Improving Workplace Inclusivity

Same Promotion. Two Different Worlds. Story 1: Arjun gets promoted. He calls his wife, parents, and mentor. They cheer. His boss pats his back—“Next stop, leadership!” He updates LinkedIn, receives 350 likes. Celebration dinner is booked. He’s already thinking of the next step. He feels seen. Story 2: Naina gets promoted. She pauses. Her first thought? “How will I manage the kids’ pickup now?” Second thought—“I’ll need help with the in-laws’ appointments.” She shares the news at home. Mixed reactions. "Won’t it get too hectic?” “Are you sure you want this?” She updates LinkedIn two weeks later. The post is carefully worded—not “I’m proud to share” but “Grateful for the opportunity.” She celebrates quietly—between wrapping up a meeting and preparing dinner. She feels proud… and a little guilty. Same designation. Same responsibilities. But the emotional cost? Unequal. Because for many women, each step up at work requires two steps of negotiation at home. Not just with others—but often, with themselves. Let’s rewrite this narrative. Let’s stop expecting women to manage success. Let’s start allowing them to own it.

If #diversity, #equity, and #inclusion practitioners want to get ahead of anti-DEI backlash, we have to address an elephant in the room: no two people in the same workplace perceive their workplace the same way. I see this every time I work with client organizations. When asked to describe their own experience with the workplace and its DEI strengths and challenges, I hear things like: 😊 "I've never experienced any discrimination or mistreatment; our leaders' commitment is strong." 🤨 "I had a good time in one department, but after transferring departments I started experiencing explicit ableist comments under my new manager." 🙁 "I've never had anything egregious happen, but I've always felt less respected by my team members because of my race." Who's right? Turns out, all of them. It starts to get messy because everyone inevitably generalizes their own personal experiences into their perception of the workplace as a whole; three people might accordingly describe their workplace as a "meritocracy without discrimination," an "inconsistently inclusive workplace dependent on manager," or "a subtly racist environment." And when people are confronted with other experiences of the workplace that DIFFER from their own, they often take it personally. I've seen leaders bristle at the implication that their own experience was "wrong," or get defensive in expectation they will be accused of lacking awareness. It's exactly this defensiveness that lays the foundation for misunderstanding, polarization, and yes—anti-DEI misinformation—to spread in an organization. How do we mitigate it? In my own work, I've found that these simple steps go a long way. 1. Validate everyone's experience. Saying outright that everyone's personal experience is "correct" for themselves might seem too obvious, but it plays a powerful role in helping everyone feel respected and taken seriously. Reality is not a question of "who is right"—it's the messy summation of everyone's lived experience, good or bad. 2. Use data to create a shared baseline. Gathering data by organizational and social demographics allows us to make statements like, "the average perception of team respect is 70% in Engineering, but only 30% in Sales," or "perception of fair decision making processes is 90% for white men, but only 40% for Black women." This establishes a shared reality, a baseline for any effective DEI work. 3. Make it clear that problem-solving involves—and requires—everyone. The goal of DEI work is to achieve positive outcomes for everyone. Those with already positive experiences? Their insights help us know what we're aiming for. Those with the most negative? Their insights help us learn what's broken. The more we communicate that collective effort benefits the collective, rather than shaming or dismissing those at the margins, the more we can unite people around DEI and beat the backlash.

