Nearly 99% of the people living in the US have ancestors who came from other parts of the world. Most of them came from Europe, Africa, and Latin America. Others came from the Asia-Pacific and the Middle East among other areas. Therefore, it is likely that American businesses would have a diverse group of people working for them. Inclusivity is essential in this kind of environment. How tolerant is your company towards the people who come from different backgrounds? Here are 5 tips to operating with inclusive business practices.

1. Opening Communication Pathways

Communication shapes the ideas, attitudes, and emotions that your staff members have towards something. For example, failing to admonish a worker about an intolerant behavior he is exhibiting encourages other employees to practice the same behavior. Opening these pathways is possible by holding open meetings where people can talk to each other calmly about their differences. You can also hold one-on-one meetings with staff members who feel excluded from the workplace environment.

2. Going on Team Building Activities

Opening communication pathways in the workplace is an excellent idea but it has its shortcomings. For example, some people find it hard to express themselves in a formal environment. Therefore, helping them integrate with their coworkers by holding open meetings would fail. Fortunately, team-building activities work. For example, people often wear what they want to these events allowing them to express themselves culturally. They can prepare different meals as well in addition to sharing their personal stories. Doing so makes everyone feel included and appreciated.

3. Translating Documents and Files

The number of languages spoken in American homes is more than 350. The most commonly spoken ones are English, Spanish, and Chinese. Other notable ones are Tagalog, Vietnamese, and Arabic. It is likely that you have stakeholders who speak these languages more fluently than they do English. These stakeholders could be employees, customers, suppliers, or investors. Translating documents for them into a language that they understand perfectly makes them feel included and appreciated. Contact Lighthouse Translations today for document translations and simultaneous interpretations.

4. Initiating Sensitization Activities

Interestingly, most Americans are oblivious to exclusion at the workplace. In other words, they do not recognize it when it happens. Consequently, they can exclude someone without knowing what they are doing. Sensitivity training facilitates the recognition of exclusion in your workplace. This training sensitizes staff members on insensitive words, culturally inappropriate gestures, and uncomfortable physical interactions. Workers who feel excluded from office activities because of these insensitivities would feel included as soon as these insensitive acts stop.

5. Hiring Staff Indiscriminately

Human Resource departments influence the level of diversity within their organizations because they hire and fire employees. Some departments exercise recruitment policies that exclude specific people from a business. Doing so results in a homogenous workforce. In other words, employees would come from one race, gender, or income group. Avoiding this scenario is possible if you hire staff members indiscriminately, i.e., hiring based on their skills, experience, and qualifications. Doing so leads to the inclusion of people from diverse backgrounds.