5 Groups Encouraging Inclusivity In The Workplace

There are many ways in which marginalized people are left behind, ignored, or even harmed in work environments. Luckily, many companies now exist to support professionals and offer training and consulting services centered on diversity, inclusion, and equity. This list, presented in no particular order, shares some of the best of them.

At #1, we have Anima Leadership. This company offers in-person and online inclusive consulting and training services for individuals, teams, and organizations to support transformative change. It focuses on organizational health and human systems architecture; diversity, power, and anti-bias research; and mindfulness tools.

The Anima team has worked in the public, private, and non-profit sectors. Internationally, it has designed and implemented peace-building projects for communities in conflict in Europe and Latin America. The organization offers an Inclusive Management Online Certificate program for supervisors who wish to develop as leaders.

Coming in at #2 is Opportunity at Work. Based at New America in Washington DC, its goals are to re-wire the US labor market by enabling more Americans to achieve upward mobility, help employers develop the talent they need to succeed and grow, and scale up innovations that unlock all people's potential for higher-value, meaningful work.

The organization's first initiative aims to enable widespread adoption of inclusive hiring and accelerated training into good tech jobs. To achieve this, it creates freely available tools that help streamline the sign-up and participation of thousands of employers in inclusive hiring.

For #3, we have Disability:IN, a nonprofit resource for business disability inclusion worldwide. Its network of hundreds of corporations helps to expand opportunities for those who are disabled. One of its initiatives, Inclusion Works, offers participating companies unlimited, customized, virtual, and on-site consulting to help build an inclusive culture while simultaneously developing a sustainable recruitment strategy.

Disability:IN's NextGen Leaders program pairs college students and recent graduates with disabilities with corporate partners, typically in the STEM, finance, and business fields, to help prepare them for employment through mentorship, networking, and recruiting opportunities.

The #4 entry is Emtrain. This company strives to create healthier organizations through online compliance training, expert guidance, and data analytics. It aims to transform workplace behavior using real-world video scenarios, animation, and access to advice from professionals.

Emtrain has multiple online courses centered on diversity and equity training. Areas of focus include unconscious bias, conflict resolution, mentoring, disability protections, and affirmative action. The company's yearly Workplace Culture Report is meant to identify the root causes of toxic office environments.

To close our list at #5, we present Coqual, a global think tank and advisory group founded in 2004 to address bias and uncover barriers to advancement for underrepresented populations in the workplace. The company produces research meant to tackle urgent workplace issues related to gender, race, ethnicity, disability, and LGBTQ identities, and from that research, it offers actionable solutions.

The company has built a community, called the Coqual Task Force, comprised of dozens of member companies. These executives and practitioners have committed to the diversity and inclusion movement, and as such, Coqual provides them with the latest research, events, educational opportunities, inspiration, and mutual connection.