Inclusion isn’t a one-time initiative or a single program—it’s a continuous commitment that must be embedded across every stage of the employee lifecycle. By taking deliberate steps, organizations can create workplaces where all employees feel valued, respected, and empowered to succeed. Here’s how we can make a meaningful impact at each stage: 1. Attract Build inclusive employer branding and equitable hiring practices. Ensure job postings use inclusive language and focus on skills rather than unnecessary credentials. Broaden recruitment pipelines by partnering with diverse professional organizations, schools, and networks. Showcase your commitment to inclusion in external messaging with employee stories that reflect diversity. 2. Recruit Eliminate bias and promote fair candidate evaluation. Use structured interviews and standardized evaluation rubrics to reduce bias. Train recruiters and hiring managers on unconscious bias and inclusive hiring practices. Implement blind resume reviews or AI tools to focus on qualifications, not identifiers. 3. Onboard Create an inclusive onboarding experience. Design onboarding materials that reflect a diverse workplace culture. Pair new hires with mentors or buddies from Employee Resource Groups (ERGs) to foster belonging. Offer inclusion training early to set the tone for inclusivity from day one. 4. Develop Provide equitable opportunities for growth. Ensure leadership programs and career development resources are accessible to underrepresented employees. Regularly review training, mentorship, and promotion programs to address any disparities. Offer specific development opportunities, such as allyship training or workshops on cultural competency. 5. Engage Foster a culture of inclusion. Actively listen to employee feedback through pulse surveys, focus groups, and open forums. Support ERGs and create platforms for marginalized voices to influence organizational policies. Recognize and celebrate diverse perspectives, cultures, and contributions in the workplace. 6. Retain Address barriers to equity and belonging. Conduct pay equity audits and address discrepancies to ensure fairness. Create flexible policies that accommodate diverse needs, including caregiving responsibilities, religious practices, and accessibility. Provide regular inclusion updates to build trust and demonstrate progress. 7. Offboard Learn and grow from employee transitions. Use exit interviews to uncover potential inequities and areas for improvement. Analyze trends in attrition to identify and address any patterns of exclusion or bias. Maintain relationships with alumni and invite them to stay engaged through inclusive networks. Embedding inclusion across the employee lifecycle is not just the right thing to do—it’s a strategic imperative that drives innovation, engagement, and organizational success. By making these steps intentional, companies can create environments where everyone can thrive.

50% of people believe that gender equality has gone far enough. This stat never fails to shock me, given the clear inequality that still exists in the world. But here’s the thing: so much of this sentiment isn’t based on facts. It’s built on emotions. The emotions of men feeling displaced. The emotions of both men and women feeling as if society isn’t working for them. The feeling of things being taken, not given. When you look at the facts, the picture is very different: 👎 In the UK, 249,000 mothers of under-4s left work in 2023 due to childcare struggles (The Guardian) 👎 Globally, women were 14% less likely than men to be promoted in 2024, even with the same performance (CultureAmp) 👎 In 2024, women in the UK were 7x more likely than men to be out of work because of unpaid caring. 1.46m women are excluded from paid work (TUC) 👎 Women held 35.3% of senior leadership roles in the FTSE 350 in 2024, but over 60% of new appointments still went to men. 7% of FTSE CEOs are women. (FTSE Women Leaders Review) 👎 Across decades of VC funding, all-female founding teams received just 2.3% of capital. Mixed-gender teams ~10.4%. The rest went to all-male teams (Harvard Kennedy School) 👎 In the UK, 1 in 3 women said their career had been affected by sexual harassment at work in 2023 (People Management) These aren’t isolated numbers. They show a system that was never designed for women, one that still forces too many out, holds too many back, and diminishes too many careers. When a significant portion of the population can’t fully participate or progress, businesses lose talent, economies lose growth, and society loses resilience. Gender equality isn’t about women versus men. It’s about building systems that unlock everyone’s potential. When that happens, everyone wins: from individual careers, to company performance, to global competitiveness. When we're surrounded by media that focuses on emotions, not facts, we need to remind ourselves of the reality. #GenderEquality

For generations, women have been told that patience, perseverance, hard work and determination would pay off, that each passing year would bring them closer to earning what men do. But the latest numbers suggest that promise is slipping further out of reach, and many women may not achieve it before they retire. Alex Gailey has a new Bankrate analysis showing that the gender pay gap is not on pace to fully close before some women leave the workforce. That’s after the latest Census Bureau data shows that the gap widened for a second year in a row — the first time that’s happened since records began in the 1960s. Behind every statistic about the gender pay gap is a woman trying to make a living, build wealth and be valued fairly for her work. Our team set out to tell those stories. From John Puterbaugh: A heartfelt letter to his 12-year-old daughter about work, fairness and hope in an unequal world. It’s a tearjerker. https://lnkd.in/eyen6Xzn From Hanna Horvath, CFP®: A powerful essay reckoning with the reality that women her age may never experience true pay equality — and how to build wealth anyway. https://lnkd.in/e-GBqnX5   From Natalie Todoroff: The real stories of women who’ve asked for raises: what worked, what didn’t and what it felt like to challenge the gap head-on. https://lnkd.in/eJuy5FSQ  From Katie Kelton, CCC: The women who broke through the “broken rung,” sharing how they climbed from entry-level roles into leadership and what helped them get there. https://lnkd.in/ekdp6B7a  This project took months of collaboration, reporting and care — and I couldn’t be prouder to work for Bankrate and to watch this team bring it to life. Check out their important work and the full report here: https://lnkd.in/evF8dArY

