Aren’t we done with this yet? 😔
As I've been preparing to facilitate an upcoming roundtable discussion with socially conscious leaders, I've been reviewing some striking data that, in summary, creates a comprehensive landscape of the opportunities facing leaders, teams, and employees to increase retention, improve profitability, and meet employees' values and needs.
How can any leader take a "pass" on those benefits?
Surprisingly, or perhaps not, many do.
If you've been following my previous writing and posts, you already know how important the integration of wellbeing, social justice, and changemaking is to create our greatest personal impact. What's impressive is how solid the case is for pursuing this same integration within organizations.
Whether you are a socially conscious leader, an employee, or an entrepreneur, you may want to tuck a couple of these away for the next conversation where someone asks the not-so-subtle question, "Aren't we done with this yet? Haven't we had enough focus on diversity already?"
Then you can answer confidently, "No, actually, you may find it interesting that..." and plug in one (or more!) of these pieces of information...perhaps with the follow-up question, "What do you think? Can we afford to compromise on something with so much importance and so many benefits?"
Here's just a few facts about the real-world experiences of people across many industries, environments, backgrounds, and roles...
What a mismatch!
Data consistently demonstrates the profitability of organizations with ethnic and cultural diversity. In fact, diverse organizations outperform other companies by 36% according to a McKinsey report.
In other words, prioritization of diversity, equity, and inclusion not only meets the preferences of employees (hello, higher retention!) but also benefits the bottom line.
Let's also look at the real reasons people leave their jobs and do some more myth-busting.
Everyone leaves their job because they're either unmotivated, unwilling to work hard, or want better pay and benefits, right? (Have you been hearing this narrative as often as I have??)
Not so fast.
Workers named feeling disrespected as the third highest reason for leaving their jobs.
Over half (57%!) of people who left their jobs in 2021 listed feeling disrespected as a main or contributing reason for their departure.
I was recently enlightened that the Latin etymology of respect is "to look AGAIN." People not only want, but deserve, to be respected - to be seen again. And again. And again. (And doesn't this make complete sense? After all, when do you want to stop being seen and appreciated for the completeness of who you are?)
Combine this with data that suggests risk of depression increases 300% for those working at companies that don't value their well-being...Yikes! It's both logical and healthy that people are reshuffling their work and life balance and leaving positions where they are not feeling seen, appreciated, and valued.
In fact, a study by MIT Sloan analyzed 34 million employee profiles and found that "toxic work culture" was the strongest predictor of employee turnover - 10x higher than compensation!!!
We all might have our own definition of "toxic work culture" - so to be more specific, in this study the top five leading factors contributing to a toxic work culture were:
Workers feeling disrespected
Noninclusive culture
Unethical behavior
Cutthroat environment
Abusive treatment
Why does this matter? Working in a toxic atmosphere is associated with the damaging symptoms of....
Elevated stress
Burnout (Fatigue, apathy, lack of satisfaction with work, changes to diet/sleep)
Mental health issues
Physical illness (Risk of a major health disease increases from 35% to 55% for employees experiencing injustice in their workplace!!!)
Do you see yourself or someone you care about in this data?
It's important to remember that these percentages represent huge numbers (millions!) of actual people - people with families, hobbies, passions, quirks, and dreams - people that have both their health and their impact compromised when they are not respected, valued, included, and appreciated.
How might the world shift if we could create environments that consistently include, appreciate, and respect all people?
We don't have to do much guessing. It's right here in the data.
Companies could be more profitable while retaining happier, healthier employees.
What do you think? Can we afford to compromise on something with so much importance and so many benefits? 😊
