Promoting diversity in the workplace can have a huge range of benefits for a business — but only when everyone feels welcome and respected. In this article, we’ll discuss the importance of inclusive communication, including the benefits for your organization, challenges you might face, and 10 strategies you can put into action today.
What is inclusive communication?
Inclusive communication is communication that helps all employees to feel seen, valued, and respected at work. It’s not just about using the right words — although of course that’s important. Inclusive communication is also about considering the unique needs, preferences, and experiences of every individual, and working to ensure they all have equal opportunities to contribute meaningfully to your organization. This might include:
- Using neutral alternatives to gendered or otherwise problematic language
- Providing accommodations for disabled or neurodivergent employees
- Being mindful of different communication styles and individual preferences
- Encouraging feedback from employees from different backgrounds
- Being open to new ideas and perspectives
- Ensuring all employees can access and engage with communications
The importance of inclusive communication in a diverse workforce
Diversity can have a huge impact on everything from an organization’s decision-making processes to its bottom line. But diversity without inclusion can leave employees feeling isolated, ignored, disrespected, or neglected at work. Over time, this can have a big impact on employee retention.
According to one study, 75% of employees have felt excluded in the workplace. Inclusive communication can help to ensure everyone feels included, respected, and valued. This helps to foster a sense of belonging and connection, which can ultimately motivate employees to work towards the company’s objectives.
Benefits of inclusive communication for employers and employees
Implementing more inclusive communication practices isn’t just the right thing to do for employees — it can also have tangible benefits for a business. Here are some of the main benefits of inclusive communication, for both your organization and its employees.
Helps to attract and retain diverse talent
All employees want to feel respected at work. And making your communications as inclusive as possible is a great way to show your people that they’re valued. As you gain a reputation as an inclusive employer, you’ll find it easier to attract diverse employees — and keep them around for longer. In fact, a recent CNBC survey found that 80% of employees would rather work for organizations that value diversity, equity, and inclusion. And a McKinsey study found that 39% of candidates wouldn’t pursue a job at a company they perceived to be non-inclusive.
Improves employee satisfaction and engagement
Employees are much more likely to be happy at work if they feel like they truly belong there — and inclusive communication can help to drive that sense of belonging. This can have a huge impact on employee engagement. According to a Deloitte study, Millennials who work for inclusive organizations are around 1.4x more likely to be actively engaged at work than those whose employers are not inclusive.
Reduces conflict and misunderstanding
Biased language and stereotypes can cause all sorts of issues in a workplace — even when those using them are acting in good faith. Making an effort to replace outdated or potentially offensive terms with neutral ones can lessen conflict and distress. Another important part of inclusivity is using plain language instead of idioms, metaphors, and sarcasm, to ensure communications are understood by everyone. This can reduce misunderstandings and confusion, making for a more productive workplace.
Leads to better business outcomes
Employees work better when they can fully understand and engage with the communications they receive. That means that making your communication more inclusive could drive productivity and even boost your bottom line over time. Plus, there’s evidence that actively seeking feedback from employees — a key part of inclusive communication — can also drive performance. According to research from Salesforce, employees who feel their voice is heard are 4.6x more likely to be empowered to do their best work.
Boosts creativity and innovation
Studies have frequently shown that diverse teams are more likely to come up with innovative ideas and make better business decisions. However, this only works if diversity is accompanied by inclusion, and employees feel empowered to share their unique thoughts and perspectives. When companies get both parts right, the results can be significant: research by Korn Ferry finds that diverse, inclusive teams are 87% more likely to make better decisions, and 75% faster at bringing products to market.
Enhances brand image
As we’ve said, employees want to work for diverse and inclusive companies. And increasingly, consumers also want to know that the businesses they buy from are ethical, progressive, and fair. Using inclusive language in both your internal and external communications can help you to build a reputation as a company that truly embraces diversity, equity, and inclusion — leading to increased customer loyalty and satisfaction.
How to drive inclusive communication in the workplace: 10 steps to follow
There’s no quick-fix solution that will make your communication style more inclusive. Ultimately, the goal should be to embed inclusivity into your company’s culture and ensure it runs through every interaction you have with your employees — which doesn’t happen overnight. These ten strategies will help you to get started.
