Amid a dynamic and constantly evolving employment landscape, shipping and any other industry needs to embrace a new way of thinking to develop diversity and inclusion for a more operational and sustainable working environment. But which are these diversity characteristics?
- Sexual Orientation: Inclusive teams are educated about sexual orientations, like heterosexual, gay, lesbian, bisexual, asexual, etc.
- Age: Each generation has its own perceptions, but this cannot affect some from excelling over others.
- Gender identity: These may or not correspond to a person’s sex assigned at birth, such as transgender, non-binary, etc.
- Cultural Background: Cultural differences can bring a wealth of learning opportunities in a work team.
- Physical Disabilities: Hiring individuals with varying disabilities will bring unique ideas to make a team more inclusive.
- Mental Health: A trend of greater discussions on employee wellness may combat the stigma around mental health at work.
- Language and Accents: Understanding accent biases can help teams to challenge their own biases.
- Education: In some cases, removing education requirements allows candidates with more diverse backgrounds to apply.
- Personal Status: Marital or parental status bias can prevent highly qualified individuals from getting a job.
- Criminal Background: Requiring criminal history on job applications triggers social bias at work or prevents an individual from being even hired.
- Political and Religious Beliefs: To be efficient, a workplace must accept everyone’s beliefs, even if they are different from one another.
- Work Experience: Each time an employee moves into a new role, they bring their previous skills with them.