Why is it that even in industries dominated by women employees, men rise to the top of the most prestigious and influential organizations? One answer is career escalators. “Career escalators” points to the practices, structures and norms that move a person upward in their careers. However, as research by many, including Prof. Christine Williams shows in her research, “glass elevators” are hidden advantages for men to advance in women-dominated fields. As Cathleen Clerkin, PhD reveals, a broad look at nonprofit workers reveals a slight advantage for men in leadership. Women represent about 70% of employees yet only 62% of leaders. The real gap, however, shows up when you look at size of the non-profit, as measured by revenues. Men nonprofit CEOs oversee nearly twice the revenues as women (~$11M vs. ~$6M). And men CEOs earn on average +27% more than women CEOs. Having worked with many nonprofit boards on their hiring practices, bias is a concern in recruiting CEOs and board directors. Preference for the “think leader, think male” can give an implicit advantage to White men, resulting in disadvantages or de-accelerators for women and BIPOC men. Often those concerns are expressed in donor networks, strategic thinking, vision and public persona -- all of which are important and yet the evaluation of who can do them can be fraught with biases. What can you do? The author suggests many important strategies. ✔ Check for biased language and treatment in the hiring process.  ✔ Track demographic data.  ✔ Be transparent about pay.  ✔ Create clear career matrices.  ✔ Have explicit conversations about career goals.  ✔ Sponsor women and give them challenging opportunities. When we make these often invisible accelerators visible--and work towards creating clear, equitable and transparent access to them--we can come closer to achieving our intention of creating remarkable and inclusive organizations.  Research by Candid. Article published in Harvard Business Review.

This is the question we kept coming back to in our latest research at Shape Talent Ltd, where we surveyed over 2,300 women in the UK to better understand the persistent barriers to gender equality in corporate life. The data was stark: 🔹 98% of women face some combination of systemic barriers 🔹 Women in senior roles are more likely to feel undermined, inadequate, and cautious about speaking up 🔹 The ‘double burden’ of paid and unpaid work remains relentless and largely invisible 🔹 And the pressure to walk a narrow behavioural tightrope - the “double bind” - is alive and well But here’s what struck me most: these barriers are not just frustrating, they are predictable. They’re the result of outdated systems, norms and leadership models that still reflect a version of the workplace built around a 1950s archetype: the male breadwinner with a stay-at-home wife. It’s no wonder that are survey results showed that women, especially Black women, LGBTQ+ women, disabled women, and working mothers, continue to face uphill battles. The data shows their challenges aren’t just individual. They’re structural. And they’re compounded by bias and a chronic lack of meaningful career development. We cannot ‘fix’ women to fit into broken systems. We must fix the system. So, what next? 1. Rethink leadership expectations 2. Redesign processes with equity in mind 3. Build cultures of true psychological safety 4. Invest intentionally in women’s career development Incremental change is no longer enough. The pace of progress is glacial – and regressing. At this rate, gender equality won’t be reached until 2154. That’s five generations too late. If you're in a position of influence - HR, DEI, leadership, it’s time to move from intent to impact. Real progress starts with bold steps. #GenderEquality #Leadership #Equity #Inclusion #ShapeTalent #DoubleBurden #DoubleBind #WomenInLeadership #Intersectionality #EDI #DEI

Another year, another IWD, another excruciating glacial change. In too many corporations, DEI 1.0 was performative, compliance-driven, and largely cosmetic. It was about ticking boxes, setting up Employee Resource Groups, and releasing glossy annual reports—without tackling the real structural and cultural barriers that prevent equity in the first place. DEI leads were hired but weren't given real power (or budget). Diversity targets were set but the way talent was identified, hired, or promoted were rooted in the 90s. Unconscious bias training rolled out but biased systems were untouched. What's the ONE thing we should start doing today? 🔹 Stop fixing women, and start fixing the system For years, we’ve focused on equipping women with leadership training and networking skills. While these are valuable, they won’t create lasting change if the system itself remains unchanged. At a bare minimum, we must: ✅ Redesign hiring and promotion processes to ensure fair opportunities ✅ Normalize flexible work arrangements to match the reality of work/life integration ✅ Tie leadership KPIs to relevant diversity goals that tell the whole story (not just the number of women!) In my work making change happen in large organizations, I’ve seen firsthand how these strategic shifts can unlock greater innovation, retention, and performance. The future belongs to organizations that make equity a business priority—not just an HR one. I'd love to hear how your company is shaping a more equitable world. Let’s share and learn from each other. #IWD25 #LinkedInNewsAustralia #GenderEquity #Leadership #DiversityAndInclusion #FutureOfWork

