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Faith: The Forgotten Dimension of Diversity and Inclusion

  • April 15, 2022
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  • Faith: The Forgotten Dimension of Diversity and Inclusion
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In this episode of Inclusion in Progress, we take a moment to discuss one of the forgotten and often overlooked facets of diversity and inclusion: faith. Kay takes us through her thought process and into the realm of religion and spiritual beliefs as they are—and could be— within the workplace, and where it fits into this season’s theme of psychological safety at work.

Religion has been included in conversations surrounding diversity and inclusion in the past, and organizations have made many steps to ensure that religious and spiritual beliefs are recognized in terms of giving appropriate days off, or making dress code expectations more respectful of cultural and religious needs. But what could we be doing as leaders to make it a safer topic? How can we support each other’s beliefs in the day-to-day operation of our business? How could we be more supportive and even celebratory of one another’s beliefs? How would it impact our teams and talent retention if people came to work and felt good about sharing their religious and spiritual beliefs openly instead of putting them aside? It’s a deep question, and there is a lot to consider for organizations that we walk you through on the podcast based on our work with cross-cultural and remote teams.

On top of that, our post-pandemic world has left a lot of leaders with questions on how to handle religious or political exemptions surrounding vaccine mandates in the workplace: which is very top of mind and requires a lot of case by case attention. Regardless of where our teams stand on vaccine mandates due to their religious beliefs, we still need to nurture an environment where everyone feels psychologically safe to support one another through this challenging season. Ultimately, we hope this episode helps you consider how religious and spiritual beliefs should be factored into your DEI strategy, and into how you consider supporting inclusion for your teams navigating our rapidly changing workplace.

Read Full Transcript

Welcome to the Inclusion in Progress podcast where we give you the ideas, actions and insights to help you build more equity at your workplace and in the world at large. I'm your host, Kay Fabella, international expert on diversity, equity and inclusion, a Filipina American living in Spain and your guide in navigating this DEI journey. Having worked with teams at companies such as Philips, the IMF, Red Hat, PepsiCo and more, I know firsthand that the work of inclusion only works when everyone has a seat at the table. Regardless of your personal entrypoint into this conversation: your race, ethnicity, gender, ability, age, sexual orientation, country of origin, or educational background, we all have a role to play in creating inclusion for all and it starts with us having conversations we need to create the change we wish to see. So let's dive into today's episode.

Hey there and welcome back!

Now as this episode goes out, Yours Truly is in Londontown. Yup, she’s left Spain y’all! Now it's a huge deal for me to be able to travel back to London from my adopted city of Madrid, because it's one of the first places that I visited when I made it out to Europe from my home state of California as a teenager. And it's also bittersweet for me, because many of my friends, my clients and colleagues are based in and around the UK… and I haven't been able to see any of them physically, since this pandemic began.

Now, the other thing I love about being here in London is, of course, the diversity of people, of languages, of faiths, of customs… you just walk around the street. Which does remind me of my home city of Los Angeles to some degree, and… well give or take a few cars, because it is LA! But while I'm sure it's a different vibe post-Brexit and COVID-19, you can still run into people from everywhere. And what I love about walking around London is that it's a palpable reminder of the world as it already is. The diversity of backgrounds of lenses, of cultures, and all.

Which is why I'm super excited to be back in the UK squeezing in some long overdue fist bumps and hugs with people I haven't seen since… woah, 2019! Wow! And not to mention getting a few long runs around Buckingham Palace and the Thames River as I train for my first half marathon at the end of this month! That's coming right up. All while, of course, continuing our client delivery for Inclusion in Progress both in-person and virtually! How exciting is it to say that? In-person too!

Now, I've always loved being able to travel and work from different locations, obviously, even before remote work was “trendy”, or you could say, forced on us by this pandemic. Now, our own 100% remote team spans APAC, EMEA and the Americas, which provides us a unique lens for our client partners in delivering inclusion and talent strategies because we know what it's like to work with people from different parts of the world and to advise on what teams need to feel both connected to their organizations, and feel supported by a psychologically safe environment.

