According to a study titled, ‘Uncovering Blind Spots: Outlook on Diversity, Inclusion and Belonging (DI&B) in Indian workplaces’ by Indeed, most employers believe diversity, inclusion and belonging are important for the overall performance of a company.
Around 77 per cent of the employers vouched that not prioritising such inclusive practices can have a negative impact on their company. In fact, 39 per cent of employers said that DI&B awareness amongst their company’s employees needed improvement.
However, while most employers were found to support DI&B practices at the workplace in theory, in practice, around 40 per cent of them were found to have no formal approach towards it. Only 21 per cent of the companies surveyed had official DI&B policies in place.
What’s more, 73 per cent of employees want to work in companies that have DI&B policies in place, as per the survey.
“Greater acceptance of a diverse workforce has been gaining ground among Indian employers for more than a decade now. Companies understand that these initiatives are valuable in attracting and retaining talent, boosting innovation and productivity. With nearly half of all employers surveyed (49%) having implemented DI&B initiatives over the past 18 months or more, we can see that prioritising DI&B is at the forefront for organisations,” Indeed India head of sales Sashi Kumar said.
The survey was conducted by Valuvox on behalf of Indeed. There were 1,142 participants who were employers and 1,430 participants who were employees, across sectors such as Banking, Financial Services and Insurance (BFSI), IT, media and entertainment, retail and telecommunications in 11 cities.