Inclusion is extremely important to us at Qlearsite, especially when thinking about the employee experience. We’ve broken down inclusion into four tangible areas to measure it in the workplace – Safety & Access, Belonging, Trust & Fairness, and Acceptance.
It can be challenging to know how to measure inclusion, and where to start. In this article we’ll be focusing on Safety & Access and why it’s an important factor of how included people feel.
When it comes to Inclusion, Safety and Access play a key role in the workplace. This means that everyone should have equal access to facilities and resources, feel safe while at work and employees can pursue their career without fear.
If all employees don’t feel safe within the workplace or have access to the same resources as their colleagues, the level of inclusivity within an organisation needs to be reflected on.
Safety and access can be broken down into three main areas: Accessible, Safety and Appropriate.
The most basic form of inclusion is equal, free, unhindered movement within common areas and access to all facilities or resources. Accessibility captures a wide range of circumstances – the most common example would be physical accessibility such as wheelchair ramps, braille signage and accessible restrooms.
Nearly one in five people in the UK has a disability, including more than eight million of working age. However it’s important to note that not all disabilities are visible – for example some people may have hearing loss, visual impairment and learning disabilities.
When thinking about accessibility within your organisation, it’s essential to consider the needs of all groups of employees. The fundamental point is that all employees should have access to the same resources and facilities within an organisation no matter their circumstance.
It goes without saying that employees should feel safe when they’re in the workplace. The feeling of safety incorporates a measure of both the realised and perceived danger of workplaces – both physical and psychological safety. If employees don’t feel safe at work, it’s hard for them to feel included.
Examples of safety in the workplace can include space, workstations, fire, work related stress and harrassment. The idea of safety spans across a range of areas, and it’s vital that physical safety isn’t the only thing being addressed. In 2019/20 it was found that 38.8 million days were lost due to work-related illness and workplace injury.
There’s always a time and a place for something, and it’s important to consider colleagues’ perception of each other’s behaviours and whether interpersonal interaction is always well judged. In other words, do employees behave appropriately at work and do they handle personal and difficult situations with sensitivity.
The way people behave in the workplace can affect the psychological (sometimes even physical) safety of others and different groups of people within an organisation. Examples of inappropriate behaviour can include bullying, harassment, aggression and violence. A recent study has revealed over a third of employees in the UK have experienced or witnessed bullying at work over the past three years.
Measuring Inclusion matters because it directly impacts your employees and their experiences of and with your organisation. Inclusion feeds into other areas of the employee experience such as engagement, productivity and retention. For more information about our Inclusion framework click here.
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