So if you'd like to book a call with us before we close our client roster for 2022, or to learn about how you can work with us in 2023, head to the link in the show notes to get in touch with our team. Now, if you've been to our digital home at inclusioninprogress.com, you'll see that one of the big ways we're shifting our own workflow is by only taking on 10 client partners per year. Which allows us to go wider and deeper with our relationships, while giving our team a sustainable way to deliver the work that we care about and, as of this time of this recording, we have four more client spots for the rest of the year.

So again, you can reach out to us at the link in the show notes of this episode (that's episode IIIP088, if you're rolling along) or email us at info@inclusioninprogress.com to book a call and learn how we could partner with you this year, and whether or not one of our services is a fit for your team or organizational needs. Now we're happy to discuss how our own IIP framework can help you to increase talent retention by prioritizing inclusion, wellness, psychological safety and support for remote workers across your organization.

Now, back to today's episode: for the second season of our podcast, our team wanted to cover psychological safety. Because, as many of us know, psychological safety is a determining factor for a company's ability to foster inclusion, and to support their team's collective well-being. Now, we already kicked off this season with an in-depth definition of psychological safety and what it means in the context of remote teams, which is a bit of our specialty. So if you haven't already listened to episode IIP087, please be sure to go ahead and do so.

But as we know, psychological safety can mean different things to different team members with all of the different lived identities that they occupy. And when it comes to the workplace, at any given time, those different lenses influence how we interact with those around us and the world at large… and those lenses, those identities are always colliding and compromising with those of others based on their own identities.

Now, most of the identities that we draw from and discuss within the context of diversity, equity and inclusion or DEI relate to culture, to country, to language, and lived experiences. However, during one of our Friday team calls, we realized that there was another missing dimension that we tend to overlook: that of faith, of religion, and spiritual beliefs. Specifically, we realized that on #TeamIIP, there are actually three faiths represented among us.

We know that the world has become increasingly secular in the last few decades, particularly younger generations. Many of the people that we work with in the tech industry, for example, would identify as not being affiliated with the religion or “spiritual but not religious”, meaning that they don't subscribe to our particular faith or religion. But religion remains an integral part of many people's lives, with 84% of our global population identifying with a religious group.
So, this is interesting for us to discuss for two reasons: The first being, just because we don't identify with a religion, or don't know someone who talks openly about their religious beliefs, doesn't mean that our colleagues and our direct reports don't consider their religion or their faith a key aspect of their identity. Oftentimes, many just prefer not to disclose their faith in a more secular, or say, predominantly Judeo-Christian Western working environment.

And the second reason is this: religion and religious beliefs have always been a part of the DEI conversation and workplaces… even if fewer people seem to openly identify as religious at work. Back in episode IIP031 of this podcast where we define where racism came from, we highlighted the 1964 Equal Employment Opportunity Act in my birth country of the US. That Act was passed as a direct response to the Civil Rights Movement and created what we know as protected classes. This also formally recognized the inequities of underrepresented or minority groups and made it illegal for organizations to discriminate against them. But many people forget that this same Equal Employment Opportunity Act also included a provision for companies not discriminating on the basis of religion, and or lack of religious beliefs.

Which ties into this idea of how we can foster a psychologically safe environment for those on your teams that have a religious practice, or that subscribe to religious beliefs. If, for an example, an employee doesn't feel like accommodations will be made for them to observe fasting during Ramadan, they're less likely to disclose their faith, and, therefore, less likely to contribute to or stay on your teams.

So for today's episode, we wanted to dive into an overlooked topic of many DEI initiatives: the importance of supporting team members, faith and spiritual beliefs in the workplace. So let's dive right in!

Let's start first by looking at why it's important to include faith in our diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives. Nearly all mainstream business articles that we've read or viewed or researched in relation to this episode around things like DEI, remote work, or cross cultural communication… all advocate this idea of personal openness and fostering psychological safety that allows us to share our core identities at work. But the vast majo

rity of the articles that we viewed still avoid the topic of religious expression in the workplace. When we deliver workshops for client partners and invite participants to consider the different ways their identity shapes how they engage in the workplace, we're also asking them to look at the non-obvious or non-visible aspects of diversity, including faith and religious beliefs. Because these so-called below-the-waterline identities are just as important as that tip-of-the-iceberg, visible diversity dimension.

