This artical by Yvenir Duroseau is especially timely considering "The Great Resignation" and the factors that have caused many employees to quit or change jobs."
Operational success in the corporate world is not just limited to large sales and profits but also other intrinsic human factors.
Business entities are constantly making efforts to optimize employee productivity, keeping workers motivated, and ensuring the retention of the best people to reduce turnovers.
A welcoming, cordial, and equal opportunity-based organizational culture is a critical contributor to your company’s overall goal achievement.
However, despite all the measures taken to teach an all-inclusive and non-discriminatory culture in the company, certain sections of the workforce may still feel excluded or marginalized.
This is where “Allyship at Workplace” comes into play.
It involves people moving out from their seats in the audience and taking a lead role to minimize incivility. It means you becoming an Ally in your workforce!
What Is A Workplace Ally?
Workplace allies are people from within the workforce who volunteer to align their efforts for their colleagues. The prime aim of these willing allies is to make their colleagues get heard and become included in the corporate mainstream.
Allies mostly represent a majority group and enjoy a privileged professional status in the company.
They utilize this privilege to aid in redesigning the conventional systems that avert their colleagues from having equal opportunities for growth and career development.
Instead of limiting themselves to their behavior, workforce allies willingly move forward and make it their responsibility to restrict incidents of bad behaviors from happening to anyone at the workplace.
True allyship at the workplace does not mean rushing into individual incidents and becoming heroes. Rather it requires allies to work holistically to bring about systematic changes in the organizational culture.
Fostering an Inclusive Culture Through Effective Allyship
Here are a few steps organizations can take to encourage positive allyship efforts in their companies.
1. Communicate More to Understand More
A good ally must be a good listener. Do not just speak about your thoughts, experiences, and feelings but also actively listen to what people around you say about themselves.
Encourage open communication for employees to connect on any matter that needs attention.
2. Advocate those who are Excluded
Workplace diversity entails people coming from various ethnicities, communities, and backgrounds.
But all these diverse employees do not reach a decision-making status.
Workplace allyship requires you to evaluate your current decision-making positions and ensure the inclusion of workers from a broader range of skills, perspectives, experiences, and expertise.
3. Admit to Your Mistakes
Rise to a higher level and be ready to own your mistakes when you become an ally. Accommodating a diverse and extraordinary team in your workforce may lead to certain failures or setbacks.
Even if you have good intentions, you may make mistakes and errors. Admit to such fumbles for building stronger trust and encouraging an environment of honesty at all levels.
4. Make Employee Feedback Important
Employee feedback is a key determinant of identifying the true picture of the workplace environment and people’s feelings. It helps you discover what an employee is going through.
Poor employee-management relations, lack of accountability and transparency, and fear of repercussions often hamper this feedback process. Make sure to create an environment where employees are confident and assertive in raising their voices and opinions. Take positive actions on the feedback to earn the employees' trust and make them feel included in all organizational systems.
Final Thoughts
Embracing allyship in your workplace may not be so simple and easy for all. You must be ready to face unexpected resistance at the initial stages.
It is not unusual to face such organizational challenges when you contest beliefs and political systems restricting you from building relationships with people outside your conventional circles.
However, the key is to remain steadfast in your efforts and lead your team with a strong commitment to not doing anything wrong.
Yvener Duroseau is author of the new book, Alike Regardless. He is a diversity and inclusion motivational speaker and consultant, digital marketing entrepreneur and creative writer. Yvener contributes a monthly article to Not Fake News.