{"id":1506,"date":"2019-03-01T16:06:50","date_gmt":"2019-03-02T00:06:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ascentblog.org\/?p=1506"},"modified":"2019-03-01T16:07:00","modified_gmt":"2019-03-02T00:07:00","slug":"how-to-make-your-office-more-inclusive","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ascentblog.org\/how-to-make-your-office-more-inclusive\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Make Your Office More Inclusive"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Workplace\ninclusivity is a goal for many managers, but the most important thing to strive\nfor is interaction between coworkers. It is this daily connection that fosters\na sense of belonging and makes employees more likely to feel important. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Team Bonding<\/a><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"Hands<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Most\nemployee engagement experts agree: fostering relationships with colleagues\nboosts morale by making workers feel more valued and encourages them to share\ntheir ideas and opinions without fear of ridicule. It\u2019s a driving force behind\nsolving problems and often leads to improved products and services. The people\nyou work with on a daily basis are more influential than others both internally\nand externally, including organizational leaders and managers.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n


\nA Gallup poll<\/a> sheds light\non the benefits of workplace friendships; the study found that \u201cwhen employees\npossess a deep sense of affiliation with their team members, they are drive to\ntake positive actions that benefit the business \u2013 actions they may not\notherwise even consider if they did not have strong relationships with their\ncoworkers.\u201d About 20 percent of U.S. workers report having a close friend at\nwork; Gallup believes if that number were closer to 60 percent, companies would\nbenefit via a 36 percent drop in safety incidents, a 7 percent increase in the\nnumber of engaged customers, and 12 percent higher profits. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Clearly,\ninclusivity is something to strive for! But how to encourage team bonding on an\neveryday basis? The answer doesn\u2019t lie in big activities such as corporate\nretreats or team-building exercises, but rather in small, everyday actions.\nThink recognition of new ideas or finding ways to foster interactions that\nallow employees to get to know one another better. Doing so needn\u2019t be costly;\nFuel Medical, a medical practice consulting firm based in Camas, Washington,\nencourages team members to take new employees out for a cup of coffee on the\ncompany dime \u2013 an inexpensive and effective icebreaker. Project Solutions,\nInc., a project management firm in Rapid City, South Dakota, holds a weekly\nhuddle every Monday morning in which employees talk about what they did over\nthe weekend. Simple acts such as these go a long way toward making employees\nfeel like they are more than just cogs in the corporate wheel. A few additional\nstrategies you can implement to foster a sense of inclusivity might include:<\/p>\n\n\n\n