Make 2021 The Year Of The Inclusive Enterprise

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2020 was a year of destruction―lives lost, businesses shuttered, and plans derailed. Our customers, our colleagues, and our communities felt the burden. 2020 was also a year of innovation―pivots, problem-solving, and ruthless prioritization. During the pandemic years, multiple realities exist all at once. Organizations had to adapt to survive, and yet every time we adapt, we evolve.

One year after the pandemic shuttered our offices and scattered our teams, executives and employees alike are beginning to look ahead (ever-so-cautiously) toward brighter horizons. Before we set a course toward business as usual, however, it’s worth a moment of serious reflection. After all, we just realized we had a few formidable challenges bubbling up in the background of “business as usual”:

• Isolation: Fostering collaboration and connection over the last year became harder than ever before. Closed systems, steep software learning curves, and siloed data exacerbated the problem.
• Exclusion: Companies made critical decisions without key stakeholder input. Old ways of listening to feedback couldn’t keep up with the pace of change.
• Apathy: Existential threats uncovered deep flaws baked into “business as usual.” Suddenly shareholder value alone no longer determined the success of a business.

These challenges not only affected the bottom line for many businesses, but had a negative impact on morale as well. We likely knew these problems existed within our organizations, but we didn’t know they had the potential to be so potent. The good news is that we’ve all learned―fast. And we’ve changed―dramatically. In 2021, we are poised to rebuild a better business world by replacing isolation, exclusion, and apathy with connection, inclusion, and empathy.

These are the building blocks of The Inclusive Enterprise:

• Connection: The Inclusive Enterprise mandates that we leverage technology to connect teams and customers no matter where they are and what systems they use. According to Forrester, spend on loyalty and retention marketing will increase by 30% in 2021. This represents a critical opportunity to attract and serve a more diverse, untapped audience that will stick around for the long haul. The Inclusive Enterprise allows data to flow where it can do the most good to make your customers more successful.
• Inclusion: The acceleration of digital transformation presents an opportunity to rethink how we collect and act on feedback. Don’t just go back to “normal” in 2021—advance toward a more agile, more diverse, more inclusive future. Companies that invest in inclusivity will have an important competitive advantage over those that are not moving forward in this respect. Remote work will rise to 300% of pre-COVID levels in 2021, according to Forrester. This widens a company’s potential talent hiring pool and will reshape talent acquisition and engagement. And of course remote work makes it even more imperative to regularly collect and act on employee feedback.
• Empathy: As you build back better, make sure you build curiosity into your DNA. Get curious about key stakeholders’ experiences and needs. Require tools that make their lives easier and their experiences better. Forrester predicts that CIOs will focus on the employee experience in 2021, aiming to attract, develop, and retain talent that can provide a competitive advantage in a critical year. DEI is important in attracting, developing, advancing, and retaining talent, as is making the right tech available to support new styles of working (whether that is in-person or remote), and keeping a pulse on employee engagement.

If over the last year you’ve found yourself daring to ask why—and why not—you might be the inclusive business leader your team needs right now. If you’ve challenged accepted limitations for business software, if you seek to make life better for your colleagues, customers, and community, your commitment to rebuilding better will make you the hero of your inclusive enterprise. The companies that are poised to emerge from the pandemic successfully are the companies that put inclusivity first.

If you’re interested in building The Inclusive Enterprise, you understand the untapped potential of listening to underrepresented voices, whether that is within your organization, your community, or your customer base. Now is the time to bake those principles into your business.