But I get why we aren't comfortable talking about faith. We tend to think of business overall as a secular activity. And, even before the pandemic forced us to navigate working from home, organizations were already seen as challenging settings for conversations about faith and religion. However, given the growing popularity of individuals bringing their whole selves to work, the renewed interest at least in Western countries in Eastern practices such as yoga, meditation and mindfulness, and the fact that more than 80% of the world claims some sort of religious affiliation, leaders are increasingly concerned about how best to handle expressions of faith by their employees.

Whether you have colleagues or direct reports that identify as some denomination of Christian, Muslim, Jewish, Buddhist, Hindu, or are unaffiliated with a religious practice or institution… for many religious team members, their faith is associated with a deeply held values that inform their actions and behaviors at work,, as well as, of course, in their personal lives.

Now, some of our team's religious observances or practices can include things like attending worship services, praying, wearing religious dress or symbols, displaying religious objects, adhering to certain dietary rules, forms of religious expression, refraining from certain activities: such as fasting or abstaining from drinking alcohol and more. In workplaces where employees feel that psychological safety to be comfortable talking about their religious beliefs, and how their lives are shaped by them, our teams can gain a richer understanding of our colleagues’ personal motivations and values at play in our organizations, which helps leaders increase their understanding of how to support their diverse workforce.

At the same time, it's no surprise that religion is a topic that's avoided in workplaces. One reason is that it varies greatly by geographic location and culture. In Norway, for example, it's considered extremely rude to discuss anything related to God, Christianity, or religious beliefs in general… and doing so is highly discouraged as being offensive or even exclusionary behavior in the workplace. Contrast that with the majority Muslim work calendars places like the UAE or Qatar, where religion is quite literally at the heart of the workplace structure and employee ecosystem.

Another reason is that, since religion is an intrinsic marker of one's identity and personal values and shapes how they live and operate outside of the workplace, it's much more likely that employees of different faiths in a work environment will disagree when they feel that their religious beliefs are being challenged.

Now, expressions of religious belief may also conflict with the requirements of the business… which forces employers to walk that fine line between non-discrimination on religious grounds, service to the end user or customer, and fair treatment of all of their employees. We've seen examples of where companies that are explicitly religious… like say, for example, the Salvation Army, or examples of where founders' religious beliefs or CEOs' religious beliefs affect company policy… like, Chick-fil-A or Hobby Lobby in the US. We've also seen examples of companies where cases of religious dress, such as being able to wear a hijab at work, have resulted in lawsuits… causing people to leave or even to be fired. Which, in turn, damages the organization's reputation and makes it more difficult to attract or retain talent and customers.

Now, those that don't subscribe to the beliefs of their company’s leaders may find themselves breaking under the strain of working for an organization that they feel is forcing them to go against their personal value system. Or worse yet, those who fall into a minority faith group in their company may find themselves on the receiving end of discrimination and exclusionary behavior.

With so much at stake. It's little wonder that organizations bypass or gloss over discussing religion in global diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives.

But here’s the truth: everyone has a viewpoint on religion or faith. Whether their belief is atheistic, or dogmatic, or academic, or indifferent, or somewhere in between… Managing these various points of view with respect and equity can support creating a culture where employees are happier and more productive, while also supporting legal compliance for organizations.
When we think about it, looking back in history, religion and the wars that were fought and the cultures that were formed around religious beliefs, had a heavy influence on our current global landscape, and faith continues to influence our employees today.

When employers and leaders work to actively accommodate highly diverse religious beliefs and practices by fostering psychological safety, the values of business, of customers, and employees can co-exist. Now, as we looked back in episode IIP087, psychological safety isn't about getting everyone to agree with one another. It's about creating a working environment where everyone can collaborate and collide with compassion. Which makes our teams better equipped to respond productively to leverage the value of the different perspectives, opinions, and ideas present in our workplaces.