Why inclusion and universal design need to come together We often hear organisations talk about diversity and inclusion. Yet inclusion alone isn’t enough if the systems we work within were never designed with difference in mind. A review by Shore and colleagues (2018) (https://lnkd.in/e6vjNAXM) looked at what makes workplaces truly inclusive. They emphasised fairness, authenticity, and equal access to opportunities. Their model shows that inclusion is not just about who is in the workforce, but whether everyone feels respected, valued, and able to participate fully. But here’s the challenge: many workplace practices are retrofits. Adjustments are made once someone discloses a need or points out a barrier. That can work but it’s often costly, time-consuming, and can unintentionally stigmatise the individual. This is where Universal Design (UD) comes in. Instead of waiting to respond, UD builds accessibility, flexibility, and usability into everyday business-as-usual. It reduces the number of case-by-case “fixes” by planning for variation from the outset. For example: Providing captions and transcripts in training as standard helps Deaf staff, those learning English, and anyone re-watching on mute. Clear communication, step-by-step checklists, and structured task tools reduce overload not only for neurodivergent employees but for everyone. Designing sensory-friendly workspaces supports those with sensory sensitivities—and also improves focus and wellbeing for the whole team. So how do the two approaches differ and align? Inclusion models focus on culture: creating fairness, authenticity, and psychological safety. Universal Design focuses on structures: embedding accessibility and flexibility into systems, tools, and environments. Bringing them together means leaders shape workplaces that are both fair and functional, inclusive and accessible. For employers, this isn’t just the right thing to do it’s efficient. Many UD approaches are low or no cost, but they reduce duplication, improve resilience, and make personalised support less stigmatising. 👉 Take away.... Inclusive practices creates the right mindset; Universal Design creates the mechanisms. Together, they help us move from patching barriers to preventing them.

If you're setting goals to create a more inclusive workplace in 2025, my experience may save you time, money, and unmet expectations. ✅ Quick Wins (low effort, high impact) Start with team psychological safety. Inclusion is felt most in everyday team interactions—meetings, feedback, problem-solving. 👇 Use tools like: 1. The Fearless Organization Scan to uncover blind spots and team dynamics. 2. Debrief session with an accredited facilitator to discuss results openly and set clear, actionable improvements. 3. Action plan with small shifts in behavior, like leaders modeling vulnerability, asking for input first, or establishing "speak-up norms" in meetings. These micro-actions quickly build team inclusion and unlock collaboration. 🏗️ Big Projects (high effort, high impact): To create sustainable change, invest in structural inclusion. 👇 Focus on: 1. Inclusive hiring & promotion practices: build diverse candidate pipelines and train interviewers on bias mitigation. 2. Inclusive decision-making: ensure diverse perspectives are integrated into key business decisions. 3. Inclusive leadership: train leaders to actively foster diverse perspectives, intellectual humility, and trust in their teams. Empower leaders to align inclusion with business goals and make it part of their day-to-day behavior. 🎉 Fill-ins (low effort, low impact): Awareness events (like diversity month) are great for building visibility but should educate, not just celebrate. 👇 For example: 1. Pair cultural events with workshops on how diverse values shape workplace communication. 2. Use storytelling to highlight how diverse perspectives lead to tangible business wins. 🚩 Thankless Tasks (high effort, low impact): Avoid resource-heavy initiatives with little ROI. 👇 Examples: 1. Overcomplicated dashboards: focus on 2–3 actionable metrics rather than endless reports that don’t lead to change. 2. Unstructured ERGs: without clear goals and leadership support, these often become frustrating rather than empowering. 3. One-off training programs: A two-day training on unconscious bias without follow-up or practical tools is a missed opportunity. 💡 Key Takeaways 1. Inclusion thrives where it’s felt daily—in teams and decisions. 2. Start with quick wins to build momentum and tackle big projects for systemic change. 3. Avoid symbolic efforts that consume resources without measurable outcomes. 🚀 Let’s turn inclusion into a tangible, strategic advantage that empowers your teams to thrive in 2025 and beyond. _____________________________________________ If you're new here, I’m Susanna—an accredited team psychological safety practitioner with over a decade of experience in DEI and inclusive leadership. I partner with forward-thinking companies to create inclusive, high-performing workplaces where teams thrive. 📩 DM me or visit www if you want to prioritize what truly works for your organization.