The TIME’S UP Guide to Equity and Inclusion was created to ensure that businesses stay invested in building a diverse and inclusive work environment in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. In May 2020, TIME’S UP released the first edition, which urged leaders to care for their people, equalize their workforce, and demonstrate their leadership at the start of the COVID-19 crisis. The second edition, published in July 2020, added urgent and practical advice for leaders committed to leading anti-racist organizations. The new third edition of the guide offers strategies for leaders to prioritize diversity, equity, and inclusion through a return to the workplace as the country navigates an evolving COVID-19 recovery. 

The convergence of compounding crises — the coronavirus pandemic, the devastating economic fallout that has accompanied it, and the long overdue reaction to state-sanctioned, racialized violence — has cast an irrefutable spotlight on social and workplace inequity and demonstrates how systemic sexism and racism show up in all aspects of U.S. society. These crises demand immediate action from organizations across sectors. Leaders must navigate them with compassion and resolve, root out inequities within their organizations, define inclusive values, and set up anti-racist practices that will guide their communities now and moving forward.

Prioritizing diversity, inclusion, and safety within organizations is a moral obligation and a strategic business decision. We must examine what this commitment means for all workplaces — those that have always been in person, those that have been virtual during the pandemic, and those that may be returning to in-person work — and how leaders can ensure that workplaces are more equitable now than they were a year ago. Prior to this period of examination and transformation, the business case for diversity was overwhelming, and now is not the time to lose any ground. More than a year into a national reckoning on race, examining and combating systemic racism at work remains an urgent priority. We believe that the fight to end gender discrimination and systemic racism are all our fight. Both require rigorous self-examination, strong leadership from the top, and a shared commitment to structural change.

Staying invested in building a diverse and inclusive work environment that takes into account the needs of individuals will ensure you retain the best talent, avoid the high cost of turnover, and exhibit the values that clients, customers, and consumers want to see from business. Here are practical actions you can take to build an anti-racist workplace, care for your people, equalize your workplace, and demonstrate your leadership.