1. Create awareness around inclusive language
There are a lot of misconceptions about inclusive communication. If you try to introduce rules and guidelines without laying the groundwork, some employees may see it as an attempt to unjustifiably police them, or think it’s all about being “politically correct.”
That’s why the first step in making your communication more inclusive as an organization is to raise awareness about the issue. Before going any further, take the time to educate employees on what inclusive communication is really about: ensuring that all members of your organization feel welcome and respected.
Exactly how you do this depends on the communication systems and practices you already have in place. For example, a company-wide message or video from your organization’s CEO emphasizing the importance of diversity and inclusion could be a good way to get the ball rolling.
2. Assess your current situation
The next step is to determine exactly what you need to improve to make your communication more inclusive. That means asking questions like:
- Do employees regularly use terms that others may find offensive? What alternatives could you suggest?
- Do employees overuse technical jargon when it’s not needed? Is this hindering understanding for other employees?
- Could certain employees benefit from additional accommodations like translated content or closed captions for video meetings? How can employees currently access these accommodations?
- How do employees feel about your current communication styles and practices? What about employees from marginalized communities?
- Do remote and frontline employees have equal access to your internal communications? What barriers are preventing them from engaging with company content?
- Do your company’s leaders use inclusive language in their day-to-day work? What improvements could they make?
- Do you provide training on inclusive communication? How has this been received?
Assessing your current situation is a big undertaking, but it’s essential if you want to improve. If you’re not sure where your efforts would have the most impact, consider putting together focus groups, working with Employee Resource Groups (ERGs), and sending out anonymous surveys to get your employees’ thoughts.
3. Provide guidelines for inclusive language
Most people who use non-inclusive language aren’t looking to offend. In many cases, they’re not even aware of the connotations or historical context of the phrases they use until they’re pointed out. However, this doesn’t mean those terms aren’t still harmful or hurtful to others.
To help people get it right, you’ll need to put together some guidelines for using inclusive language. As a general rule, it’s best to speak plainly and avoid things like idioms, metaphors, and jargon as much as possible, since these aren’t always understandable to everyone. Here are some other things to keep in mind:
- Avoid gendered terms like “chairman,” “manpower,” or “mailman.” Instead, say “chairperson,” “workforce,” or “postal worker.”
- Avoid terms with harmful or insensitive connotations, like “master” and “slave” (when used to describe systems with dependent components). An alternative is “primary” and “replica.”
- Avoid terms that perpetuate negative stereotypes. An example is using “blacklist” and “whitelist,” which code “black” as “bad” and “white” as “good.” Many companies, including Twitter, Github, and Salesforce, have replaced these terms with neutral equivalents, such as “block list” (or “deny list”) and “allow list.”
- Avoid terms that involve cultural appropriation. An example is “spirit animal,” which trivializes Native American beliefs. Instead, use words like “kindred spirit” or “muse.”
- Avoid language that is derogatory towards people with disabilities, such as “crazy” or “lame.” There are lots of words you could use instead, including “wild” or “boring.”
It’s also important to establish the best way to refer to different people within your organization. For example, many guides suggest using “person-first” language, for example by saying “person with a disability” rather than “disabled person.” However, some people prefer “identity-first” language, and would prefer to be called an “autistic person” than a “person with autism,” for example.
If you’re not sure how someone would prefer to be referred to, it’s always best to ask. You should definitely avoid terms that suggest a disability is negative or makes someone inferior, such as “suffers from” or “confined to a wheelchair.”
4. Ensure every employee has access to internal comms
One key way of making your communications more inclusive is ensuring every employee can access them — not just those who work behind a desk. To make sure your frontline and offsite employees have equal access to crucial corporate communications, you’ll need to think carefully about the tools you use to deliver them.
The best option is to look for a solution that includes a mobile app that employees can download on their work or personal devices. That way, they won’t miss out on crucial information and will be able to engage and connect with the rest of the organization, just like desk-based employees.
5. Lead by example (but involve the whole organization)
As with any big transformation, inclusive communication has to start at the top. Your company’s leadership team will need to model inclusive language both in their official communications and in their day-to-day interactions. They should make inclusivity a core part of your company’s values, and clearly demonstrate its importance to your organization through their words and actions.
