From Pinterest to Apple companies across the nation are scrambling to improve their diversity results.  But diversity alone isn’t the answer to the problem.  Solely focusing on boosting these statistics shows that companies aren’t even aware of the original problem.  The solution is inclusion.  But first, businesses big and small need to understand the issue at hand.

Uber chased diversity and worked hard to bring engineers of color on board.  One of those engineers, Joseph Thomas, took his own life just 5 months after starting with the controversial ride-sharing service.  The reason?  The workplace culture.  Richard Richardson, the lawyer representing Thomas’ widow, told USA Today, “There is no real black leadership at Uber to help a young African-American employee.  I don’t think Uber cares about things like that.”

Thomas’ suicide and overall experience at Uber reveal a greater problem plaguing not only startups but more established companies as well.  Tata Consultancy Services Ltd. and Yahoo! Inc. are currently embroiled in high-profile discrimination lawsuits.  And Google spent most of August at the center of a massive controversy after a white male employee mass distributed an anti-diversity memo to the entire staff.  One could say these are the results when companies, and whole industries, focus on boosting a figure vs. changing an environment.  Diversity has become nothing more than a number to share in annual reports—a box to check on a corporate to-do list.  But it’s inclusion that companies should focus on.

What is inclusion?

Inclusion is about more than the gender or ethnic makeup of your staff.  It’s about your company culture.  Is every employee valued equally?  Are they all respected and supported?  Have you set up the right conditions for every employee to contribute, succeed, develop, and fulfill their potential?  Inclusion isn’t a number; it’s a way of life.  Diversity is about filling slots and creating a mixture.  Inclusion is about what happens to those employees once they’ve filled those slots.

For Joseph Thomas, his skills and educational background were constantly called into question—to the point that he lost self-confidence.  Despite gaining access to one of the most competitive and successful startups in America, he still felt he wasn’t good enough.  A culture of inclusion could have helped avoid this.

The benefits of inclusion

Deutsche Bank is one of the Top 50 employers for women in the United States.  Bayer was recently named one of the Top 10 companies for Asian Americans.  And both Ford Motor Company and Johnson & Johnson have made DiversityInc’s Top 50 list an astounding 11 times.  Surely, this type of national recognition is helping them attract top talent and stay ahead of the pack.  But creating a culture of inclusion offers more than accolades.

McKinsey & Company reports that gender-diverse companies outperform their rivals by 15%.  Ethnically diverse companies push the bar even higher, outperforming competitors by 35%.  Inclusion is intrinsically linked with innovation.  Diverse perspectives help companies discover new solutions to old problems and become leaders in their respective industries.

“Diversity and inclusion are quite simply the right thing to do,” writes PricewaterhouseCoopers’s Dennis Nally.  He cites that women are 60% of the nation’s college grads but only 3% of America’s corporate leaders.  PwC has been a vocal supporter of HeForShe, a UN initiative created to foster support for gender equality from 1 billion boys and men.

Aside from the financial and moral implications, inclusion is the only way to move forward.  Every business, inclusive of your direct competitors, has a diversity and inclusion plan in place or on the horizon.  There’s power in creating an inclusive environment, and those who refuse will be left behind.  Inclusive environments ensure the talent pool stays deep and that everyone is constantly learning and evolving in the workplace.  An inclusive company stands to gain nothing but positive results and enhancements.

How to create an inclusive environment

Understanding the importance of inclusion is the first step but it takes several more to make it a reality.  While there’s no general guide on inclusion, as every company’s needs are different, there are some common ways to get started.

• Conduct an assessment: Is your staff diverse? If it’s not, what are the barriers to changing that?  You may need to reconsider your recruitment efforts.  For example, are you only sourcing talent from educational institutions or job pools that lack diversity?  And if your staff is diverse, what programs or initiatives do you have in place to support their transition and development in your company? Perhaps you’ve felt that standard company procedure was a good fit for everyone.  Maybe you have something in place that just isn’t working.  This is the time to figure it out.
• Create an action plan: Inclusion only works if there’s a clear plan of action, and everyone understands it, including senior leadership. Everyone plays a part, no matter how big or small their role is.  Whether you opt to bring in a third party for training or you bring in a full-time specialist, make sure you understand the endgame and how to get there.
• Practice inclusion everywhere: One of the biggest mistakes companies make is focusing on inclusion in specific departments or job levels. This is a company-wide effort.  Veteran employees can benefit from this level of support just as much as rookies.  The HR team needs this as much as the product development team.  There should never be exclusion in inclusion.
• Focus on teamwork: General team-building is important, but it’s crucial that people from different departments, genders, and ethnic backgrounds come together on various projects. The more you can avoid creating silos within your organization, the more collaborative, and therefore inclusive, the workplace will become.
• Don’t forget the middle: Many companies go after senior leadership and entry-level employees, concerning inclusion. While their buy-in is important, it’s the leaders in the middle ranks that can often slow progress.  Make sure they’re an active part of the process, too.  For inclusion to become your company’s reality, everyone must play.

Diversity is still important, but it’s only half the battle.  Inclusion is the way to ensure everyone has a seat at the table and serves a greater purpose.