A strong diversity and inclusion strategy can help your organization attract top talent and drive innovative results. When it comes to establishing and following through on a commitment to diversity and inclusion, you can have a big impact. We have put together four ways to improve diversity and inclusion in your organization.

#1: Evaluate and Educate Your Leaders

Does your executive team portray diversity and inclusion? How diverse is your executive team? The makeup of your executive team is a huge signifier to the rest of your workforce (not to mention your customers, partners, etc.). The top management of a company speaks volumes about your culture. It is important to have diversity among top management. Are men and women equally represented? What about people from various cultural and religious backgrounds?

#2 Acknowledge and Honor All Religious and Cultural Practices

Introduce a policy for honoring a variety of cultural and religious practices. You can do this by focusing on holidays and celebrations. When employees feel satisfied with and supported in their work environment, the company benefits from higher employee retention.

#3: Foster a Culture Where Every voice is Welcome, Heard, and Respected

It is important to create an environment where employees feel a sense of connectedness to the company and its people. Employees need to feel free to express themselves based on their unique perspectives. Companies must make sure employees feel included and respected regardless of their age, gender, race, religion, sexual orientation, cultural background and more.

When it comes to supporting diversity and inclusion in the workplace, don’t play favorites, practice basic courtesy, and pay special attention to how you can embrace non-discriminatory practices and policies. Employees feel included when they feel “safe” to voice their concerns and opinions without fear of victimization. The freedom of expression without fear also empowers companies to not just listen to but also actively embrace diverse viewpoints.

#4: Create More Inclusive Workplace Policies

As you move to become a more diverse organization, do a deep dive of your current practices, and conduct a comprehensive evaluation of your workplace. Facilitating workplace diversity may mean creating new policies or amending current one’s system-wide, from recruitment to performance evaluations and promotions.

For example, when posting job openings, position descriptions should be tailored to reach broader audiences. Consider posting these position descriptions and sending recruitment specialists to a wider range of job fairs, community hiring offices, and outreach programs.

Other inclusive strategies that support diversity in the workplace include:

• Allowing employees to take off work for religious holidays that may not be officially observed by the company
• Offering on-site daycare
• Review your office set up to ensure an inclusive facility, such as the availability of non-gendered restrooms
• Extending the option for flexible work hours