That said, inclusive communication needs to involve the whole organization, not just the C-Suite. HR and internal comms have an important role to play in raising awareness around problematic language, championing and incentivizing inclusivity, and advocating for inclusive policies. No company gets inclusive communication 100% right immediately — but putting in place the right systems, incentives, resources, and accountability mechanisms will set you on the right path.
6. Review your job descriptions and hiring processes
Non-inclusive language in your job descriptions could be putting off candidates from applying without you even realizing it. Reviewing them is a crucial step in making your communication more inclusive.
The first step is to remove any obviously gendered terms such as “waitress” or “salesman” if you’re still using them. The same goes for using the gendered pronouns “he,” or “she.” But gendered language in job ads goes a lot deeper than this. Studies have shown that female candidates are often put off by job descriptions that contain a lot of “male-coded” words, like “competitive,” “active,” and “confident.” Of course, it’s not just about gender: you should also consider removing words like “dynamic” or “mature” since these suggest you’re looking for someone of a certain age.
How you communicate with candidates during the hiring process is also important. A big part of making this process more inclusive is ensuring it is accessible to people with different needs. For example, you should make sure your application and career page are optimized for people with dyslexia, and that your interview process doesn’t discriminate against neurodivergent candidates.
7. Offer choices to suit different communication styles
Every one of your employees has their own communication style, needs, and preferences. For example, some employees may prefer written information, while others do better with phone calls. When it comes to meetings, some people are better able to focus and contribute if they have access to an agenda ahead of time. While some people are fine speaking up in virtual meetings, others may prefer to use the chat function to contribute.
The point is, one of the easiest ways to make communication more inclusive is to offer choices. Ultimately, everyone is different, so it doesn’t make sense to expect the same communication style to work for everyone. It’s a good idea to survey employees to get an idea of their preferences, and then offer different options where possible. Using open questions and encouraging suggestions is key, since employees may have ideas you may not have thought of.
8. Make accessibility the default
Some employees require additional accommodations to be able to effectively interact with your company communications. These might include closed captions, visual aids, and extra processing time, for example. But requiring those employees to request these accommodations puts a lot of work and pressure on them.
Instead of waiting for employees to ask, consider making certain accommodations the default in your organization. For example, automatically enabling closed captions for video meetings and recordings is simple, but could be helpful to deaf employees and those with auditory processing difficulties. Sending meeting agendas ahead of time is another easy change you could make to help employees who may need extra time to process information.
Ultimately, making certain accommodations the standard in your organization takes the burden off employees with additional needs — and it could also make communication more accessible and inclusive for everyone.
9. Seek feedback from employees
If you want to be an inclusive organization, you need to ensure the way you communicate works for everyone. But if you don’t ask your employees about their experience, you can’t understand or improve it. Instead of guessing what employees want, you should send out regular surveys that ask them to rate the inclusivity and accessibility of your communications and provide suggestions for improvement. Making these surveys anonymous can help ensure employees feel comfortable sharing their real opinions and complaints.
Building an inclusive organization means cultivating a company culture where employees feel empowered to speak. This means you should build in additional feedback mechanisms such as suggestion boxes and focus groups. Encouraging Employee Resource Groups (ERGs) representing diverse groups of employees — and then seeking their input on important issues — is another way of giving a voice to marginalized groups within your organization.
10. Provide regular training to managers and employees
You can’t expect your leadership, managers, and employees to suddenly change the way they speak without any guidance or resources. That’s why providing comprehensive training is crucial. To begin with, you could deliver a training session to managers and leaders that emphasizes the importance of inclusive communication and provides actionable advice on embedding inclusivity into your organization’s communication practices.
If you’re serious about inclusive communication, though, a one-time training session won’t cut it. While you might see a temporary improvement, individuals and teams will inevitably slip back into their old ways if the message isn’t reinforced. Instead, organize regular refresher courses on inclusive communication that help everyone stay focused and drive sustainable change.
Overcoming challenges to inclusive communication
Transforming a company’s communication style and practices takes time, and you’re likely to run into some hurdles along the way. Here are a few of the barriers you might face as you work to make your communication more inclusive — and how to overcome them.
