How fostering a diverse and inclusive workplace can help attract and retain top talent in the energy and utilities sector

How to develop an inclusive workforce

Applying an inclusive lens towards your organization both internally and externally can help expand your talent pool, increase employee retention, and remain competitive.

These actionable tips can help you get started:

Assess your policies

Policies align with your organization’s values and objectives. Policies that fail to take an equitable and inclusive approach, making employees feel valued and supported, may cause employees to leave your workforce. Assess your policies to determine how they can incorporate equity and inclusion at their core to support all employees within your organization.

There are many ways to update your policies to foster inclusion within your workforce — for example, by using gender-neutral language. Offering alternative holidays to people from different religious backgrounds or expanding bereavement leave to include extended family members in respect of cultural norms can also help build an inclusive environment.

Review your employer brand

It takes a prospective employee approximately three to five minutes on average to assess your organization online and decide whether to apply for an open position. This decision is significantly influenced by whether they can find content that shows they will be valued and supported within your organization.

It is crucial to communicate your organizational values, how those values translate into practice, and how you foster inclusion within your workplace to attract new talent. Revise your organizational mission and vision to ensure they support equity and inclusion while welcoming diversity — and update your job postings to include your mission and values. Additionally, assess your website to identify how you can communicate your commitment to an inclusive workplace to prospective candidates.

Expand your reach

Your organization may post its open positions to LinkedIn — but taking the right steps to increase the reach of your job postings is vital to increase your talent pool. Consider leveraging different spaces to increase your access to candidates.

This may include posting open positions to different community groups — such as those dedicated to supporting women in leadership positions or helping newcomers to Canada find employment. Additionally, posting open job positions on university job boards can help attract new talent to your organization.

Invest in relationships and partnerships

Building relationships and partnerships with communities is an important step to attract new talent while welcoming diversity to your organization. People are more likely to apply for a position if they are familiar with your organization — and partnering with universities, immigration offices, or other community programs and groups can help increase your access to a broad range of candidates.

It is also important to evaluate how and where your organization shows up in various communities. Your organization may attend energy and utilities conferences every year. However, events focused on advancing equity-deserving groups in business or supporting newcomers to Canada in the workforce can help you connect to more skilled talent.

Evaluate your systems

Systems help your employees communicate, collaborate, and work effectively. Therefore, it is important to ensure that your systems foster an inclusive environment that meets the needs of all people within your organization.

For example, many IT systems may not have the capabilities to allow employees to self-declare alternative pronouns. Evaluate the systems that support your employees to identify how you can reduce barriers, introduce more flexibility, and ensure everyone in your organization feels supported.

Commit to continuous improvement

It is one step to attract new talent to your organization — however, it is crucial to take the next steps to sustain an inclusive workforce. Commit to training to advance people’s careers from entry-level to senior-level positions within your organization. Additionally, review your benefit and compensation models regularly to ensure all employees are getting the support they need to grow and thrive. It is also important to review your succession planning to ensure that all employees within your organization have access to equitable growth opportunities.

Take the next steps

Each of the steps above can help you foster an inclusive workplace and attract new talent to your organization. However, it is important to remember that your leadership team needs to be accountable for these initiatives — and be responsible for driving them forward. This will help create a thriving workforce with the top talent and innovative thinkers your organization needs to chart its course forward in the rapidly evolving energy and utilities sector.