CO— Blueprint: Growing an Inclusive Team

To run a healthy business today, diversity and inclusion goals must go way beyond a company’s well-intentioned, dutifully worded mission statement.

True diversity, however, although hard won, actually fuels success, from broadening a business’s customer reach to boosting employee morale, experts told Jeanette Mulvey, content director for CO—, during the fifth episode of CO— Blueprint, a video series dedicated to providing small businesses with the strategies they need to reopen their businesses successfully.

Here are five key takeaways on the benefits of an inclusivity-based business and how to foster one.

Define what inclusion means for your business

Businesses seeking to create a diverse workforce would be wise to first define what they want to “cause and create by having a diverse company,” said Tiffany Houser, leadership coach and founder and CEO of EVOLVE. Start by asking, “What does inclusion mean for you, your business, your customers and clients?” she said.

Build a measurable diversity strategy

Once you’ve defined what diversity means for your business, it’s then time to establish concrete and measurable diversity-and-inclusion goals, said Michele Grace, managing director, south division director, for Chase Business Banking.

For example, in areas of your business, “see if you are underrepresented, whether you’re in marketing, sales or support staff,” she said. “Don’t expect things to change unless you have a clear plan that can be executed.” Just as companies set quarterly revenue goals, diversity and inclusion should also be measured on a quarterly basis, she said.

Daren Bascome, founder of branding design and advertising agency Proverb, agreed. “Like anything in business, if it’s not something you’re measuring, it’s probably not something you’ve put a real priority on.”

In addition to instituting company-wide diversity policies, businesses must work one-on-one with employees from underrepresented groups to pave the path to meaningful equity, Houser said. “Equity is creating the end result that so everyone is equal,” she said. “Equality is the final result, and equity is how they get there, rather than [taking] a blanket approach.”

Struggling to create a diverse team? If you build it, they will come

Instead of bemoaning the challenges of finding a diverse talent pool, build a pipeline from within, experts said. “Be intentional by building your candidate slate,” Grace said.

Boston-based wine shop The Urban Grape is doing just that. Run by an interracial couple, the Black-owned/woman-owned store in the city’s South End is an anomaly in a wine industry dominated by white men — which made building a diverse team “incredibly hard,” said co-owner Hadley Douglas.

To reverse the trend, the store has developed a talent pipeline for people of color with Boston University. The yearlong wine-education program, which launched this spring, includes schooling on all facets of the wine industry; paid internships; mentorship by master sommeliers; and help with job placement. “If you’re not seeing the type of workforce that you want, you have to take a stand, go out there and create it yourself,” Douglas said.

That’s critical, said Chase’s Grace. Today, “if you don’t have a diverse team, your customers won’t necessarily feel welcome,” she said.

Offer inclusivity-informed products and services to expand your customer base

Diversity need not only reflect who’s on staff, but also how a business serves clients and what they sell, said Douglas. To that end, the Urban Grape courts minority consumer groups not traditionally embraced by the wine world via tasting events, for example, “signaling that we’re a space for everyone,” she said. The shop is also the biggest seller of Black-owned and Mexican-owned curated wines in Massachusetts, she said.

Be authentic by integrating diverse voices

Savvy consumers will sniff out diversity-informed marketing that rings false — and they won’t hesitate to call out a business’s disingenuousness on social media, which is like the shot heard around the world these days, panelists said.

“Uber-connected consumers have never been more empowered than today,” said Proverb’s Bascome. “If somebody suspects you are a fraud, they are going to call BS and call you out on social.”

To be authentic, businesses should be transparent, genuine, listen to a chorus of diverse voices and then lift those voices accordingly, they said.

“If you’re not sure that something is ringing true, you need to consult with people who don’t look like you or think like you,” she said. “You don’t need to be an expert on all these things,” she said. “You just need to ask for help.”