How to Integrate DEIB and Employee Well-Being Strategies

Diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging (DEIB) and well-being initiatives share common goals of creating thriving workplaces where everyone can develop, grow and flourish. Yet, too often, DEIB and workplace wellness are siloed within organizations.

DEIB and well-being are both top priorities for organizations in 2023. This is no surprise, as numerous studies show that diverse workplaces in which employees experience high levels of well-being are strongly positively correlated with higher employee engagement, productivity, innovation and retention.

In short, diverse workplaces with high levels of well-being are good for employees and good for businesses, too.

To be successful, both DEIB and well-being must be infused throughout organizational cultures, values, practices and processes—not run as stand-alone programs or initiatives as is the case in many organizations.

Intentionally integrating DEIB and well-being strategies and programs can dramatically improve the impact and effectiveness of both. Here's how to get started.

Center Well-Being in DEIB Initiatives

Centering well-being is an important part of successful DEIB efforts. For example, according to a report by Achievers Workforce Institute in 2021, employees who feel supported in their well-being are 2.5 times more likely to feel a strong sense of belonging.

Directly addressing the well-being-related impact of belonging to one or more marginalized groups is critical to DEIB work. For example, being the "only" (e.g., the only woman, only Black professional, only disabled professional) on a team, in a meeting or on a project often takes a significant toll on mental health and well-being as well as engagement, productivity and retention.

And the negative impact is exacerbated for employees who are multiply only—for example, being both the only woman and the only Black professional in a meeting or on a team. Addressing the negative impact of being the "only" is one of many strategies organizations can use to explicitly center well-being in DEIB efforts.

Organizations should be intentional about centering well-being throughout DEIB initiatives. Here are some best practices to try:

• Add questions about well-being to engagement and pulse surveys as a first step in establishing a baseline understanding of the current states of well-being of employees and be attentive to differences across employee groups.
• Set and track DEIB goals that include recruiting, retaining, and promoting employees from diverse backgrounds as well as improving the well-being of employees from diverse groups.
• Include well-being content, activities, and resources throughout DEIB programs rather than designing well-being as stand-alone or one-off programs.

Design Well-Being Initiatives for Diverse Populations

Employees from marginalized groups often fail to receive the intended benefits from well-being programs because programs are not designed with their unique needs and experiences in mind.

For example, employees from cultural backgrounds in which mental health issues are underrecognized or stigmatized need different messaging and access to resources in comparison with employees from backgrounds where accessing mental health care is normalized.

Intentionally designing well-being programs to meet the needs of diverse populations rather than taking a one-size-fits-all approach is important for many reasons. For instance, employees have different access to health and well-being resources as well as different experiences with healthcare and well-being systems and providers.

Even with the same insurance, racial and ethnic minority employees receive lower quality of care and experience greater levels of bias from health providers. And Black employees have more difficulty accessing high-quality health care in comparison with white employees and are more likely to live in areas with inadequate access to health care (commonly known as "medical deserts").

Additionally, employees have different lived experiences that affect their overall well-being. For example:

• Women have experienced higher levels of stress and burnout than men in the workplace since 2020.
• 2SLGBTQPIA+ employees are 2.5x more likely to experience mental health issues than employees outside this population.

• Black, Hispanic, Asian American Pacific Islander, and Native American populations are more likely to experience physical and mental health challenges in comparison with white employees.

These are just a few of numerous examples of how employees' identities and backgrounds shape their well-being needs and experiences.

But keep in mind that employees do not just belong to a single identity group, but have intersecting identities (e.g., a 2SLGBTQPIA+ Latina employee or a Black disabled non-binary employee).

Designing programs that recognize, support and address the needs of myriad intersecting identities rather than force employees to prioritize a single identity is critical both to creating belonging and to designing the highest impact well-being programs.

Create DEIB-Focused Well-Being Programs

When designing well-being programs for diverse employee groups, leverage these best practices:

• Understand that different populations have different well-being needs, challenges and perspectives on well-being.
• Offer tailored, customized well-being support designed for specific populations.
• Leverage employee resource groups/affinity groups and ensure that well-being strategies for specific groups are designed in consultation with those groups.
• Practice data-informed decision making.

• Utilize diverse providers to offer well-being resources, benefits and programs.

When evaluating how well well-being strategies, programs and initiatives support DEIB efforts, ask these questions:

• Diversity: How well does this program, strategy or initiative meet the unique needs of different employee groups?
• Equity: Does every employee have equitable access to this program or initiative?
• Inclusion: Do the resources, materials and providers of this program include visual representations of diversity, use inclusive language and are they accessible to employees with diverse accessibility needs?
• Belonging: Do employees feel like they belong to a community where their individual well-being needs are recognized and met?

Research shows that workplace well-being has dramatically declined while stress and burnout have increased since the start of the global COVID-19 pandemic. In this context, organizations have an important opportunity to leverage the myriad intersections of well-being and DEIB strategies to deliver stronger outcomes for both.

In so doing, employers can better support increasingly diverse workforces in reaching high levels of engagement and productivity while helping reverse the global decline in well-being.

About the Author

Brandy L. Simula, Ph.D., ACC (she/they) is an award-winning consultant, speaker and executive coach. She has spent the last decade leveraging her doctoral training in behavioral science and social psychology to help organizations and senior leaders address critical workplace culture, leadership and organizational development challenges. An ICF-certified executive and leadership coach, they write and speak frequently on leadership and organizational development, DEIB, workplace culture, well-being, and women's and LGBTQ+ career and leadership development.