10 Things Employers Can Do To Foster Inclusion in a Virtual Workplace
So many guides and resources are popping up to advise people how to conduct virtual meetings in the wake of the pandemic. They share things about how to mute participants and ensure minimal disruptions, how to launch polls on communication platforms like Zoom and Google Meet, and how to change your background. But very few consider inclusivity, accessibility, and how to ensure employees work in an environment that is free from discrimination, harassment, and hostility.
Here are 10 things you can do to be more inclusive in a virtual environment:
1. Respect differences
As boundaries blur between work and home life, people work longer hours, and more conversations take place where other office mates are not present as witnesses, harassment and hostility may increase, and harmful environments can ensue.
View diversity of your workforce as a strength and remain committed to respecting differences and promoting a respectful workplace. Ensure all employees work in an environment that is free from harassment, discrimination and hostility. Consider setting out broad principles and establish expected standards of behaviour for employees via work from home policies and related procedures.
2. Start with a land acknowledgement
Develop a meaningful land acknowledgement for your organization that addresses the ongoing process of colonialism and inspires action to support Indigenous communities. Ensure it addresses the Indigenous people to whom the land belongs, the history of the land, and any related treaties.
3. Set the tone for a safe space
In a virtual environment, it is even more important that leaders provide psychological safety for everyone to share their perspectives. Inclusive leaders model authenticity, vulnerability and openness. They make people feel like they belong and their voices matter. They speak up when people are excluded or injustice is happening and they lean in to remediate cultural conflicts that may arise. Leaders who create an environment in which people can speak up and feel safe to be themselves will foster a sense of inclusion and belonging, even in a virtual environment.
Inclusive meeting behaviours can help. Things like rotating speakers in a meeting so that everyone can contribute; bringing everyone into the conversation, not just those who tend to dominate; minimizing who gets cut off and allowing participants to finish their thoughts; and rotating note-taking responsibilities can all serve to make everyone feel included.
And now more than ever, with so many unknowns, it is important to foster connection among team members and provide mental-health support. Check in with your employees. The simple question, “How are you doing?” can elicit many responses that indicate whether an employee is doing well or is in need of mental-health supports.
4. Permit cameras to be turned off
People have a lot going on at home right now. Children may be at home and homes and hair may be unkempt. And let’s not forget that people are more Zoom-fatigued than ever!
Inclusive leaders recognize that people are exhausted, and they know that it may not always be feasible or desirable for a staff member to be on camera on any given day. Racialized employees may also appreciate not being subjected to the white gaze.
Don’t make it a requirement for your staff to be on screen at any meeting. And if a camera is off, singling them out and calling them in to turn their camera on is the worst thing you can do. Not only does it embarrass them, but it sends the signal that you are not as inclusive as you think.
5. Ask people to identify their preferred pronouns
Pronouns that take the place of our names matter. We use them often without thinking about it. For example, when referring to someone in the third person, we may assume or imply one gender over another. These associations are not helpful and can, in fact, be inaccurate or hurtful.
Asking people to identify their preferred pronouns signals your intention to be inclusive of people of all identities. It is a basic way to be respectful of people’s differences.
To ensure that people of all sexes and genders feel safe at work, encourage the respectful use of pronouns. Model the behaviour yourself by identifying yourself by your pronouns to start each meeting or amend your virtual name to include your preferred pronouns.
6. Give workers more flexibility in how, and when, they work
Employers have a duty to accommodate employees to the point of undue hardship. In the work from home context, this duty may require an employer to be more flexible with expected working hours for employees with ongoing childcare responsibilities in their home, particularly in light of the difficulties many are facing in balancing work, childcare, and school during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Statistics Canada reported as of July 9 that 74% of parents surveyed reported being very or extremely concerned about balancing work, childcare, and school. Similar accommodation concerns could also arise for employees with physical disabilities who are required to perform their duties from their homes and may require additional support to establish or modify their working space. Studies show us that with or without children, employees are more anxious and are working longer hours as a result of the pandemic. Therefore, to ensure work-life-balance, inclusive employers should give workers more flexibility to decide how, and when, they work.
7. Address harms caused by bias, racism, sexism and transphobia.
Nothing is worse than attending a virtual meeting and hearing someone Zoombombing racist slurs. Nothing is worse than a Black woman being singled out for her hair being too big or wild or a transgender employee being asked about their clothing choice for the day (all of which I have experienced).
