A new report which collates data from over 50,000 workers worldwide reveals that people of colour are three times more likely to post a question on their change activation platform than their white colleagues.
Although people of colour post more questions on the platform, they’re much more likely to receive responses from colleagues if they post anonymously on the platform rather than posting with their name and full profile (46% more likely to get a response when posting anonymously).
In contrast, white men on the platform were found to get 8% more responses when they share their name or photo alongside their posts.
The report, collated by change activation platform Rungway, looks into the state of inclusivity in the workplace to reveal how leaders are supporting their staff. The report also examines how businesses are communicating change, how people seek connections within their company, and the positive impact supporting each other through change has on the individual and the organisation.
Findings from Rungway’s report titled ‘The State of Inclusivity in the Workplace’ shows that people of colour use anonymity to ask different questions, posting 22% more career-related questions compared to their white colleagues.
Data from Rungway also revealed that 93% of those in organisations in the Middle East and Asia Pacific posted anonymously, compared to 86% in the Americas and Europe. Findings also revealed that 100% of women in Asia Pacific posted anonymously.
Julie Chakraverty, the founder of Rungway, comments on the importance of hearing diverse voices:
“Psychological safety means that businesses are empowering more people to offer their thoughts and opinions and this is so important when it comes to workplace communication.
“Good ideas can come from anywhere and anyone, therefore, hearing a more diverse range of perspectives will allow businesses to gauge a real sense of the concerns and challenges in the workplace, allowing businesses to resolve them faster.
“Organisations should not assume that one size fits all when it comes to communicating across different cultures. Providing a mechanism that allows everyone to provide feedback or raise questions ensures that culturally diverse teams and multinational companies are successful, and this is what Rungway prides itself on.
“Overall, leaders must consider how cultural conversations could affect the communication from their employees. Not only do avenues such as Rungway provide a forum for employees to make their organisations aware of critical cultural differences in the workplace that they might have missed, they also enable those in cultures where providing feedback or raising concerns might not be the norm to do so by allowing anonymity.”
For further insights from the report and for advice on how leaders can effectively connect with their people, the full report can be found here: https://go.rungway.com/the-connected-leader-data-report-2022-download