People do find it difficult and are often hesitant to put into practice. Given the recent world changing events, which has drastically impacted our businesses and professional working styles, has further brought upon new kinds of biases. One such bias is the proximity biases in the Hybrid World of Business. People need to keep updating themselves and also keep introspecting as to what one feels towards these biases.

The foremost step to ensure psychological safety and foster authenticity is Education. Companies also need to drive this for the purpose of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). However, one must note that it is not only CSR that matters. There are organisations who would want people to think and look back at their current organisation as a heliocentric place where they would like to go back to work every single day.

Additionally, the kinds of industries also add on to the difficulty of bringing sensitivity. In a manufacturing industry, it is difficult to bring diversity. Together, we need to push and bring this change. Leaders and managers need to understand the issue we are dealing with at hand and how to deal with it.

Stop, Reflect and Introspect: One of the many Pandemic Lessons

Pandemic helped organisations understand and prioritise their core interest and define what matters most to them. People made certain choices and that started reflecting in the workplace.  This persists across the world. It is ingrained in organisation policies. Diversity is not only about good hiring practice. It is more importantly about how the rest of the population feels connected with the diverse group. The key is to dream aloud! Unless one speaks-up things won’t change.

There is a sea of change. Resistance in diversity hiring has gone down in several firms. At Persistent, there is a WINGS program for women wanting to get back after a career break, offering them a much optimistic hybrid model.

In a nutshell, to drive authenticity in Employer Branding, an organisation has to see the bigger and deeper picture. The roots of psychological safety are embedded in the culture of the organisation and how they view the employees and in turn how employees view each other.