Speaker 1: Hello world, my name is Shelley and today we're going to talk about the importance of diversity, equity, and inclusion, also known as DEI, in the workplace. This topic has changed a lot over the last few years, and it is more important than ever to understand the impact that DEI has on an organization. Let's talk about some tips on implementing cultural diversity in the workplace. The most important piece to cultural diversity is that it widens your talent pool. Plus, with most organizations allowing remote work, you can widen your talent pool even further as you're not tied to geographic regions. A way to achieve cultural diversity in the workplace is by building a work environment of diversity, equity, and inclusion. So why is this important? With employees from all different ages, genders, races, sexual orientations, religions, ethnicities, abilities, and cultural backgrounds bringing ideas to the table, your products and services will serve a wider, more inclusive audience. This is important because this is how innovation happens. Innovation rarely happens when everyone is the same and agrees all of the time. We should also work to foster inclusion by encouraging a wide variety of views, perspectives, and ideas to be heard and celebrated. Everyone should feel confident that they are being heard, which will lead them to continue to bring their ideas to the table. When we embrace DEI at an organizational level, there are huge benefits for all of us, including increased productivity as people who come together and bring their own style of working together tend to support a more productive team, innovation as different groups work together to share ideas, new opportunities arise as diversity opens the door to a wider audience and the blending of ideas which would otherwise have been homogenous, and faster problem-solving. Challenges are layered, so having people with different backgrounds can lead to better problem-solving with a richness of opinions. Diverse groups have a greater range of perspectives and generate high-quality solutions. Employees with solid DEI initiatives enjoy all of the benefits that come with a diverse employee base. Working with people who are different than you is also a great way to expand your boundaries and learn about people who are different from you. This can go a long way to help you achieve personal growth. How do you support DEI in the workplace? The first step is to get involved. You can join a DEI committee in your workplace, start conversations, and give feedback. Most people say that they support DEI, but their actions suggest otherwise. You cannot both support DEI and stay out of the conversation or avoid conflict. Your actions must support your words. The second step is that you need to listen. You should welcome ideas that are different from your own and support your fellow teammates. Listening is a hard skill to master, as it is human nature to want to offer your opinion. However, you need to understand that your opinion can and should be changed. None of us are right 100% of the time, and you should be open to the ideas of others. The third step is to join a community. There are communities on social media and events that you can attend to support marginalized groups. In the past few years, these communities have exploded, and now there are more places to be supportive than ever. You should find a marginalized group that you're interested in supporting and seek out people in that community to get involved. I teach DEI practices in several of my Pluralsight courses, including Increasing Mental Health Awareness for Improved Inclusiveness, Managing Technical Professionals, and Launching Successful Teams. These courses include animated, scenario-based training following a cast of characters from course to course as they learn to support diversity, equity, and inclusion in the workplace. These courses cover topics such as supporting people with mental health disorders, ensuring that your talent pool is inclusive, and much more. Visit hofstech.com slash DEI to get started with these courses today. How are you going to support DEI initiatives in your workplace? Let me know in the comments and please be sure to like, subscribe, and share this video. Visit our website at hofstech.com and subscribe to my newsletter to be notified when I publish content and schedule events. Follow me on Twitter at S. Benhof and check out my podcast, TRs in Tech, available now wherever you get your podcasts and on the TRs in Tech YouTube channel. Thanks for watching and have a great day.