We live in a very inclusive world. It wasn’t always this way, however. For generations, people were excluded from certain jobs and echelons of society because of religion and skin color. While the United Kingdom has come a long way in terms of diversity and inclusion, work still needs to be done.
If you are somebody who has an interest in creating inclusive environments, this post is for you. In this article, you will learn about the role of security in creating inclusive environments. This post’s main focus will be on workplace diversity and inclusion.
Image Source: Unsplash
Company Security
If you run a company, diversity and inclusion should be one of your main concerns. Achieving a more diverse workforce is something companies around the world are working on. However, if your company isn’t secure in a literal sense, you’ll never be able to ensure your workplace is a safe space for employees with protected characteristics. The experts from one security company in London make clear on their site that security professionals you hire need to have appropriate licensing, which in the United Kingdom is an SA badge. Security professionals won’t be able to keep you and your staff safe if they are not properly trained and licensed. Before hiring a Security Agency to represent your company, make sure that you spend time reading reviews and conducting extensive online research. A security firm’s review should give you a clear idea relative to how professional they are.
But wait, how can security guards make your workplace safer for protected individuals, you’re probably asking? The answer is that by guarding your office they’ll stop hateful individuals from coming in and attacking them, verbally or physically. Hate crimes are on the rise. If you have security staff, individuals’ intent on harming people won’t be able to. If a hate crime does ever take place at work, it is essential that you take immediate action and notify the police or relevant authorities. Doing so will ensure the offenders are arrested and subsequently punished. If you live in a country where firearms are legalized like the United States, then you should make sure that security officers carry firearms themselves. This is so that they can intervene in any active shooting events.
Ensuring Inclusivity
In your workplace, you need to make sure that everybody is included. A lot of people make the mistake of thinking that it is possible to achieve a truly happy, harmonious workplace without ensuring inclusivity. If you do not include all employees, regardless of race or religion, then your workplace is going to be a toxic environment. If your place of work is toxic, employees won’t want to work there. A good way to ensure that your workplace is more inclusive is to remove boxes from application forms. In other words, don’t ask potential job candidates what their genders, ethnicities, or religions are.
You may also want to consider introducing surveys at work. Introducing surveys is a good way to get employees to give feedback relative to how they feel about your company’s diversity and inclusion efforts. There are surveys you can take from templates and customize online, or you can hire a diversity and inclusion officer to create one for you. Make sure that your surveys include questions that will lead to answers being given that can help your company improve its diversity and inclusion efforts. It’s also worth hiring a diversity and inclusion officer, though this is something that’ll be covered in more detail late
Image Source: Unsplash
Employee Safety
While you need to make sure that you keep employees safe from hate crimes, you also need to make sure that your employees are safe from one another. Most acts of racism and sexism that are committed in the workplace are committed by employees. Many people today still retain outdated ideas about sexuality, gender, and race. Unless you make real efforts to reeducate your employees and teach them about the importance of diversity and inclusion, they could continue to harbor negative beliefs. Employees who harbor negative beliefs are a threat to the general workforce. This is because their behavior can lead to other employees feeling unsafe and uncomfortable, and consequently, leaving their jobs.
You need to make sure that you introduce an internal reporting system so that if employees do behave poorly or say things that are inappropriate, action can be taken against them immediately. Your company’s internal reporting system should be entirely anonymous. If it is not anonymous then employees may not feel safe reporting their colleagues. This is especially true if the individuals responsible for behaving inappropriately are supervisors. You also need to make sure that you have a special department that deals with complaints. If complaints can be dealt with by a separate department, employees will be less concerned about losing their jobs for giving information to their supervisors or colleagues.
Safe Spaces
Your entire workplace should be a safe place. However, there should also be designated places in your office where employees can go and sit when they are experiencing anxiety or feel depressed. You may also want to hire a counselor to work for your company. A counselor will be able to sit with employees and help them work through their issues. A lot of people make the mistake of thinking that they can deal with their issues internally. The vast majority of people are not able to deal with anxiety and depression internally. If your employees struggle with mental health issues and you do not offer any advice or guidance on it, they could begin underperforming.
Employees who are dealing with mental health issues and who are underperforming because of it could be affected negatively if you ultimately discipline them for their underperformance. By introducing a mental health professional to your office, you will not have to worry about employees underperforming and you will not have to worry about the consequences of potentially firing any ones that do. Mental health professionals can work with your employees and help them to deal with whatever is going on in their personal lives and help them to come up with strategies for coping better.
Running a business can be challenging at the best of times. There are lots of things people do not know about business ownership, such as how important it is to ensure one’s workplace is a safe space. You can use the guidance given here in this post to make sure that yours is.
You may also like to read:
