Inclusion Should Show Up in Employee Evaluations, Not Just Mission Statements
Organizations are usually very good at telling employees what they value.
Values appear in strategic plans, employee handbooks, orientation presentations, websites, job postings, and signs hanging in staff rooms. We say we value safety, service, teamwork, respect, inclusion, integrity, and belonging. Then evaluation time arrives.
We measure attendance. We evaluate technical skills. We review productivity. We document disciplinary issues. We evaluate whether employees complete assigned responsibilities. If inclusion is genuinely an organizational value, where does it show up?
This does not mean adding a box labeled “DEI” to every performance evaluation and asking supervisors to rate employees from one to five. In fact, that kind of vague evaluation may create more problems than it solves.
Instead, organizations can identify observable behaviors that demonstrate the values they claim matter. Evaluation can consider participation in training and organizational initiatives, behaviors connected to organizational values, interactions with peers, use of available resources, and an employee's ability to problem-solve through different scenarios. The key is evaluating behavior rather than attempting to evaluate someone's beliefs.
Start With Observable Behaviors
“Demonstrates commitment to inclusion” is difficult to evaluate fairly. What exactly does that look like? A stronger evaluation identifies behaviors such as whether an employee communicates respectfully with patrons and coworkers, adapts communication when the first approach is ineffective, appropriately responds to accommodation requests, consistently applies organizational policies, receives feedback professionally, or asks for assistance when encountering a situation outside their knowledge. Those are things a supervisor can actually observe. They are also things an employee can improve.
Evaluate Problem-Solving
One of the strongest ways to evaluate inclusion competency is through scenarios.
Give employees situations where the normal approach does not work and see what they do next.
A patron cannot understand an instruction.
A participant requests an accommodation.
A parent complains about another swimmer's behavior.
A coworker makes an inappropriate comment.
A staff member needs to explain a policy to someone who believes it is unfair.
The objective isn't necessarily whether the employee immediately identifies the perfect answer. Look at the process.
Do they gather information?
Make assumptions?
Ask questions?
Look for alternatives?
Know when to involve a supervisor?
Maintain organizational expectations while adapting their approach?
Those behaviors tell us much more than asking whether someone “supports diversity.”
Evaluate Peer Interactions
Employees contribute to workplace culture through their interactions with one another.
Do they communicate respectfully across differences?
Can they work effectively with people whose personalities or communication styles differ from their own?
Do they support coworkers during difficult interactions?
Can they disagree without becoming disrespectful?
How do they respond when corrected?
Peer feedback can sometimes reveal behaviors supervisors rarely see, although it should be used thoughtfully and never become a popularity contest. The objective is understanding how an employee contributes to the environment around them.
Evaluate How Employees Use Resources
An inclusive organization can provide excellent resources that employees never use.
If you provide communication boards, translation resources, accommodation processes, reporting systems, sensory tools, or other supports, employees should know they exist and how to access them. This is particularly important for supervisors.
A manager does not need to personally know the solution to every unfamiliar situation. Strong performance may mean knowing where to find information, who to involve, and how to keep the situation moving while additional support is located.
Evaluate the Ability to Receive Feedback
Inclusion work requires the ability to learn. Employees will make mistakes, including supervisors. Someone may use inappropriate language, make an assumption, communicate poorly, or unintentionally create a barrier. What happens when someone points it out?
An employee who can listen, clarify, make an adjustment, and move forward demonstrates an important workplace competency. An employee who responds to every correction with defensiveness, blame, or refusal creates a very different supervisory challenge.
Capacity for feedback and dialogue is one characteristic of an inclusion-focused workplace culture. We should recognize it as a skill worth developing.
Evaluate Supervisors, Too
If inclusion appears only in frontline employee expectations, we have missed the people with the greatest influence over organizational culture.
Supervisors make decisions about hiring, schedules, discipline, accommodations, training, promotions, patron complaints, workplace conflict, and policy enforcement. Their behaviors deserve evaluation too.
Does the supervisor apply expectations consistently?
Do they support employees appropriately during patron conflicts?
Can they coach an inclusion-related mistake without turning it into a character judgment?
Do they recognize when a process may be creating a barrier?
Do employees feel comfortable bringing unfamiliar situations to them?
Leadership should not be exempt from the values leadership establishes.
Measure What You Say Matters
Employee evaluations tell people what an organization actually values. If we say communication matters but never evaluate it, employees notice. If we say teamwork matters but only recognize individual performance, employees notice. If we say inclusion matters but it disappears from training, coaching, supervision, and evaluation, employees notice that too.
Organizations do not need complicated DEI scoring systems to change this. Start by identifying the behaviors that demonstrate your values. Teach those behaviors. Give employees opportunities to practice them. Coach them when they struggle. Recognize them when they demonstrate them well. Then make those same behaviors part of how you define good performance. If inclusion matters enough to put in the mission statement, it should matter enough to show up in the way we develop and evaluation.
