Culture | Why should HR care about D&I?

Belief in the importance of Diversity and Inclusion (D&I) has soared over the past few years, as businesses begin to recognise the benefits that harbouring a culturally diverse workforce can have.

This is why the implementation and execution of D&I strategies in the workplace — and the continuous promotion of such HR initiatives — is important for HR professionals to consider. Not only will prioritising D&I avoid discriminative workplace labels, it will also increase a businesses exposure to legal compliance.

HR Consultant and Author of Inclusion: Diversity, the New Workplace, and The Will to Change, Jennifer Brown, told Forbes that D&I are closely related, but defined differently.

She said: “Diversity is the who and the what: who’s sitting around that table, who's being recruited, who's being promoted, who we’re tracking from the traditional characteristics and identities of gender and ethnicity, and sexual orientation and disability—inherent diversity characteristics that we're born with.”