Too many employers minimize, gaslight or outright deny that racism, sexism or transphobia exist and persist in the virtual workplace. There must be zero tolerance for bias, racism, sexism, and transphobia if employers are creating psychologically safe workplaces. This means there must be mechanisms in place to prevent these things from occurring, reporting mechanisms to make people feel more confident, and accountability mechanisms to ensure that harassers are dealt with accordingly. To address this, workplace anti-harassment/anti-discrimination policies should address the violence that can occur in virtual workplaces including digital and social media.
8. Ensure reporting mechanisms to make people more confident
Many of the tools we use are not doing much to mitigate harassment. In the age of digital and social media, harassment is not confined to the office or during work hours. In a Blog entitled Tools to Mitigate and Identify Workplace Harassment, James C. Owens, President and CEO of Cisive suggests that workforce policies should outline acceptable behaviour for everyone in a virtual environment and explain whether employees have no reasonable expectation of privacy due to the use of screening tools for corporate monitoring of social media access and usage at work. These screening tools may be viewed as a deterrent to unacceptable behaviour in and of themselves.
Going one step further from screening tools to prevent harassment, are reporting mechanisms – those systems that enable victims and witnesses to report violations of workforce policies. Confidential reporting mechanisms are important in the online environment so that everyone can safely report violent abuse, and know that there will be support. They are also important to hold perpetrators of workplace violence to account for their actions and to avoid more harm to other employees.
9. Consider legislative obligations
Provincial Human Rights Codes, worker’s compensation legislation and occupational health and safety legislation likely apply to employees working from home and employers have the same obligation to take reasonable precautions to ensure a safe workplace for virtual employees. They are still prohibited from discriminating against at-home employees based on a personal characteristic protected by human rights legislation. And they still have a duty to accommodate those employees to the point of undue hardship.
As noted above, this duty might require an employer to be more flexible with expected working hours for employees with ongoing childcare or family responsibilities in their home during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
Employers with employees working from home should consult legal counsel to ensure they are complying with applicable legislation.
10. Ensure accessible meetings
People have a range of abilities and at any given point may be experiencing varying degrees of auditory, cognitive, physical, speech and visual disabilities. Inclusive employers also make remote meetings or their virtual office accessible.
For information and communications, the basic requirement under the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act, 2005 (AODA) is to let the public and your employees know that you will make written information and other forms of communication accessible, upon request. But, why not use the accessibility features that your technology likely has built-in?
Many of the current technology and software that you use like Microsoft Teams, Zoom, and even Go to Meeting, may already have built-in accessibility features. For example, Zoom and Facebook Live offer auto-generated closed captioning. Microsoft Office has built in accessibility tools and is working to become even more accessible by improving how it works with third-party tools. Search the word ‘Accessible’ in templates to see specialized templates containing larger fonts, high-contrast layouts, and documents easy to read with a screen reader.
You can check that your platform preference has relevant accessibility features that include things like:
Closed-captioning, which displays what’s being said in real-time.
Keyboard Accessibility, which enables users to navigate the platform using only keyboard commands
Automatic Transcripts, which can be automatically generating following meetings
Screen-Reader Support, so that the platform can work with screen reader technology. Some Google programs have this built in.
Magnifiers, which allow users to magnify on-screen text as needed.
Here are some other simple things you can do to ensure your meetings are accessible:
Plan ahead to allow people extra time to prepare for meetings. Send meeting invites well in advance to allow people time to prepare. Ensure invite text is large and easy to read, and ask invitees if any accessibility accommodations are required.
When necessary, provide agendas or presentation decks, etc. in advance and in accessible formats so people can follow along in a way that works for them; This includes adding alt tags to describe the content of images, graphs, charts, etc. when needed.
Describe on-screen visuals aloud in meetings
Read aloud any comments that come in through a chat function
Record all meetings and share the recordings, notes and presentation materials. Zoom has a record-meeting feature.
Take breaks to recap information and ensure everyone understands what is being discussed.
Some tools you can provide to accommodate your at-home employee:
Digital Accessible Information Systems (DAISY) - a digital book reader for reading digital content.
And don’t forget a really nice ergonomic workstation! Even a sit-stand desk may help alleviate many issues.
Finally, be sure to regularly ask for feedback on how you can improve virtual meetings – never assume what someone does or does not need. People with disabilities may have vision, hearing, learning or mobility disabilities that require specific accommodations to join and participate in virtual meetings. With a little preparation, you can ensure everyone is able to participate fully.
About Janelle Benjamin: Janelle Benjamin, B.A., J.D., is the Founder & Chief Equity Officer of All Things Equitable Inc. helping employers make workplaces more diverse, inclusive, and safe for equity-seeking groups. Learn more about Janelle and how she can help you!