- Cultural differences: Multinational companies may have employees from many different countries, all of whom have their own approach to work. It’s important to be mindful of this when communicating. For example, many cultures around the world have a much more relaxed attitude to timekeeping than is usual in the US or Europe. To avoid misunderstandings, it’s a good idea to be as specific as possible when setting expectations to ensure everyone is on the same page.
- Language barriers: Communicating clearly and effectively with people whose first language isn’t English (or whatever language you use in the workplace) is a key part of inclusive communication. One of the easiest changes to make is asking employees to avoid colloquial or idiomatic phrases that might hinder understanding. It may also be a good idea to look for communication tools that include translation capabilities and the functionality for multilingual content.
- Unconscious bias: Unconscious bias can impact the way people communicate in the workplace. And, because it’s unconscious by definition, it can be tricky to overcome. The best way to start is by providing regular, comprehensive training that encourages employees to uncover and acknowledge biases they hold and explore how these could impact their communication. While inclusive language may not come naturally to everyone, it is a skill that can be learned with the right resources.
- Employee resistance: Employees are often resistant to demands to change the way they communicate, which can feel like a personal criticism. It’s important to emphasize that using inclusive language isn’t about being “politically correct,” but ensuring that all employees feel understood, respected, and valued. By giving examples of non-inclusive communication and the harm it can do, you should be able to convince even your more skeptical employees to make changes.
- Remote work: Communication of any sort is more difficult when employees aren’t in the same place. While most organizations now use various communication tools to bridge this gap, some of these are not accessible to everyone. To ensure employees aren’t left out of the loop, you should make sure that your communication tools are screen-reader-friendly and easy for neurodivergent employees and those with cognitive disabilities to navigate. If you’re not sure if your current toolset is working for all of your employees, survey them to find out.
Examples of inclusive communication in the workplace
It’s all well and good talking about inclusive communication as an abstract concept. But what does it actually look like in practice? Here are a few real-world examples of companies that have chosen to make their communication more inclusive.
Example #1: American Express
In 2018, American Express introduced mandatory inclusion training for all leaders at the VP level or above. This training begins with the basics, helping leaders to understand the concept of inclusion — something that’s often taken for granted by HR teams. They then talk about why inclusion is important to AmEx, and brainstorm ways to foster inclusion in the workplace. To measure the success of this and other DEI initiatives, AmEx’s HR team also conducts regular employee engagement surveys and assembles focus groups to discuss topics related to engagement and inclusion.
Example #2: Salesforce
For the past few years, Salesforce has been working hard to remove non-inclusive terms not only from its internal communications but also from its products. First, the company followed the example of Twitter, Github, and others, by removing racially charged terms like “blacklist,” “whitelist,” “master,” and “slave” from its vocabulary.
Salesforce has also taken things a step further by designing a comprehensive review process to assess terms used in its product language and determine whether they are inclusive. This process involves gathering input from a dedicated Inclusive Language Board, as well as customers and other external stakeholders. The goal is to eliminate any language which is exclusionary, encompasses harmful historical connotations, or involves stereotypes or cultural appropriation.
Example #3: DHL
Enabling deskless workers to access communications and connect with their colleagues is an often overlooked facet of inclusive communication. In 2022, global delivery company DHL launched a Staffbase intranet and mobile app, giving its 300,000 frontline employees access to personalized company comms for the first time. Workers can download the fully branded app, Smart Workspace, to their personal computers, phones, or tablets, and receive tailored communications, wherever they are. This allows delivery drivers and other offsite employees to connect with the company culture and feel part of something bigger.
Choosing the right communication software to support inclusive communication
If you’re truly serious about inclusivity, it should be embedded into every part of your organization — including the tools you use to communicate with your employees. After all, even a solid communication strategy won’t work if it’s not backed up by the right tools.
If you want to make your communication more inclusive, the first step is to deliver strategic communications from your company’s leadership, so they can champion inclusion and act as an example for the rest of the organization. But inclusive organizations don’t just focus on top-down communications. You’ll also need to find a tool that can facilitate peer-to-peer engagement and interdepartmental communication and allow employees to share their ideas and feedback.
And of course, communication isn’t really inclusive if it doesn’t reach everyone in your organization — whether or not they work behind a desk. Any communication you choose should include mobile access to ensure frontline workers aren’t left out of the loop.