How to Create and Sustain a Culture of Belonging

According to EY’s Belonging Barometer, 75% of respondents have felt excluded at work, and 63% of respondents across generations now prioritize diversity, equity, and inclusion (DE&I) when choosing a company that also prioritizes DEI over one that doesn’t. It’s more common to work in an organization where you feel excluded and don’t belong than in one where you do.

Belonging is a human thing

To better understand what creates and sustains inclusion and belonging in an organization, I interviewed Brian Reaves, executive vice president and chief belonging, equity, and social impact officer at UKG, and Michael C. Bush, CEO of Great Place To Work. Reaves says, “Not belonging is like being the last kid picked on the playground. At work, it means creating a culture where everyone feels heard, seen, and belongs. Belonging is a natural human need. People want to belong.”

It’s true. We remember that deep feeling of not belonging as children. That same psychological pain is just as damaging for adults. When organizations prioritize belonging and create and sustain a culture of belonging, they see better business results.

Nine Attributes of Belonging

At Great Place to Work, Bush’s team finds nine attributes of belonging that are linked to business success: caring, celebrating, developing, inspiring, listening, sharing, speaking, thanking, hiring, and welcoming. What sets leading organizations apart is that they weave these behaviors throughout the employee experience, from hiring to performance reviews and promotion decisions. According to Bush’s team at Great Place to Work, “Leaders influence 70% of the employee experience, but the other 30% comes from our teammates, how we work with others, and the actual work we do. It takes everyone in the organization to create a great workplace for everyone.”

While leaders have the most influence, everyday acts of allyship also increase belonging. While there is a supposed optimism about terms like inclusion and belonging, there is also fear, often of the unknown. Reaves sees fear holding people back. “People are afraid of why we do the work of diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging (DEIB). If you want to make people happy, that’s not the right reason. Why must focus on improving these trust behaviors. Teams must be willing to be vulnerable and imperfect in order to learn and become better over time.”

Reaves adds: “The best companies in the world inspire people to do their best work. No one can do their best work if they don’t feel like they belong. The best innovation comes from people with different life experiences because they are agents of the world. Diversity and inclusion (are) important for solving the world’s problems.”

Tools for building belonging

Reaves believes there are two main ways to improve workplace belonging: employee resource groups and education. “Employee resource groups need to be embedded throughout the organization, not as vertical silos. That means solid professional development, innovation, and collaboration with allies. (To be effective), employee resource groups need to be intersex groups that involve senior leadership. Second, there needs to be a common language. We need to educate our teams about the meaning and power of privilege, (about) microaggressions, with a vocabulary of basic (language) around DEIB terms.”

Employees who participate in ERGs are 30 percent more likely than non-members to trust their company’s leadership team, 23 percent more likely to report a healthy and positive work environment, and 40 percent more likely to feel good about their organization’s impact on the community. But education and ERGs alone won’t solve the belonging problem. Organizations must be willing to ask honest questions, get authentic answers, and modify behaviors over time to create more belonging.

As Reaves has learned firsthand, “Belonging is not a zero-sum game where some people feel like they belong and others don’t. Quite the opposite. When we make the workplace work better for some, it tends to work better for all.”

Belonging is not universal in the workplace. To create a culture of belonging, organizations should focus on nine attributes: caring, celebrating, developing, inspiring, listening, sharing, speaking, thanking, hiring, and welcoming, while also developing cultures of allyship through education and employee resource groups.