Over the last few decades, with the greater movement of people within the country, especially from rural to urban areas, and availability of better educational opportunities, CII set up the Indian Women Network (IWN) and India Business and Disability Network (IBDN) as vehicles to champion and promote diversity and inclusion practices among industry members.
It is heartening to see that the industry has started paying attention to this crucial subject. Today, many companies are focussing on diversity and trying to ensure they have representation from diverse community groups, including persons with disabilities and LGBTQ. A diverse workforce brings different perspectives and insights and is a valuable asset to an organization. Therefore, companies are directing efforts to make workplaces inclusive, barrier-free and accessible. Some of them have gone a step further and are working across the industry to make them inclusive.
To further this journey and integrate efforts of various pillars into overall inclusion, CII, in partnership with Great Place to Work® Institute, the gold standard in workplace culture assessment and recognition globally, has launched the nation’s first holistic inclusion assessment – Workplace Inclusion Index™. The Workplace Inclusion Index™ signifies a critical step to further the Institute’s vision of making India a Great Place to Work™ FOR ALL.
The objective of the initiative is to help companies assess their inclusion practice and preparedness. This would also provide them with an opportunity to introspect and understand improvement areas to further guide companies in having more aspirational inclusion goals. The assessment framework would study the organizations from 3 key lenses – employee experience; inclusive people policies and the & impact of the diversity &inclusion (D&I) philosophy on the representation of under-represented groups, stakeholder empanelment, customer relations and community contributions.
Employee Experience
Experiences of well-represented and under-represented groups in the workplace will be collected and compared on 3 key dimensions: leadership intent, managerial support and workplace culture. Insights would range from visible to invisible aspects of diversity, and conscious and unconscious bias existing in the workplace to help organizations understand clear steps they can take to create an inclusive climate. The index brings in best practices to support recommendations to guide focussed action with internal and external benchmarking.
Inclusive People Policies
This section attempts to understand whether organizations have inclusive people policies to provide for the needs of diverse groups. Insights help organizations understand how they can enhance existing policies under accessibility, integration, support, development and enabling success to onboard, retain and grow diverse talent in the workplace.
Impact on Talent, Stakeholders, Customers and Society
This section attempts to understand if and whether the organization’s D&I philosophy extends to the talent market, vendors, suppliers, customers and societal contributions. While organizations may utilize this opportunity to baseline their culture of inclusion, this will also serve as a platform to arrive at India’s Best Workplaces in Diversity & Inclusion, a coveted recognition that will highlight the commitment of both leaders and organizations in building inclusive workplaces.
Know more or apply for the Workplace Inclusion Index™ Assessment by clicking here.