contributed by Tracy Brower, PhD
Dr. Tracy Brower is a PhD sociologist and the vice president of workplace insights for Steelcase, a global design and thought leader in the world of work. She is the author of The Secrets to Happiness at Work and Bring Work to Life, as well as a senior contributor to Forbes and Fast Company. Her work has been translated into 22 languages and her TEDx talk has been viewed 8.1 million times. For more information, please see Steelcase.com or tracybrower.com.
Inclusive design has become a significant point of focus—and for good reason. It considers a wide range of human experiences, from ability, language and culture to gender and age. Designing for all kinds of capabilities and disabilities is the right thing to do for people, and it’s also powerfully effective for businesses.
And creating inclusive work experiences is especially important now. The talent shortage is significant, and business leaders must ensure they are tapping into people with all kinds of talents, skills and capabilities.
In addition, creating a society that embraces all of its members is an imperative as we seek to positively influence our communities. Inclusive design provides for people to feel more valued and empowered and to experience greater levels of belonging and psychological safety—and all of these inspire happiness and fulfillment in both work and life.
The conversation is critical. To-date, we’ve lacked a common language for the discussion of disability as it relates to the work experience. Existing research tends to focus on employment status, with less attention on the quality of employment or the contextual elements that influence someone’s ability to contribute fully. We have work to do—and opportunities for meaningful dialogue and improvement, according to research published in Human Resource Management.
Important Outcomes
Leaders are invested in how we address the issues. In fact, Steelcase research demonstrates that 81% of leaders are prioritizing wellbeing while 76% prioritize DEI. Inclusive design is an approach that can ensure work experiences are welcoming and supportive for all—and that they contribute to wellbeing in terms of physical, cognitive and emotional needs.
Additionally, inclusive design drives outcomes like talent attraction and retention and increased employee satisfaction, according to the Center for Talent Innovation. It also enables organizations to tap into the skills of a broad variety of people who may be under-represented or under-served in a traditional environment.
For example, when employees who identify as neurodivergent are able to fully contribute, they bring skills from hyperfocus and detail processing to visual reasoning, creativity and innovative thinking, based on research from the Birkbeck University of London.
Benefits to Plenty of People
Beyond its importance for leaders and organizations, inclusive design is also especially relevant because of the number of people who have unique and specific needs. Fully 30% of people in the workforce have a disability, and as many as 90% of disabilities are not evident, according to the Center for Talent Innovation.
So, while plenty of people need support, it may not always be evident. Creating work experiences that are inclusive allows for a wide array of people to take advantage of places that help them do their best—without having to ask for accommodations.
Inclusive design also accommodates a variety of circumstances. Consider a door that opens automatically. It is helpful to the person with a permanent disability who is in a wheelchair as well as someone who has a temporary disability like a broken arm. And it’s an advantage for the situational limitation of a person who is carrying an armful of books, or the sensory challenges of someone who avoids touch.
Concept designs that demonstrate a range of spaces
Create Inclusive Work Experiences
You can create the conditions for an inclusive work experience with a few key strategies. They include the following.
Start with Empathy
First, start with empathy. Too often the design process fails to include people we’re designing for and who represent a wide enough range of capabilities.
A better approach is to design with, not for those with unique or underrepresented needs. We can ask questions, understand challenges and foster empathy, so new designs are based on deep understanding of conditions that will foster inclusion.
As an example, Steelcase recently redesigned space for the Global Talent team on the Grand Rapids campus with a focus on accessibility, employee relationships and inclusion. They formed an Inclusive Design Advisory Group which provided input and perspective throughout the process. The majority of the Advisory Group identified with one or more of the Well Institute’s dimensions* (disabled, 1st generation immigrant, neurodivergent, racially and/or ethnically underrepresented or underinvested groups, LGBTQ+, primary caregiver and women + girls), so they brought diverse viewpoints and lived experience to inform the design decisions.
Take a Holistic View
Second, ensure you focus on culture. Inclusive design isn’t just about place, space, settings or furniture. It requires a holistic and integrated approach. Policies, practices and norms must also support inclusivity.
Cultures are most effective when they provide strong mission, vision and direction as well as the opportunity for participation and ownership. Cultures drive results when they have clear and consistent processes as well as the ability to adapt and shift as necessary.
These elements of culture inform organizations that respect people with a broad range of skills and approaches, and nurture involvement and empowerment–so they can perform today and develop and grow for continued contributions over time.
Focus on Ongoing Improvement
Third, emphasize the ongoing nature of the process for creating inclusive work experiences. It’s a mistake to believe that design has a static outcome. Instead, the best approaches recognize the need for continuous monitoring, measuring and improving work experiences.
No design is perfect, and design begins when people move in or when they begin using places, policies and practices. Humility in the design process guides us in expecting to get things as right as we can and then embracing the learning that will occur over time—with a commitment to ongoing improvement.
What Matters Most
Effective work experiences—for all kinds of people—focus on place and technology as well as process and culture. And as you consider the physical work experience, you can give thought to a wide range of factors like wayfinding, spatial planning, acoustics, air quality, materiality, lighting, privacy, tools and technology and furniture.
Overall, design should offer equity. Rather than seeking to optimize one set of standards that work for all, a better strategy provides a range of experiences so people can choose what works best for them.
And the experience should also include opportunities for control, so people can make easy adjustments based on their unique needs. This involves not only selecting various areas to work across a campus, but also in adjusting background music, temperature, lighting or even the opacity or privacy levels of spaces.
A Bright Future
The process of empathizing, exploring, creating, learning and improving are all fundamental to our success—for people and for organizations. We can embrace and celebrate all kinds of abilities to ensure people have the chance to achieve both happiness and fulfillment supported by inclusive work experiences.
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*The Well Institute is an organization dedicated to promoting wellness and health through research, education and community engagement initiatives. The Well dimensions are a framework encompassing various aspects of wellbeing to promote a holistic approach to wellness.
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