A new report has reiterated the damage that exclusivity in the workplace can have on our wellbeing, raising concerns over how inclusive our occupations actually are and the impact they may have on our welfare. Sam Nichols explores how we can foster more inclusive workplaces.
On 18 March 2005, in the Chilean capital of Santiago, the World Health Organization launched its Commission on Social Determinants of Health – a body devoted to identifying a range of exterior factors that impact, and potentially limit, human wellbeing.
“People’s health suffers because of the social conditions in which they live and work. The end goal of the commission and its follow-up is to change this reality,” said commission chair Sir Michael Marmot at the time.
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“The task of the commission is to identify and support the application of interventions that will do the most to improve the social conditions that determine health.”
Three years later, on 27 August 2008, the commission published its final report, highlighting its ultimate recommendations to bring equity to the global population’s overall health.
It found that people who are already disenfranchised are further disadvantaged with respect to their health.
“Having the freedom to participate in economic, social, political, and cultural relationships has intrinsic value,” the report stated.
“Inclusion, agency, and control are each important for social development, health, and wellbeing.”
The report outlined a range of measures that can help close this gap, such as access to healthcare, fair employment and addressing gender inequality.
The conclusion that inclusivity has a strong link to our overall wellbeing has been echoed in several studies since then. In 2018, a study on 371 people living with HIV in Portugal found that 18 per cent of the subjects qualified for a diagnosis of severe depression – the paper noting that the social exclusion felt by those with the virus was considered as one of the mitigating factors in this diagnosis.
Similarly, in 2020, the BMC Psychology journal published a study that explored the experiences of 19 adolescents aged between 14 and 16 who had experienced stressful childhoods and upbringings, with the researchers concluding that the experience of social exclusion could manifest itself in physiological pain as well as reduced wellbeing. This in turn could impact not only the quality of our health, but our lives. One 2012 study on the impact of social exclusion among older Japanese subjects reported that socially excluded elderly women were 1.7 times more likely to die prematurely than those who were not excluded.
The studies all show that while social exclusion can come in a range of capacities, these are all determinants to our health. For business owners, it’s key to know that workplaces appear to be prevalent forms of social exclusion.
A recent study, Three Inclusive Team Norms That Drive Success, surveyed the experiences of 4,300 employees across 14 countries, including Australia, and found that only 31 per cent of employees reported that they either felt they were often, or always, experiencing inclusive team norms within their workplaces.
Of those who experienced exclusion, cisgender men (55 per cent of respondents) and cisgender women (45 per cent of respondents) were evenly excluded, with only 25 per cent of both cohorts reporting a sense of inclusion.
For transgender and non-binary employees, which accounted for 2 per cent of respondents, 93 per cent said they experienced exclusion in some capacity in their workplace.
Further, only 20 per cent of non-white racial groups reported inclusivity, compared to the 30 per cent in those who identified as white.
While raising the feeling of inclusivity in an office space could have positive impacts on an employee’s wellbeing, there is also a business incentive; inclusivity is associated with higher productivity.
According to the results of Three Inclusive Team Norms That Drive Success, a report that analysed the results of a survey conducted by workplace non-profit Catalyst, 88 per cent of respondents who reported high levels of job engagement also expressed high levels of team engagement.
In contrast, only 36 per cent of employees who experienced low levels of inclusive team norms had high engagement.
Three-quarters of those who expressed high levels of inclusivity reported high levels of innovation, compared to 16 per cent of those who had low inclusive team norms, while 90 per cent of those with high inclusivity experienced significant levels of problem-solving. For those with low inclusivity, only 24 per cent echoed the same experience.
As the workplace continues to change as a result of the pandemic, it’s crucial for team leaders and members to act inclusively to advance gender equity and increase employee engagement and innovation.
“Right now we have an unprecedented opportunity to reimagine workplaces to be more inclusive for people of all genders and racial, ethnic, and cultural backgrounds,” Dr Sheila Brassel, one of the co-authors of the study, commented.
The paper concludes that there are three specific pathways to reduce exclusivity in a workplace:
The promotion of expressions of difference
According to the researchers, this can be achieved by “encouraging perspectives that may counter the status quo”, including the team leader and current forms, as well as “seeking everyone’s perspectives when problem-solving”.
Fostering a team-coaching climate
A sense of team accountability and peer-to-peer coaching can help drive inclusivity. This could be done by making team coaching a goal tied to performance reviews; acknowledging that mistakes are inevitable and a critical component of growth and learning; and encouraging and respecting the qualities that make each team member unique, the Catalyst paper suggests.
Codifying fair team decision-making practices
This could be done by developing a set of “clear, written guidelines for team decision-making; keeping an eye on equity by prioritising fairness and consistency; and communicating with transparency”.
“Companies and teams who value inclusive team norms are best prepared to address workplace inequities in the future of work,” said Catalyst president and chief executive Lorraine Hariton.
“These data [sources] represent an opportunity for companies to improve innovation, productivity, and employee engagement.”
