The benefits of inclusive decision-making💡

Everyone has heard the word inclusivity. It is one of three buzzwords today that make the professional world go round: diversity, inclusivity, and equity.

Those of us participating in the job market today look for establishments that genuinely care about making inclusive decisions. But what is inclusive decision-making and what value does it holds for your business when it goes past being a mere buzzword and into an actionable space?

Simply put… why should you care?

Here is the bottom line: Introducing inclusive decision-making (IDM) into your organizational practices leads to — surprise, surprise! — better decision-making. It leads to “better business decisions up to 87 percent of the time” (Forbes) and is the key ingredient that drives innovation, engagement, and results across organizations.

Evidence shows us that IDM also leads to increased talent retention, employee productivity, and business performance across a wider team. And the reason why isn’t all that hard to see: When you practice inclusivity and diversity and employees feel valued and included, organizations gain more perspectives and knowledge to make decisions, solve problems, and innovate.

The Bottomline: Why Diversity & Inclusivity + IDM Matter

Enterprises that want to improve their business performance should consider incorporating genuine inclusive decision-making into their practices. Here are some ways you can start:

1. Increase diversity hiring amongst employees to drive better, more innovative decisions and decision outcomes. When you have diversity of thought, knowledge, and experience, you can use that to solve tasks and jump quantum leaps ahead of your competition!
2. Reduce unconscious bias and any wider group-thinking biases in your hiring practices. A platform like DecisionHub ensures that all candidates receive equal consideration through anti-bias features such as anonymized data and & uninfluenced decision-making.
3. While businesses are making progress in hiring from larger diverse pools, people are recognizing that they cannot retain talent if they do not change their internal practices and cultures. Don’t let diversity and inclusivity be a marketing tactic when it can be so much more. Do research, develop inclusive solutions, ask and listen to your employees, and generate shared responsibility and participation (Think anonymous company-wide surveys, meetings that foster mutual understanding, and group conversations that set the tone.) This encourages real, meaningful change by utilizing the people already employed at an enterprise.

If you’re still wondering if the above approach is effective, we’ll leave you with two bits of research from Cloverpop and McKinsey to consider below.

One-third of the companies in [McKinsey’s] data set who “made significant Inclusivity&Diversity gains over the past 5 years … are increasingly pulling ahead of their industry peers in financial performance.” Many of them “view their existing strengths in I&D as a way to bounce back more quickly from the [COVID-19] crisis while they actively seek to boost representation and inclusion.”

…

“Inclusive decision-making activates diversity to increase business performance… decision making is the most important management activity, driving 95% of business performance and 50% of employee engagement. By transparently tracking inclusive decision making as a key management measure, companies can fight groupthink, improve business performance, and create a long-term competitive advantage.”

We hope that this read has sparked some inspiration and consideration on what steps you can take to essentialize long-term business value and success, and why Diversity & Inclusivity and Inclusive Decision-making are at the very core of that.

DecisionHub takes IDM to heart. Check out DecisionHub’s website to see how we’re helping empower organizations to make the right decisions in their candidate selection processes.

decisionhub.org