LEQ Part V of V | LEQ + Lived Experience Intelligence™ | LEQ and Full Workplace Integration

 
 
 

💥This is #IncreaseDiversity, a weekly newsletter + toolbox series sharing best practices for employers who want to implement effective diversity recruitment programs. To see previous editions, visit JenniferTardy.com. | IG: @IncreaseDiversity 💥

News From #TeamJTC:

👉🏾 FREE CHECKLIST | 💥 We have a FREE, downloadable CHECKLIST for leaders called The Platinum Checklist for Hiring Professionals: 10 Immediate Actions Leaders Must STOP Doing to Increase Diversity. Click to download your free copy. 💥

👉🏾 NEW EBOOK: We are very excited to announce that we are adding a new eBook to our INCREASE DIVERSITY TOOLBOX. “The Search Agency and Diversity Recruiting Playbook” If you already subscribe to the Increase Diversity Toolbox, you are in luck as this eBook will be available to you at no additional charge. Otherwise, we invite you to subscribe to the Increase Diversity Toolbox to gain access to this eBook along with many great resources.

 
 

In this eBook, we unpack these three challenges in detail and share how you and your team can implement effective strategies to solve them and improve outcomes. We are also covering how staffing agencies can be better and do better by applying policies, practices, and behaviors that drive their internal hiring and search processes in an inclusive and equitable way.

One last thing! There are many staffing agencies that have a desire to learn how to position themselves as an agency that has a diversity recruiting model. We have that covered within this eBook too.

Change is the nature of business and while some of these challenges might seem daunting, I believe staffing agencies have the power to make the difference and help their clients evolve as they place more job seekers in the right roles.

P.S. When you check out, use Coupon Code 716WRFG to save on your purchase. This coupon code remains valid through 03.22.22.

 
 

LEQ Part V - LEQ and Full Workplace Integration

LEQ – Lived Experience Intelligence™: An introduction to untapped intelligence, and the important implications of this transformational perspective for organizations in their journey to increase diversity in the workplace.

Today, we get to talk about what full workplace integration looks like and why it is important to realize the benefits that LEQ provides.

***

It should now be clear that recognizing, applying, and nurturing LEQ within the workplace can benefit an organization in many ways. This concept has the potential to revolutionize diversity recruitment and enrich diversity more deeply and sustainably than current DEIB approaches can easily accomplish. However, it is critical that employers recognize, even if they have increased representation within the organization and at the decision-making table by expanding their organizational LEQ, this will not automatically raise their level of understanding and improve their cultural competency across the organization.

" Without an inclusive environment, an organization may have a low functional LEQ, even if it has a high ‘latent’ LEQ through increased diversity recruitment. " - Jenn Tardy

Alongside hiring to increase diversity and raise organizational LEQ, it is essential to have strategies in place to promote a culture of inclusion and belonging. If employees do not feel comfortable in the workplace, then the fullness of their LEQ and the talent they bring will not find expression in their work. The organizational LEQ of the institution will, in effect, be reduced. Without an inclusive environment, an organization may have a low functional LEQ, even if it has a high ‘latent’ LEQ through increased diversity recruitment.

Here are strategies you can adopt to generate workplace integration:

  • Encourage employees to bring their whole self to work: Create an environment where employees feel safe to express themselves fully and feel comfortable using their voice. Open the door for them to express their opinion and bring in new perspectives to the organization. Even if an organization recognizes the value that historically underrepresented groups can add, it must also foster an environment where all individuals are enabled to use their voice, without fear of being judged or admonished in ways they might have experienced elsewhere if they are members of a marginalized group.

  • Establishing affinity groups, or employee resource groups (ERGs): Apply the LEQ concept company-wide. Establish affinity groups or employee resources groups with the goal to impact key business areas, including cultural assimilation and global Lived Experience Intelligence. Maintaining a consistent focus on LEQ is crucial to deploying it productively and sustainably, as we have already seen, so the concept must be integrated across all strategic, management, and operational levels in addition to being applied over the full employee life cycle.

  • Coach, train and prepare your leadership team: Executive coaching on the concept and principles of LEQ is essential to ensure leadership buy-in, which for example, will open opportunities for individuals from marginalized groups to move to higher levels of leadership.

  • Establish an attitude of acceptance and cultural humility within the institution for the LEQ concept to be effective: An organization embracing LEQ should craft marketing messaging and collateral that reflects those values that are now being expressed in its culture. The success of implementing LEQ might be assessed in terms of brand measurements—such as a reduction in public backlash—alongside sales measurements like customer growth or increased turnover.

LEQ is an exciting concept not only with the potential to increase diversity but the potential to do so in a way that values it fairly and sustainably. I believe that the LEQ concept captures the reasons why increasing diversity has repeatedly been shown to improve performance. I am persuaded that it is the missing building block in creating a more inclusive and equitable hiring and employment system, which will allow organizations to acquire and leverage unique competencies through valuing the lived experiences of their employees more effectively.

If you have not downloaded the paper, we invite you to download a free copy of the report at http://www.livedexperienceintelligence.com/ and share it with your peers.

 
 

Join me in the comments section and share your thoughts.

 
DJennifer Tardy