So now let's take a look at the ways that we can include faith in our DEI initiatives, and how that's linked to fostering psychological safety on our teams. It's no secret that organizations have been focusing heavily on talent retention. Specifically, how to establish work environments where so-called differences are treated with respect and inclusion… and where those diverse perspectives are effectively leveraged to motivate our best employees to stay.

But DEI programs, including employee onboarding and mandatory training, should also be mindful of including religious differences. It's important to clarify that it's the responsibility of every one of our employees to be aware, to be knowledgeable, and to be respectful of a wide range of both religious and non-religious beliefs that are present at work.

Allyship training and bystander initiatives, which we often hear thrown around focused on race or sexual orientation, should also include information on how to be an ally for co-workers of different faiths. If an ally is a person who actively supports an underrepresented or historically excluded group of which they are not a member, then employees should be encouraged to speak up for others and take actions… such as, supporting a coworker who is subjected to insensitive or harassing conduct.

So, for example, when a hiring manager indicates not wanting to hire a candidate who wears a headscarf because they probably “can't work, the schedule that we require”. Others involved in that hiring decision should speak up and question that assumption as allies. Or when an employee who is, say, a Jehovah's Witness declines to attend a company celebration and is referred to as anti-social and unappreciative by a co-worker., other employees can take the opportunity to be allies themselves and show support by letting their co-worker know they respect their colleagues' right to honor their religious practices at work.

Ultimately, it's important for employees to know that they're safe to disclose their religious beliefs, or lack thereof at work. Because, in the same way that culture, or ethnicity, or race, or gender identity, or ability, or neurodiversity, make up a core part of their identity and influences their non-work roles… supporting those of different faiths influences whether or not they're likely to engage with, contribute to, or stay in our organizations.

With remote and hybrid work becoming the norm for our companies, the most significant point of contact that teams of different religious beliefs and faiths will have is with their boss or people manager. What we've learned from working with remote teams for the past eight years is this: psychological safety is only achieved through regular intention, ideation and implementation. It's not a one-off, it's not a one-and-done deal. And unfortunately, many of the teams we worked with are struggling with psychological safety because they're also struggling with burnout due to their heavy fast-paced work environments, not seeing one another face-to-face since the start of the pandemic, and a sense of mistrust in their organizations and leaders due to mismatched expectations and poor communication. It feels like this never ending spiral.

So what can we do?

As someone listening to this podcast, as a people leader or a manager, or someone that people look to in an organization.... Sometimes all you need is that container to “zoom out”. Remove yourselves from the day-to-day with your team. Think of it as a reset to help you check in with one another, to reset your boundaries and expectations, to maybe learn things that you didn't know or maybe had assumed about one another, and follow a specific framework that will help your team foster an environment of psychological safety that allows everyone to show up and contribute as their best selves at work… or share when they're struggling.

Sometimes you need a way to allow your team members to tap back into their ability to be agile and to innovate, that draws from all of them sharing their diverse perspectives and knowing that their ideas will be heard. To get the best out of your team members and to get your best people to stay, you must create an environment where people feel like they have each other's back… and now more than ever, organizations need leaders with the integrity to tell the truth, the vulnerability to say, “I don't know”, the courage to accept being challenged by others, and the guts to act in the interests of those around them.

Promoting psychological safety isn't easy but, at Inclusion in Progress, we're here to help you make it more manageable. Through our remote team-building workshops, we partner with people managers to help their teams create a shared working agreement that fosters inclusion that relies on both a shared code of conduct and structures for communication that work in a virtual work environment, all while having an open discussion about what's necessary for your team to thrive and trust in one another. Every experience will be different because they are tailored to each team's participants and the makeup of who's on your team and where they come from. So if you would like to learn more about how to book a personalized psychological safety workshop for your remote team that helps you boost morale and engagement at a time when people need it most, head to the link in the show notes to get in touch with our team, or email us at info@inclusioninprogress.com. We've just opened up slots for Q4 and for Q1 in 2023. So before we close our calendar for the rest of this year, of 2022, when you're listening to this episode… we'd love to share how we could partner with you this year to foster inclusion for your team or your organization.

