53 Little Things You Can Do to Impact Diversity at Your Company

53 Little Things You Can Do to Impact Diversity at Your Company When it comes todiversity and inclusion (DI), I often find people fervently arguing in support of creating a more diverse and inclusive workplace and then losing steam on the doing parte. It can be difficult to know how to drive the movement forward, especially if DI isnt part of your job description.After struggling with this myself, I departureed this list as a way of brainstorming every single discrete action I could think of to move the needle on DI. You know, stuff thatanybody inany organization can actuallydo. Because after all, DI is everyones responsibility, and collective effort is needed to really make an impact.So without further ado, here are 53 little things that you can do to improve DI at your company, regardless of where you work or what you do. Theyre sorted by the time commitment involved, from under an hour to ongoing over months or years.1 hour1. Listen to people who are leid like you.2. Put your pre ferred pronouns in your email signature.3. Bring up DI with your manager. Ask What are we doing on our team?4. Give feedback on your companys DI efforts.5. Advertise DI initiative events on social. Show people that this is something you care about -- it can make a big difference in the hiring process.6. Check and understand your privilege bytaking this test.7. Say I value your perspective to people who bring a different opinion or viewpoint.8. Prompt remote meeting participants for questions or thoughts.9. When you have a minute with leadership, ask about what were doing programmatically to improve DI.10. Demonstrate that you care about someone. Not aya how to do that? Saying I care about you never hurts.11. Take thistest to understand your implicit bias.12. Prompt someone whos reticent to share their thoughts. Managers, ask how people who are notlage being heard how theyd prefer to contribute (written, verbal, etc.), and what barriers stand in their way.13. Ask your peers in anothe r office what is happening in their office/country.14. Create an anonymous survey for your team, and ask how they would rate DI on the team and give suggestions of where and how to improve.15. If youre not sure how to pronounce someones name, ask, and then be sure to pronounce it correctly going forward.16. Have an answer when a job candidate or someone else asks What is your company doing to improve DI?17. Have an answer when a candidate or someone else asks Why do you care about DI?18. Spend some time on LinkedIn sourcing diverse candidates and adding them to your companys applicant tracking system.19. Call out bad behavior when you see it.20. If someone gives you constructive feedback related to DI, resist the urge to get defensive. Instead, listen, thank them for their feedback, own up to the impact of your actions, and commit to improve.21. Share your experience.22. Check language that makes someone feel other.23. Watchthis video to learn more about inclusion.24. Run job descri ptions and other candidate-facing copy through Textio to flag biased language (create a free account here).25. Share articles on social issues and prompt a conversation.26. Proactively ask for constructive feedback Am I doing anything to hinder inclusion on this team, and if so, what?27. When in doubt, have a conversation. Say something instead of nothing.28. Dont interrupt in meetings.29. Advocate for others.30. UseShine Theory.31. Ask your coworkers how their day is going and genuinely listen.32. Add another suggestion to this list1-5 hours33. Network and keep tabs on standout people. Connect on LinkedIn, check in from time to time, and keep them warm for recruiting down the line.34. Go to affinity group events -- both internal and external. Share your learnings with your colleagues.35. Watch GooglesUnconscious Bias training video.36. Interview based on competencies and potential vs. strictly past experience.37. Actively diversify your sources of information and media.38. Offer wo rkshops, training programs, or mentoring so that people who dont have the skills your team requires today can get them.39. Include DI in your self-review.40. If theres not an ERG (Employee Resource Group) for a certain affinity group, start one.41. Make your team events inclusive of different lifestyles.42. If youre responsible for externally-facing collateral, be mindful of pictures, pronouns, and accessibility.43. Make your interview panel diverse.44. Explore blind interviewing exercises for your team.45. When youre networking with other folks in a similar role to yours externally, ask What are you doing to improve DI at your company, and what tips can you share of whats been effective?46. Support your companys ERGs through attending, volunteering at events, suggesting speakers, etc.Longer-term / Ongoing47. Make an effort to sit with different groups at company outings, or take someone you dont know to out coffee. Be mindful of default gravitating to the people you know or are the most comfortable with.48. Make a choice to actively support DI efforts at your company. DI it doesnt just happen it requires a commitment.49. Volunteer with organizations that support underrepresented populations in building workforce skills.50. Think about the people you naturally distance yourself from. Consciously move toward them instead.51. Mentor someone (inside or outside of HubSpot).52. Accept that you may not have all of the answers, and thats okay.Special thanks to Winston Tuggle, Melissa Obleada, People Of Color at HubSpot (POCaH), and Katie Burke for their ideas and help with this post.--This post originally appeared onHubSpot.