Building a foundation of respect - Part 32 | BuildForce Canada

Building a foundation of respect - Part 32

Welcome to the BuildForce blog on Respectful Workplaces! Here we explore issues and provide advice, research, tools, and checklists – everything our industry needs to create respectful and inclusive workplaces where everyone can succeed. Who will benefit? Leaders, managers, HR staff, on-site workers and anyone who wants to understand how to create and support a Respectful and Inclusive Workplace.

Question of the month

Does your organization have a great workplace culture?

Did you know? Organizations that have a great workplace culture reap great rewards. Organizations that have respect and inclusion as a core value will have the workplace culture that can find, hire, and keep the “A People” – those who genuinely live your company values – needed for great rewards. www.respectfulworkplacetool.ca can help your organization assess its workplace culture.If you want to find, hire, and keep the best talent, create a respectful and inclusive workplace culture that makes every person feel respected, safe, and welcomed.  This includes people who are different in many ways, including those with different genders, backgrounds, and circumstances. A respectful and inclusive workplace also welcomes diversity in thought, communication, and problem-solving styles. By finding and keeping the best talent from all talent pools, organizations reap great rewards.

Creating a respectful and inclusive culture is not just a “feel good” exercise – there is plenty of research showing that organizations with more diverse workforces perform better financially. For example, a recent study from the global consulting firm McKinsey found that organizations in the top 25% of their industry based on gender or racial and ethnic diversity in their leadership ranks are more likely to have financial returns above their national industry medians. Although, the correlation doesn’t necessarily equal causation – greater gender and ethnic diversity in leadership doesn’t automatically translate into more profit. The correlation does indicate that when companies commit themselves to diversity they are more successful.

Ann Rhoades is an expert on building great organization cultures. She was a founder of JetBlue Airways, and the Chief People Officer of Southwest Airlines, a company well known for its people-friendly culture and consistently strong financial performance.
 
Rhoads says that her goal was always to have “A People" – those who genuinely live your company values; who go out of their way to be helpful, and who care that things are done right. A respectful and inclusive workplace culture actively finds, hires, and keeps the best talent from all sources of talent. These are the “A People” needed to create competitive advantage and above-average financial performance.

The BuildForce Respectful and Inclusive Workplace Toolkit provides the resources needed to create a great workplace culture. Leaders and managers may find the Respectful Workplace Online Self-Assessment Tool of particular interest. This resource asks management to assess all aspects of its organization and whether it reflects respectful and inclusive values. Without respect and inclusion as a core value, and taking pro-active steps to support that culture, organizations will not have the workplace culture that can find, hire, and keep the “A People” needed for great rewards.

For more info:

Each month our feature discussion explores the research and best practice foundations of the BuildForce Respectful and Inclusive Workplace Toolkit. Research and best practices show that a respectful and inclusive workplace has a positive impact on organization performance. It creates a respectful, safe, and welcoming environment that attracts and retains adaptable and resilient workers who are better able to create competitive advantage and innovation for their organizations.

Join the conversation: Does your organization have a respectful and inclusive workplace culture?

Our Next Installment: Do you want to foster innovation? Try respect and inclusion.

Previous Installment: Which initiatives create respect and inclusion at your organization?

Read from the beginning. Click here to start at Part 1.

To meet the challenges of the 21st century, the Canadian construction and maintenance industry must be able to recruit and retain workers with a diversity of backgrounds such as Indigenous people, women, immigrants, and young workers. This means building respectful, safe and inclusive workplaces where all workers can succeed. Some of these challenges are: A quarter of a million skilled workers retiring over the next decade. Increased globalization demands more awareness of different cultures. The changing needs of a changing workforce. Increased demands for corporate social responsibility such as fairness and equity.

The BuildForce Canada Online Respectful and Inclusive Workplace Toolkit includes: The Respectful Workplace Online Self-Assessment Tool: to assist organization leadership in assessing their current situation and identifying where they may need to make changes; The Respectful and Inclusive Workplace Online Training Course: to train workers on how to create and support a respectful and inclusive workplace; and The Respectful Workplace Policy Framework and Implementation Guide: to assist organizations in creating and implementing a policy that supports a respectful and inclusive workplace. --- All the resources you need to create and support a respectful and inclusive workplace!

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This project has been funded by Status of Women Canada.