To Improve Workplace Culture, Employers Should Think About Religious Diversity

Diversity, equity, and inclusion leaders in corporate spaces regularly assert that engaging diversity yields profit, innovation, production, and a sense of purpose. However, their definition of diversity is often confined to socio-economic status, race, and gender when it also ought to include diversity of thought, religion, and ways of knowing. To create productive and innovative workplaces, we need to embrace diversity in all its forms—and begin preparing the next generation of leaders to do so.

Unfortunately, colleges may not be prioritizing learning about religion and worldview compared to learning about other identities like race, gender, and sexuality. In a recent study of religious diversity and interfaith engagement on campus, less than half of the students surveyed said they spent time learning about people from different religious and non-religious groups while in college. A small minority participated in programming like religious diversity trainings (9%) or dialogues (14%) designed to improve their interfaith competencies.

Few institutions of higher learning have embraced religious diversity as a professional and employable competency as much as St. Olaf College in Northfield, Minnesota.

Interfaith understanding and skills are increasingly important in today’s globalized workforce. According to a recent study by the Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI), “A majority of Americans … say they frequently interact with people who do not share their political party (53%) or religion (51%) at work.” Employers need employees who can work effectively with religiously and ideologically diverse colleagues, yet not all college students are being adequately prepared to meet this challenge.

Recent graduates will encounter more religious diversity at work than they experienced at their university and college and will likely be underprepared to positively engage with their peers, supervisors, clients, and community. St. Olaf College Lutheran Center for Faith, Values, and Community is proactively meeting this need and preparing its students. In 2021, St. Olaf launched a seminar, Interfaith Leadership for the 21st Century Workplace, that focused on equipping students and engaging their alumni in six key disciplines and sectors: social impact and education, business, law/policy/government, arts, health care, and STEM. The goal of the seminar was to increase participants’ radar screen for religious diversity, create opportunities to bring together people who orient around religion differently and highlight the way religion and spirituality manifest in the work environment.

For many, talking about religion and working with individuals or groups that express their beliefs differently can be uncomfortable. This is exacerbated by our tendency to stick with those who are like us, as Caroline Mehl at OpenMind would say, we are more likely to respond from emotion than from reason, fearing what we do not know or understand, perpetuating gaps in our knowledge, increasing biases and stereotypes, and not leveraging the diversity and contributions of all. For instance, do you know who on your team is unable to work on Friday night, or where your colleagues can go to pray or meditate during the day? Are you aware that some Muslims consider it taboo to shake hands with someone of different gender and that many religious traditions call believers to abstain from alcohol consumption?

Not knowing these nuances can lead to colleagues and peers feeling isolated as they are unable to participate in company-sanctioned social events, feeling unwelcomed or not considered as there is no space allotted for prayer or meditation time, and unappreciated as others begin to believe that colleagues who aren’t working on Friday night are not doing their fair share of the work. These misunderstandings and gaps in knowledge can contribute to the morale, productivity, culture, and retention. To learn more, read Building Interfaith Community at Work by Farah Siddiqui, former Global President and Co-Founder of Faithforce.

As the inaugural Lutheran Center Fellow at St. Olaf, Eboo Patel led the Interfaith Leadership for the 21st Century Workplace Seminar. Here is a short clip of Eboo describing the religious profile of the U.S. During the seminar, we also highlighted various interfaith leaders within the fields of social impact and education, business, law/policy/government, arts, health care, and STEM to share how religious diversity impacts the current work environment and the evolution of each field. To increase participants resonating with the topic we shared articles, publications, and webinars that spoke to the importance of interfaith leadership and interfaith professional competencies within the sectors.