Member Perspective: Valoria Armstrong

Guest Commentator: Valoria Armstrong, Chief Inclusion Officer and Vice President, External Affairs, American Water @amwater

How can employers create an inclusive space for individuals to share their experiences in a meaningful way?

We all want a safe, open, and respectful workplace. During times of uncertainty, it’s even more critical for companies to focus on fostering an emotionally safe environment. This safe environment must be inclusive, where individuals feel comfortable sharing their experiences in a meaningful way. In practice, this entails creating a culture where every employee feels safe, comfortable, and supported when speaking up, offering their ideas, sharing their unique perspective, challenging the status quo, and bringing their whole selves to work. Ultimately this culture creates a workplace where colleagues are at ease expressing their views and confident that the company will respond to their concerns.

Here are a few tips on fostering an inclusive environment:

Make space for equal and open discussions.

Create an internal infrastructure of formal and informal channels dedicated to nurturing an inclusive and emotionally safe space.  At American Water, we’ve created these channels through our:

• Inclusion and Diversity Advisory Council – a group that advises and advocates on inclusion and diversity, identifies best practices, makes recommendations to executive leadership, and oversees implementation of inclusion and diversity strategies.
• Inclusion and Diversity Champion Network – this group creates a safe place for employees to share and be open. They focus internally and externally on raising awareness about inclusion and diversity.
• Employee Business Resource Groups (EBRGs) – EBRGs enhance workforce engagement and build high-trust relationships that leverage a strong sense of community.

Encourage collaboration and communication.

• We saw the racial and social injustices in the African American community during 2020 with the deaths of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor. We are faced with alarming and equally as tragic incidents in the Asian American community.  Employees are not immune to these events in the workplace. In fact, creating a space that is safe, open, and accepting of sharing personal experiences provides employees a comfort level to open up about their feelings in a respectful way.
• Simple, straightforward, and honest communication builds a team’s foundation. It also creates a sense of community that contributes to the group’s success moving forward.

Develop a strong inclusive workplace culture.

• Inclusion and diversity can’t be corporate buzzwords. Rather, they should be foremost among a company’s core values and the foundation of the organization.  It must be woven into everything your company does, helping to ensure employees know it is core to your company’s values.

This all leads to a workplace where employees show up being their full authentic selves.