Let’s talk about diversity and inclusion

• Challenges: Achieving the key goals of internal communication such as commitment, engagement, and participation is harder in a virtual work environment with reduced personal contact. To address and include everyone, employees’ specific needs and concerns need to be identified and new formats for employees working on- and off-site have to be developed.
   
• Objectives: To foster commitment, engagement, and participation in a virtual work environment, creativity and some new approaches are required: The bond between employees and the company can be strengthened through appreciative messages and virtual events. Interactive communication platforms where employees can share, like and comment can help to stimulate participation while creating a sense of togetherness.
   
• Risks: A virtual working world creates more flexibility, but increasingly blurs the boundaries between work and leisure. This entails the risk of an “always-on” mindset, which can trigger technostress. New ideas are also needed to minimize the risk of a two-class society in which employees without a computer workstation are less well integrated in communication.
   
• Future: The survey findings show that most employees prefer hybrid work, thus the future will most likely be characterized by much more virtuality. To support concepts such as working partly from home and partly on-site, it’s important to listen to employees’ concerns and to empower them to become effective communicators themselves and trying out new formats.

​​​​​​​The research project was conducted by Dr. Sabine Einwiller and Daniel Wolfgruber at the University of Vienna from 2020 to 2021:

• Dr. Sabine Einwiller is the professor of Public Relation Research at the Department of Communication at the University of Vienna.
   
• Daniel Wolfgruber, M.A. is a research associate in the Department of Communication at the University of Vienna.

• Download Communication Insight: Let’s talk about diversity & inclusion

• Hansen, K., & Seierstad, C. (2017). Corporate social responsibility and diversity management: Theoretical approaches and best practices. Springer International, Cham.
   
• Mor Barak, M. E. (2017). Managing diversity: Toward a globally inclusive workplace. SAGE, Thousand Oaks.
   
• Bohnet, I. (2016). What works: Gender equality by design. Harvard University Press, Cambridge.