Josephine is a consultant at Junxion with a speciality in B Corp certification.
This week is National Inclusion Week. To mark the occasion, we are exploring how Junxion can be a more inclusive workplace despite the challenges this can raise for small organizations like us.
Importance of Inclusion
A focus on Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (JEDI) is no longer ‘nice to have’. Taking action and embedding these principles in the workplace is imperative for businesses. Whilst there is a business case for action, leaders ultimately have a responsibility to drive better outcomes. Thinking must shift from ‘Is this relevant for my business?’ to ‘How can I take meaningful action now?’.
As both Cynthia Davis CBE, the CEO of Diversifying Group, and Sulaiman Khan, the Chief Radical Officer of ThisAbility emphasized at the recent UK B Corp Festival, Louder than Words, it’s better to do something than nothing. That said, at Junxion we have felt some of the challenges of engaging in this work as a small business. National Inclusion Week is an opportunity to reflect on what we are doing well and what more we can do to create inclusive, safe workplaces where people can thrive.
Challenges for Small Organizations
Small Budgets and Limited Resources
An obvious obstacle for small businesses taking action on JEDI is a lack of resources and money available. A small team is unlikely to have a dedicated person to steward this work, leaning on the goodwill or passion of colleagues to do it off the side of their desks.
Slow Growth
Smaller companies often have limited hiring opportunities making achieving diversity in teams harder. A team of 10 or 20 will struggle to be representative of the areas they operate in, something larger organizations may find simpler to achieve. In a business that hires only a few people a year, paying for recruiters specializing in inclusive hiring can be out of the question.
Lack of Representation
A lack of diversity within an organization, especially at the leadership level, can create an environment where certain voices are underrepresented or absent. This can lead to oversights in decision-making and culture-building. In small companies, culture is often shaped organically. Without formalized policies or HR teams to oversee culture, it can be easy for unintended biases to slip through.
Data Collection
Collecting any data can be hard for small organizations, though it provides important context for building strategy and setting targets. Diversity and inclusion data pose extra challenges. For small teams, employee-related data often lacks statistical significance making it difficult to draw meaningful conclusions from demographic data. There are inherent complexities in collecting sensitive, personal information. In small teams, individuals may fear being identified, even in “anonymous” surveys, due to the limited number of respondents.
Target Setting
For small teams, diversity targets can be impractical due to the statistical limitations where even a single hire can significantly skew percentages. For example, if you have 10 employees with 20% diversity, hiring one more person can either increase diversity to 27% or decrease it to 18%. Hiring constraints make it challenging to balance diversity goals with finding the right skills and experience within limited resources. Tokenism is also a risk—hiring individuals to meet diversity quotas rather than for their qualifications. Without an inclusive culture, these employees may feel undervalued and excluded, ultimately driving them out of the business.
Actions Small Organizations Can Take
Supporting Open Communication and Creating Safe Spaces
Small teams can promote inclusion by cultivating open communication, where all employees feel empowered to express their ideas, concerns, and perspectives. Close-knit, trusting teams who check in regularly, can create safe spaces for honest and accountable conversations about inclusion. These discussions help develop employees’ understanding of the issues and embed inclusion into business culture. At Junxion, we have a standing agenda item in our company-wide meeting to discuss JEDI issues and practices.
Inclusive Hiring Practices
While small teams may have limited hiring opportunities, they can be intentional about their hiring practices making them more inclusive to attract more diverse applicants. This can include transparent pay scales, diverse interview panels, and job requirements focused more on skills than qualifications.
Allowing Flexibility and Accommodating Differences
Adopting flexible working practices and accommodating different working styles contributes to an inclusive workplace. Offering flexible working hours, remote work options, or adapting policies to be inclusive of different cultural practices and personal circumstances can make the workplace more accessible to a diverse range of employees.
Demonstrating Commitment to Inclusion
Last year Junxion published our JEDI Commitment Statement. A public commitment statement can help to keep your organization accountable for its diversity and inclusion goals. Development of our statement engaged the whole team, with our leadership taking ultimate accountability for progress against our commitments. Having a public commitment may also speak to diverse candidates who are considering joining your organization.
Goal Setting
Small companies can set inclusion goals related to their context and business type. Junxion has commitments for our main spheres of influence; our staff, clients, and community. Focusing on actionable, flexible targets like inclusive recruitment practices and employee engagement can be more realistic for small organizations than percentage-based diversity targets. Review progress and update goals, as necessary, to align with business growth and capacity.
Authentic Leadership and Inclusive Decision-Making
Leaders play a vital role in driving inclusion by modelling inclusive behavior. This includes being mindful of unconscious biases, ensuring decision-making processes are fair, and giving everyone equal opportunities to contribute. At Junxion, every team member is engaged in designing our two-year strategic plans for the business.
Continuous Learning
A commitment to ongoing learning about diversity and inclusion issues—whether through formal training or self-education— helps keep the team engaged with inclusion goals. At Junxion we have a Slack channel dedicated to sharing content and insights around JEDI issues.
Committing to Improvement
This National Inclusion Week provides an opportunity to reflect on what we are doing well and where we can improve. By the end of this year, we at Junxion will review our hiring practices to see how we can make them more inclusive. What can your organization commit to?
For existing or aspiring B Corps, the release of the New V7 Standards also incentivizes a focus on this work. There will be an Impact Topic dedicated to JEDI where depending on the size and sector of your organization, you will have to demonstrate a certain number of actions from a choice of 23. The options include some of the actions discussed above such as inclusive hiring practices and public commitment statements. Committing to starting this work now will stand you in good stead for meeting the minimum requirements when they come into play.
Curious about the new B Corp standards and the minimum requirements for JEDI? Get in touch.