Last but not least, let's take a look at how to ensure and support religious freedom within your work culture against the backdrop of our post-pandemic world. I wanted to end this episode by sharing with you some of the ways that we've witnessed companies supporting an environment of psychological safety for teams of different faiths and religious beliefs from across the world.

As we navigate in person work again, DEI, HR and people leads have also begun to consider religious accommodations for staff who choose to work in the office. According to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, or the EEOC in the US, a reasonable religious accommodation is any adjustment to the work environment that allows employees to practice their religion or honor their sincerely held ethical or moral beliefs without causing undue hardship to the employer.

Now, that sounds very general. So let's break that down a bit.

Modifications to workplace practices, or policies, or procedures that account for these religious accommodations can include things like: flexible scheduling for those of different faiths, voluntary substitutions, or swaps, or job reassignments and lateral transfers within the company. Another example is how and when team members are able to take time off and allowing them to choose without necessarily having to follow a, say, majority Judeo-Christian calendar that dictates days off in many companies. This could also include things like educating managers on the different religious holidays and observances of their team members, such as being mindful of scheduling calls during prayer times, or high holy days. Or this can include encouraging teams to create a working document where they can list important dates or religious observances for their colleagues to be aware of. These are just a few examples of how organizations can accommodate an employee's religious beliefs, practices and observances.

For those who are looking to redesign their in-person workspaces, organizations can be more intentional in either repurposing or designating interfaith or multifaith prayer rooms. Whether teams are observing Ramadan, or are of the Orthodox Jewish faith, or prefer to engage in their own personal meditation practices at work throughout the day, having a nondenominational space for team members of different faiths has already been a practice at inclusive organizations prior to the pandemic. So we're now witnessing companies not just revisit or establish policies and procedures that support those types of multifaith prayer rooms, but also looking at policies and procedures that team members know that they can use to request religious accommodations if need be. Or we're witnessing companies working to ensure that company policies don't inadvertently discriminate against different faiths, such as dress code policies that restrict religious dress, or facial hair…or creating their own internal calendar that is sourced from different cultures and countries across the organization, and being more inclusive of all the different faiths that are present in the organization at large.

Finally, rather than discouraging religious discussions at work, we should be looking at providing employees with cross-cultural and globally referenced resources on how to learn about their co-workers' religious preferences with respectful discussions. Fostering a sense of psychological safety for all of our team members across the globe starts with an organization doing their due diligence, to incorporate important cultural and religious holidays for those of different faiths, instead of focusing on where their companies are headquartered.

DEI awareness initiatives must also be backed up by providing adequate resources for leaders or people managers who continue to be the first and, in many cases, only point of contact with organizations. These types of resources can include: guides for how to foster interfaith discussion, or provide appropriate channels when someone experiences religious discrimination or stereotyping. While it's helpful to educate or inform staff about how to avoid bias, how to foster inclusive language, and how to challenge stereotypes and discrimination against those a different faiths, it comes down to how organizations reward that behavior. So when clients ask us about resources for supporting workers of different faiths, we often refer them to either the Religious Faith & Business Foundation, or the Tanenbaum Center for Interreligious Understanding, which we’ll be sure to link to in the show notes if you're looking for that kind of support.

Now, the biggest challenge… and I've been kind of dancing around this if I'm being honest, because kind of dicey. But the biggest challenge we're seeing around multi-faith teams right now, especially for our US-based clients, is around employees asking to be excused from vaccine mandates on the basis of their religious beliefs.

Now, before I dive into this topic, let me be clear where I stand on this personally: I am fully vaccinated. And I chose to do so for several reasons. The first being that my dad and my cousin are both medical professionals, who've both been on the frontlines of this pandemic. The second is that my Spanish father-in-law was hospitalized at the start of lockdown in March 2020 and we weren't sure if he was going to make it. And the third is that I was diagnosed with Omicron four days before I was scheduled to receive my booster! Let me tell you, it's no picnic! Now, my husband who had received his booster did not get the virus despite us both being in the same household, and it convinced me to get the booster as soon as I was able and I was recovered.

