Why Businesses Must Be Inclusive to Succeed
As Women’s History Month comes to a close, I believe it’s important to share both insight and action about the importance of diversity, equity, and inclusion. Diverse businesses are more effective businesses. According to a McKinsey study, companies in the top quartile for gender diversity on executive teams are 25 percent more likely to have above-average profitability than their peers. But diversity requires more than a strong recruitment program. People need to feel included if they’re going to stay at a company and flourish. This is why inclusion is important.
Inclusion is about ensuring that people are valued, respected, and treated fairly regardless of their individual differences. It’s about fostering a sense of belonging and ensuring that each team member has an equal opportunity to contribute, participate, and succeed. But inclusion does not happen without effort. Businesses need to make a conscious decision to uplift all their people and design programs to support them. Those include education, mentoring, and much, much more.
Inclusion begins with leadership. The leadership team needs to set the example, but leadership needs to work with people across the entire organization or else inclusion won’t permeate culture.
Announcing Women at Centific
With that in mind, I am thrilled to announce the global launch of Women at Centific. This is a dedicated initiative aimed at empowering and supporting the professional and personal growth of the women within our organization.
As the chief operating officer of Centific, I believe that we have a responsibility to foster a supportive and inclusive environment that enables every individual to thrive. The Women at Centific program is a step towards achieving that goal.
Our objective is to create a workplace where women feel heard, valued, and supported. By acting as agents of change, we hope to make a tangible difference in achieving gender equality in the workplace.
Key aspects of our initiative include establishing a supportive and safe space where women can gather across various roles and levels to receive peer-to-peer mentorship, forge connections, address gender bias, and develop leadership skills.
Additionally, we will be rolling out dedicated training programs to educate all employees on how to show up in both private and public ways for coworkers with traditionally marginalized identities, and better create a supportive and accepting workplace culture.
Finally, as part of our effort to expand our reach beyond Centific, we will look to grow collaborations with external organizations to further drive impact.
At Centific, we are committed to fostering a more inclusive workplace and take pride in the diverse community that makes up our global team. But, we know there is still work to be done. It’s time to get to work.
More details about Women at Centific are forthcoming. Until then, on behalf of the Centific leadership team, am thrilled to formalize this commitment towards building a better future for all – our company, our clients, and all our stakeholders. Bottom line: embracing diversity, equity, and inclusion is both the right and sensible thing to do.