Since January 2020, Sha-Ki Johnson has served as director of product continuous improvement at the Delta Faucet Company in Carmel, Indiana. As part of this role, Sha-Ki Johnson focuses on diversity, equity, and inclusion.
While many companies are working toward diversifying their staff, it can be easy to forget that diversity is only the first step. The second step, inclusion, ensures that all staff members feel respected, appreciated, and included. There are many ways to begin focusing on the inclusion part of the process, one of which is to create an inclusion council.
An inclusion council should include between eight and 12 employees who are a level or two below the CEO and influential leaders, and who are committed to and passionate about inclusivity. The council should be involved with goal-setting related to hiring and training a diverse work group, and should take responsibility for discussing employee engagement issues during regular meetings. This council should meet at least quarterly to discuss issues and then deliver messages to the executive team. The council should also represent the diversity of the workforce. If this is impossible with the current set of leaders, it should be responsible for educating itself on the company’s diversity strategy while also working to address the lack of diversity in top positions.