All of that being said, I also know that the dialogue around vaccines for both skeptics and supporters is, unfortunately, a challenging one, especially when it is so linked to either political, or religious, or spiritual beliefs. Many members of my own family are still vaccine skeptics, despite getting the virus themselves. So while I personally believe as many of us as possible should be vaccinated, I also know that the polarization around the topic requires sensitivity and intentionality for employers who are trying to adequately honor that diverse range of beliefs around vaccines in the workplace.

Now, while many public and private employers in the United States have required workers to be vaccinated against COVID-19, we know that some are allowing exemptions for people who say that the vaccine violates their religious beliefs.

In October 2021, the EEOC issued additional guidance to help employers identify the credibility of an employee's request for exemption from the COVID-19 vaccine. And, in that update, they clarified that social, political or economic views, as well as mere personal preferences, are not religious beliefs subject to a religious exemption from COVID-19 vaccine mandates. Now, this clarification is particularly important because employee vaccine mandates have become, as we know, highly contentious… and employees may claim that their personal or political or other non-religious beliefs exempt them from those vaccine mandates in the workplace. So, in case you haven't read it, the criteria that the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission recommended when it came to employers evaluating whether or not to give religious exemptions for vaccine mandates were as follows:

First, whether or not the employees acted inconsistently with their professed belief. Second, whether the employee is seeking a “particularly desirable combination” that is likely to be sought for non-religious reasons. Third, the timing of the request is “suspicious.” For example, the employee may have recently requested the same benefit for secular reasons and was denied. Fourth, the employer otherwise has reason to believe the accommodation is not sought for religious reasons. And Five, while prior inconsistent conduct is relevant to determining the sincerity of an employee's beliefs, the EEOC caution that an employee's beliefs and degree of adherence to those beliefs may change over time.

Now, we’ll be sure to link to that as well in the show notes because it is a very important and interesting read for those who are looking at navigating this as we plan out return to office strategies. Now, despite this polarizing public debate, we have witnessed from Inclusion in Progress workplaces worldwide that are carefully and very thoughtfully implementing procedures based on the principles of religious accommodation to consider requests for a faith-based exemption to their vaccine mandate. We're also watching workplaces evaluate whether or not someone deciding not to get vaccinated will be allowed in a physical workplace. Because of the other commitment to equal employee opportunity which is around undue hardship that not being vaccinated would incur on other teams who chose to return to the office.

This is very local, very time intensive work… and we're watching and witnessing leaders evaluating not just the sincerity of religious belief, but also looking at how to handle each one on a case-by-case basis. Now, again, there is no right answer to how to discuss vaccines when an employee asks for an exemption based on religious objections. But part of fostering psychological safety is, in fact, leading this discussion with, say, vaccine skeptics in a way that encourages transparency and understanding.

One way to lead this discussion would be to share something like this:

“I understand you're concerned about the COVID-19 vaccine. We respect your opinion and we'll respect your decision about getting vaccinated, regardless of which option you choose. We also expect that you will also afford the same respect to your co-workers who may make different decisions to you.”

“Now, spreading fear among your peers is, ultimately, unhelpful in creating the type of work environment that is productive and psychologically safe for others… and will also make it harder for others to make their own informed decisions about vaccines.”

:Now, whether or not you get vaccinated is your choice. But we want to make sure that you and all of our other employees have the resources to make the best informed decision.”

… and then offering links to relevant information from governing bodies like the CDC or the WHO, offering to set up a one-on- one with another employee who has been vaccinated to share their experience, or even offering a way to speak to a medical professional about the vaccine to address their concerns.

