Diversity and inclusion (D&I) are two of the most important aspects of any successful business. A diversity-focused workplace can benefit from increased creativity, improved customer service, and a better understanding of different cultures. But how do you ensure that your organisation embraces it?
One way to do this is by using DISC—a tool that helps companies understand employee personalities and behaviours. By utilising DISC, businesses can create an environment where diversity is welcomed and respected, making it easier for team members to collaborate effectively with each other regardless of differences.
In this blog post, we will explore how you can use DISC to support diversity and inclusion in your workplace.
Why diversity and inclusion are essential aspects of a successful business
A diverse workplace allows you to tap into the unique skills, experiences and perspectives of employees from different backgrounds, creating a more creative, innovative, and productive environment. You can also gain competitive advantages by accessing new markets or customer bases.
However, you can only fully unlock the benefits of diversity if you also maintain and promote inclusivity. Otherwise, all your efforts will not translate into what you want to embody and only be tokenism.
What is DISC?
DISC is a popular tool used to help organisations understand the personalities and behaviours of their employees. The DISC assessment involves assessing individual characteristics based on the four core styles: Dominance (D), Influence (I), Steadiness (S), and Compliance (C).
Dominance measures how assertive someone is in taking charge of situations; this includes traits such as power-seeking, decisiveness, and ambition. Influence centres on communication style—whether someone is more outgoing or reserved when engaging with others—intuition, and charisma. Steadiness deals with patience, reliability, and consistency—how someone responds to changes in a given situation. Finally, Compliance covers analytical thinking skills, attention to detail, and self-discipline.
With the information DISC provides, you better understand your team members with different backgrounds.
How you can use DISC to support diversity and inclusion in the workplace
DISC assessments help you identify employee personalities, behaviours, and diversity-related skills and characteristics. Understanding these unique attributes help you create a more inclusive culture for your people.
Furthermore, you will get insight into how different individuals interact within the workplace depending on their DISC profiles, allowing you to create well-balanced teams across your company. The profiles you get can also guide you in planning development paths tailored to your people’s needs and boost D&I awareness and acceptance.
Finally, DISC can help you identify potential areas of bias or discrimination that you should address before they become irreparable damages. All these features make DISC an invaluable tool for businesses seeking to enhance diversity and inclusion within their organisation.
The benefits of using DISC for D&I initiatives
Utilising DISC helps foster a workplace culture that embraces diversity and inclusion as an integral part of success. It permits employees to understand each other better regardless of their unique identities, allowing you to respect and celebrate every individual in the workplace.
Ultimately, using DISC for D&I initiatives enables businesses to create a more inclusive environment where employees feel valued and recognised for who they are and what they bring to the team.
Tips on implementing DISC in your organisation
Organisations should ensure that they have a comprehensive strategy before implementing DISC.
Identifying diversity and inclusion goals, getting buy-in from stakeholders, and establishing metrics are all essential steps that can help ensure the successful implementation of DISC in the workplace.
Additionally, it is crucial to ensure that employees understand the purpose of using DISC and how it’ll affect their lives in the organisation. Training sessions for employees can explain the purpose and function of DISC assessments and how they can benefit D&I initiatives.
You must also regularly review your success metrics to identify areas of improvement and develop strategies for furthering diversity efforts.
Lastly, verify that everyone on the team understands diversity and inclusion policies, procedures, and guidelines. This supports your objective of creating an inclusive work environment and ensures that every employee receives fair treatment regardless of their background or personal characteristics. Through these steps, you can successfully implement DISC in your company.
Wrapping up: The key points about diversity, inclusion, and DISC
Diversity and inclusion are essential aspects of successful businesses, and DISC can be one of your most valuable tools to integrate your initiatives into your culture.
DISC can immensely support your D&I initiatives and help you achieve your goals.
But it’s also critical you use DISC appropriately and that your DISC assessment is valid and reliable. Having a partner like DISC Flow® who goes beyond the traditional DISC model by combining it with the power of emotional intelligence can make rolling out the assessment and other solutions you want to use easier.
Remember that having a truly diverse and inclusive workplace should come with established and clear objectives with measurable goals and success metrics.
Additionally, you should provide ongoing diversity training for all staff—emphasising the importance of creating an inclusive environment where everyone feels valued regardless of their background or identity.
Finally, you should ensure your organisation has adequate resources to implement diversity initiatives based on the findings from DISC assessments. By considering these steps, you equip yourself better to use DISC successfully to support diversity and inclusion in the workplace.
We at DISC Flow® are passionate about using our industry expertise to develop your people, teams, and organisational culture, including helping them with diversity and inclusion. Our unique DISC Flow® assessments and reports use the combined power of the DISC model and emotional intelligence to supercharge your workplace and transform your workplace.
To learn more, email us at info@discflow.co or contact us through this link.
