Accelerating Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Initiatives with Digital Signage
The goal of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) initiatives is simple: to create environments where everyone feels respected, valued, and included. Said otherwise: DEI aims to ensure that everyone’s unique characteristics are celebrated and supported. These characteristics include (but are not limited to!) race, ethnicity, religion, age, gender, sexual orientation, abilities, background, and experience. When workplaces embrace these varied and interesting characteristics, they create environments with more equal access to opportunities, which drives higher rates of employee wellness, and better business outcomes.
In this article, we explore common examples of DEI initiatives, and review how they support safer, more engaged, and more productive workplaces. From there, we’ll share how digital signage can accelerate DEI initiatives, helping your organization shift gears in the drive towards positive change.
Investing into DEI builds better outcomes for people and organizations
Examples of DEI initiatives include hiring practices designed to reduce bias and enhance diversity, mentorship programs, employee training, inclusive holiday observations, resources and programs created to close gender-based and socioeconomically driven skills gaps, and accessibility-focussed initiatives and working environments.
Programs, policies, and resources such as these play an important role in creating workplaces where everyone feels valued and respected. Over time, it’s become clear that well-executed DEI initiatives support better employee engagement and retention, greater creativity, better decision-making and problem solving, and greater psychological safety.
Over time, it’s become clear that well-executed DEI initiatives support better employee engagement and retention, greater creativity, better decision-making and problem solving, and greater psychological safety.
There are also clear and significant benefits to organization’s bottom lines which flow from DEI policies and practices. DEI initiatives not only give your business a competitive advantage when it comes to recruiting, they also drive more positive brand awareness. In fact, a recent survey revealed that a staggering 64% of consumers considered making an immediate purchase when they believed that a brand embodies diversity and inclusion.
And when it comes to more mature DEI programs, the business outcomes are even more impressive: per Forbes, 75% of leaders in organizations with established DEI policies and programs viewed their DEI investment as positively impacting their competitive position. These leaders reported a four month time-to-market advantage over competitors, on average. Further, 63% of leaders stated that their DEI initiatives ‘extensively positively impacted agility/innovativeness.” This statistic is confirmed in another study which revealed that companies with diverse management teams achieved 19% higher revenue as a direct result of better innovation.
Companies with diverse management teams achieved 19% higher revenue as a direct result of better innovation.
It’s clear that DEI initiatives and inclusive workplaces are powerful forces for positive change, both for organizational culture and business success. So, it comes as no surprise that teams are now, more than ever, searching for tools that can help them accelerate these initiatives and boost their ROI from these programs.
Driving DEI initiatives with digital solutions
DEI efforts and digital transformation share a rapidly evolving relationship. As workplaces embrace more and more digital tools, it’s important that policies and programs which are built to facilitate inclusivity are incorporated into an organization’s broader digital landscape.
Symmetra is a leader in developing DEI strategies for some of the world’s largest organizations. In a recent article, their team explained how important it is for businesses to incorporate digital technology into their DEI efforts: “Incorporating digital technology into DEI efforts significantly broadens the accessibility and consistency of training . . . By leveraging advanced technologies and innovative strategies, businesses can create more inclusive environments that foster diversity and equity effectively.”
“Incorporating digital technology into DEI efforts significantly broadens the accessibility and consistency of training . . . By leveraging advanced technologies and innovative strategies, businesses can create more inclusive environments that foster diversity and equity effectively.”
Examples of digitally-powered or digitally-enhanced DEI efforts include digital learning platforms and digital platforms for data-driven insights. Per Symmetra, this enables a more unified approach to DEI training and for measuring the impact of your DEI initiatives. Further, digital technologies facilitate better accessibility to DEI resources, particularly for global or remote-first companies where in-person interaction with such materials isn’t always possible. Moreover, digital technologies help ensure that all employees- regardless of location, language, or department – are exposed to your DEI efforts.
Leveraging digital signage for increased visibility and understanding of DEI programs and policies
Digital signage should be an integral part of your organization’s DEI efforts. Not only does digital signage help ensure consistency across your communications, it unlocks opportunities for connections with your employees and customers that weren’t there before.
Digital signage enables you to easily share your DEI efforts with your teams and external audience, alike. And not only is the sharing of this information made easier with digital signage, but the pace at which you can share it is also greatly improved. Digital signage makes it possible for you to display content which supports your DEI efforts anywhere, at any time. Plus, you can update this content whenever you need to, regardless of where you are.
When it comes to what content you can display on your digital signage to support your DEI initiatives, the possibilities are vast. Internally, you might share access to, or insights from, DEI-focussed digital learning platforms across your digital signage. Across your internal and external communications, you can use your digital signage to share information about holidays or celebrations relevant to people in your organization, or your location. You can also use your digital signage to share your DEI positioning statements, diverse and inclusive employee stories, or even your mission, vision, and values as they pertain to DEI. And of course, you can use your digital signage to share more diverse and inclusive advertisements and promotions.
Advancing your DEI initiatives with the only intelligent digital signage platform
Yodeck is the first and only intelligent digital signage platform. With industry-defining features and functions that enable more consistent, more responsive, and more informative content, Yodeck makes it easier for you to accelerate your DEI initiatives and build a more inclusive workplace, and brand.
Yodeck is an ultra-secure, cloud-powered platform that’s been purpose built to streamline the entire digital signage process, from start to finish. With a huge library of templates, apps, and widgets, your team can easily start creating content that resonates with your most important audiences. And with the ability to change or update content remotely in real-time, you’ll gain the ability to connect with your teams, students, customers, or community members in the most relevant, most impactful ways possible.
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Diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives are critical to the success of any organization or brand. Not only do such initiatives help create safer, healthier, more respectful environments, they support better business practices and outcomes. And accelerating DEI efforts requires technologies that can help you spread your message and reach your audiences.
To explore the features and functions that make a Yodeck one-of-a-kind solution, you can explore this webpage. And if you’re ready to book a product demo, you can use this page.
*Katie Rose Hester is a senior content strategist and writer working with product-led businesses bringing interesting, helpful innovations to market.