An inclusive work environment that fosters psychological safety… Yes, even when something that feels as polarizing as vaccine mandates, supports the expression of all of our colleagues' religious identities at work. To engage with religious diversity in an open psychologically safe way relies on individuals and organizational structures to foster a climate of inclusion. It also relies on an effort by people leaders on how to consider the extent to which common religious values align or can be aligned with organizational values. That contributes to a culture of psychological safety for all team members. In fact, a person doesn't need to be religious in order to face conflicts with their personal values at work.

Research demonstrates that employees frequently choose their employers and craft their workdays in ways that are consistent with personal values. For individuals to feel psychologically safe means feeling free to express elements of themselves without fear of any harmful or potentially adverse implications. And it's up to organizations, it's up to leaders, and it's up to individual employees to foster that psychological safety… especially when we're navigating conversations that are neither simple nor straightforward. Because it's through that dialogue that we attempt to foster understanding and align our individual values and beliefs with those of the organization that we work for.

So there you have it: why faith is often the forgotten or overlooked dimension of diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives; why considering religious or spiritual beliefs is critical to fostering psychological safety; and specific ways that we're seeing global companies address religious beliefs in our post-pandemic, remote-first working world.

Though today's episode is, of course, inspired by our work with client partners like folks at Red Hat, or Instagram and more, the conversation today is especially important for anyone responsible for leading others at work, who, as we know, are all navigating multiple team members’ states of mental, emotional and psychological health in the workplace at once.

As I've said before, what we've learned from working with remote teams is this: psychological safety requires regular intention, regular ideation, and regular implementation. It's an on-going process that all of us must continue to understand and contribute to daily. And many of the teams that we're working with that are struggling with psychological safety are just in need of a pause. As leaders, sometimes all you need is that pause, to help you check in with one another, to reset those boundaries and expectations, to maybe even have some more honest conversations of what your team needs to move past instances of mistrust or miscommunication, to foster an environment of true psychological safety while working in a remote environment.

To get the best out of your team members, people must feel that everyone has each other's back. Thankfully, our team is seeing more people managers and folks like you listening to this podcast, willingly and openly asking for what they need, actively working to understand what their employees need, and sharing what they'd like to see more of in the future of work. It's this kind of dialogue that will help support our teams to want to stay, to unlock their potential without sacrificing their humanity or ours in the process.

With teams spanning more locations, lived experience, identities, religious beliefs, and cultures than before…. It's easy to feel overwhelmed. At Inclusion in Progress, one of our specialties as a fully remote team that spans countries and cultures is how we've learned to embrace nuance and humility, in pursuit of consensus across difference, and in search of new ways to respond to the challenges that face us. Rather than modeling how to avoid conflict, we focus on empowering individuals to address setting healthy boundaries together, leading to team and company cultures that foster psychological safety, inclusion and sustained growth.

Through our remote team building workshops, we partner with people managers to help their teams support psychological safety at work, and foster an open discussion about what's necessary for teams to have those hard conversations, look out for each other, and innovate and engage together. So, if you'd like to learn more about how to book a psychological safety learning experience for your remote team, head to the link in the show notes, or get in touch with our team by emailing us at info@inclusioninprogress.com. Before we close our calendar for the rest of 2022, we'd love to share how we could partner with you to foster inclusion for your team, or organization. We've developed long standing partnerships with the likes of Red Hat, Headspace and Instagram, and we'd love to discuss how our own IIP framework can help your team or organization to foster psychological safety.

As always, if you liked the episode, please share it with other leaders and changemakers who would benefit from a more inclusive world. Thank you so much again for listening. We truly value your time and attention. And we'll see you next time on Inclusion in Progress.


Resources

Religious Faith & Business Foundation

Tanenbaum Center for Interreligious Understanding

What You Should Know About COVID-19 and the ADA, the Rehabilitation Act, and Other EEO Laws

In this episode:

[5:20] Kay shares some of her findings about religion and faith in the workplace: both from the Inclusion in Progress team, as well as statistics that tell a story even though your coworkers may not.

[8:12] Kay educates us on the US 1964 Equal Employment Opportunity Act, and shares some of the ways it has helped to shape the diversity and inclusion landscape today.

