How to create an inclusive workplace from day one

When launching a new business, you want the best of the best. That means nailing down the perfect company structure, establishing a marketable brand, and building a team with a wide range of skills and perspectives to help your startup grow.

If you’re building a startup team, it’s easy to focus on skills and hiring quickly. But if you’re not considering inclusion early on, you risk problems arising in company culture, compliance, and team performance.

Fortunately, developing an inclusive workplace can be relatively simple and organic. We’ll explain how.

Read on to discover what it means to have an inclusive workplace, why diversity and inclusion are important for UK startups, and how to build an inclusive workplace step-by-step.

What does it mean to have an inclusive workplace?

An inclusive workplace is a professional environment where every employee feels valued, supported and safe. Your workplace should create an equitable experience for everyone, regardless of background, identity, or personal circumstances.

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Wendy Doherty, Chief People Officer at TalkTalk (a sponsor of the 2025 Inclusive Awards), says inclusiveness means recognising each employee’s value and ensuring they have equal access to opportunities for success.

When people feel understood, valued and respected by their employer, and comfortable presenting their whole selves to colleagues, they deliver their best work.

Your employees also need equal access to resources and opportunities for progression and must know they can be themselves without worrying about discrimination, exclusion, or harassment.

Most employees would expect an inclusive workplace to include:

• Fair hiring policies
• Equal pay and benefits are equitable
• A culture that respects differences
• Open lines of communication
• Accessibility to tools, resources, and information

Taking these steps ensures your workers thrive. However, it also creates business opportunities for your startup.

Why is diversity important when building a company? 

Inclusive workplace practices build a diverse ecosystem within your startup. Diversity can then serve as both a cultural strength and a strategic advantage. Entrepreneurs who want their business to succeed need both.

Here are three ways that championing diversity helps you build a company you’re proud of:

1. Better performance

Creating an inclusive workplace enables your team to perform better. That translates into financial success.

According to researchers at the global management consultancy McKinsey & Company, companies with a diverse workforce are 39% more likely to financially outperform the competition. But why does diversity produce better results?

One major factor is ‘groupthink’. Groupthink is a limiting office dynamic in which a group of similarly minded people see a problem and solution similarly.

Sometimes, this seems helpful because you arrive at a solution quickly. But because everyone favours the same approach, you’re missing out on critical thinking, and important questions go unasked.

That sets you up to fail.

By contrast, diverse teams bring a broader set of perspectives. They challenge assumptions and approach business challenges from multiple angles. This leads to healthy discussion and internal debate that ensures business problems are addressed from every point of view.

The result: Robust business decisions that enable you to be more strategic and better adapt to change.

2. Attracting and retaining talent 

The best and brightest individuals want workplaces where they see themselves represented and included. That’s why 66% of UK workers told pollsters at YouGov that diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) are essential factors when looking for a job.

By showcasing your inclusive approach towards diversity, you’re demonstrating to prospective employees that they’ll be welcomed, valued, and supported at your company. Those values should be shared and reflected on platforms like Glassdoor and LinkedIn, because many users rely on these sites as research tools before applying.

Highlighting your DEI approach signals that your workplace is welcoming, safe, supportive, and values-focused. This is especially important to candidates from underrepresented groups. Plus, it helps you widen your talent pool and attract top performers.

Meanwhile, maintaining a diverse team helps you ‌retain workers by showing them this is a business where they can be themselves and be proud.

3. Compliance and risk reduction 

In the UK, inclusiveness isn’t just a ‘nice to have’. It’s a legal requirement for employers.

You must be aware of a few key pieces of diversity legislation, including the Equality Act 2010. This protects employees, contractors, job applicants, and former workers from discrimination because of ‘protected characteristics’.

What protected characteristics are covered?

The Equality Act defines the following as protected characteristics:

• Age
• Disability
• Gender reassignment
• Marriage and civil partnership
• Pregnancy and maternity
• Race
• Religion or belief
• Sexual orientation

In the UK, maintaining an inclusive workplace isn’t optional. The Equality Act 2010 sets clear legal standards to prevent discrimination, and employers must comply; otherwise, they could face legal and financial consequences.

5 Steps to build an inclusive workplace from launch

Promoting inclusion is about baking it into your company culture from day one. This will enable your inclusive practices and diversity policies to grow organically as your startup scales up.

Here are five key steps you must take to build a diverse and inclusive startup:

1. Set inclusion as a core value

Inclusion can’t be a retrofit. It needs to shape how you hire, communicate, and make decisions at your company from day one. 

You must demonstrate to your team that inclusion is a core company value. Actions you must take include: 

• Writing a DEI statement and include it in your company’s mission statement. 
• Familiarising yourself with the Equality Act 2010 to understand your obligations before hiring your first employee. 
• Using inclusive language on your website, recruitment materials, and onboarding resources. 

This will enable you to show your new hires, external partners, and customers that inclusion matters to your company. More importantly, you’re not just talking the talk. You’re prepared to walk the walk.

2. Create inclusive hiring practices

Your first hires shape the entire feel of your company culture. Start with recruitment processes and interview structures that reflect your vision.

Here’s what you need to do:

• Post vacancies on diverse job boards. Popular platforms include Evenbreak, BME Jobs, and Women for Hire
• Ensure listed vacancies use inclusive language and reiterate your company’s inclusive stance
• Use a structured interview format that asks the same questions to all candidates
• Offer flexible or hybrid-working options

If you need additional support with inclusive recruitment practices, the CIPD has plenty of valuable resources.

3. Design company policies that work for everyone

Want to increase retention and trust within your team? You need clear company policies that recognise your employees’ varied needs. Those policies must be written and readily accessible to all stakeholders from day one.

Your company’s policies should cover:

• Anti-discrimination rules
• Anti-harassment rules
• Flexible and remote working options
• Gender-neutral parental leave
• Sick leave and holiday pay
• Complaints procedures
• Penalties for anyone who fails to meet DEI rules

If you’re running an early-stage startup and don’t have a whole HR department to build and monitor DEI policies, don’t stress.

The UK Government’s Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service (ACAS) has a free online template you can use to write policies. ACAS offers various online resources to help small business owners set up inclusive company practices.

4. Foster everyday inclusion

Remember that inclusion is part of your daily actions, not just your company’s policy documents. It’s important to incorporate inclusion into company workflows and communications to prove to employees that you mean business.

In practice, that means you should: 

• Use accessible meeting formats
• Rotate who chairs meetings
• Offer training modules in unconscious bias and inclusiveness
• Promote open lines of communication between all employees

Another way to promote inclusiveness in the workplace is to celebrate various cultural events or holidays that are meaningful to your employees. Examples include Pride, International Women’s Day, Black History Month, and the International Day of Persons with Disabilities.

5. Measure, listen, and improve continuously

Inclusion isn’t a one-off box-ticking exercise. It’s a continuous journey with many moving targets. Your management team will require feedback and opportunities to evolve policies and practices to stay on track.

Ways to achieve this include:

• Conduct anonymous surveys to gauge employee mood
• Create open forums or ‘ask me anything’ (AMA) sessions
• Track and analyse diversity levels across recruitment and pay (this can be done using spreadsheets or HR software)
• Exercise transparency about your findings and share action plans

As a company’s leader, the buck stops with you. That means you must be the change you want to see and demonstrate to your workers that you’re listening and acting on their feedback.