[9:33] Why it’s important to include faith in our diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives

[11:27] Your colleagues and coworkers may not be talking about their religious beliefs at work, but you can be sure they’re basing their decisions around them. How can we as leaders support that?

[19:02] As a leader, the psychological safety of your team where faith is concerned starts with you. How can you cultivate and nurture an environment where people feel safe to hold their beliefs?

[22:25] How can we hold psychological safety at the forefront of our minds against the backdrop of this post-pandemic working world, and navigate vaccine mandates in a way that honors everyone on your team?

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In our latest whitepaper you’ll discover:

  • The legacy of the Covid-19 pandemic on employee expectations — and how it will affect the tech industry’s ability to hire future talent.
  • How demographic shifts, multicultural identities, and social justice movements will impact company culture — and how tech companies can evolve their DEI and talent retention strategies in 2022.
  • The role of technology in collaboration and connectivity for global teams — and how tech organizations can create greater opportunities for global talent while embracing distributed work.

We’ll also share insights, trends, and specific ways we’ve worked with tech companies to lay the foundation for a new work culture that benefits business and global teams — and, in the process, pave the way for a future of work that supports all of us.

The Future of Work Culture 2023

Almost two years since the pandemic forced many companies to leave their physical offices, how has work culture shifted as a results of our distributed multicultural teams?
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Content Disclaimer – The information contained above is provided for information purposes only. The contents of this article, video or audio are not intended to amount to advice and you should not rely on any of the contents of this article, video or audio. Professional advice should be obtained before taking or refraining from taking any action as a result of the contents of this article, video or audio. Inclusion in Progress, LLC, disclaims all liability and responsibility arising from any reliance placed on any of the contents of this article, video or audio. Disclaimer: Some of these links are for products and services offered by the podcast creator.

Links

Download our 2021 Future of Work Culture whitepaper.

Check out our posts on LinkedIn where we share key DEI statistics and industry best practices.

Ready to partner with us on a tailored DEI solution for your company? Get in touch today for a complimentary call.

Read our Forbes features on Ways to Support Employee Mental Wellbeing, What Self Care Looks Like For Us, and How to Create Effective Online Diversity Training.

Check out our previous episodes about establishing boundaries in the workplace: 3 Ways to Redefine Productivity for Remote Teams and 5 Ways to Create Work-Life Boundaries in Virtual Workplaces.

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The Future of Work Culture 2023:
How to Make Distributed Work Inclusive

In our whitepaper, you’ll discover: how tech companies retain their talent and capacity for innovation during a recessive period; what is the role of DEI and psychological safety for distributed teams; and how to build an inclusive distributed workforce post-pandemic.

T&Cs Tickbox(Required)
Subcribe to update emails

The Future of Work Culture 2021: Evolving DEI for a More Global Workforce

In our whitepaper, you’ll discover: why company culture needs to evolve for effective multicultural teams, how to build inclusion in your remote and hybrid workplaces, and why the future of DEI must be cross-cultural.

T&Cs Tickbox(Required)
Subcribe to update emails

The Future of Work Culture 2020: Evolving DEI for a More Global Workforce

In our whitepaper, you’ll discover: the legacy of the Covid-19 pandemic on employee retention, how demographic shifts will affect your remote workplaces, and specific ways to leverage technology effectively for multicultural teams.

T&Cs Tickbox(Required)
Subcribe to update emails

The Future of Work Culture 2023:

How to Make Distributed Work Inclusive

In our whitepaper, you’ll discover: how tech companies retain their talent and capacity for innovation during a recessive period; what is the role of DEI and psychological safety for distributed teams; and how to build an inclusive distributed workforce post-pandemic.

T&Cs Tickbox(Required)
Subcribe to update emails

The Future of Work Culture 2020: Evolving DEI for a More Global Workforce

In our whitepaper, you’ll discover: the legacy of the Covid-19 pandemic on employee retention, how demographic shifts will affect your remote workplaces, and specific ways to leverage technology effectively for multicultural teams.

T&Cs Tickbox(Required)
Subcribe to update emails