A New Roadmap For Workplace Culture

Workplace inclusion is at a crossroads. Trust in institutions has shifted, employee engagement continues to fall, and legal challenges have unsettled once-stable inclusion commitments. At the same time, the demands of employees—particularly around flexibility, belonging, and mental health—are reshaping talent expectations.

At the Think Bigger Summit in Chicago, Seramount brought together inclusion and talent leaders to confront today’s most pressing workplace challenges. Across sessions, one theme was clear: Inclusion leaders must rebalance defensive risk management with forward-looking, business-aligned strategies. Each session surfaced not just insights but concrete steps leaders can take to strengthen inclusion and culture strategies for 2025 and beyond.

The Summit also coincided with Hispanic Heritage Month, a reminder of the importance of celebrating cultural heritage as part of a year-round commitment to belonging.

The State of Workforce Today

The opening session highlighted the four mega-trends most reshaping the workplace: AI, hybrid work, mental health, and a shifting employer-employee compact. The good news is that research shows that trust in employers is growing. This is a great privilege and opportunity for businesses to build on the trust and create a thriving company culture.

Action:

• Reinforce trust through micro-acts of inclusion: regular, visible signals that every perspective matters.
• Create space in leadership agendas to focus on essential cultural foundations, not just urgent tasks.
• Become a “student of your craft.” Curate internal resources so leaders can learn quickly.

Inclusion at a Crossroads

Seramount’s research showed a retreat from bold inclusion commitments, leaving employees—particularly vulnerable groups—feeling less psychologically safe and less like they can be themselves. Only 13% (down from 24% in 2024) of employees say they feel psychologically safe in the workplace in 2025, and only 70% (down from 83% in 2024) said they can be themselves at work. This work is more critical than ever, and the importance of creating an agile, sustainable, and future-proof strategy is paramount.

Action:

• Double down on ERGs. They remain the lowest-risk, highest-value tool for belonging.
• Reframe programs as “open to all” while preserving equity goals.
• Communicate consistently that inclusion is a business imperative, not just a values statement.

Making the Case in a Challenging Climate

The conversation turned to how inclusion leaders can influence C-suite decision-makers. While many make the case for inclusion work through moral or even the business case arguments, few link inclusion initiatives to balance-sheet outcomes. Inclusion leaders must align with shareholder priorities—such as cost containment, retention, or business expansion efforts—and present specific, measurable asks backed by data. Without this financial alignment, C-suite support is difficult to sustain.

Action:

• Utilize Seramount’s Science of Influence four-step framework: Identify business priorities, define a measurable ask, defend with data, and tie to financial metrics.
• Pilot one initiative tied directly to a bottom-line goal (e.g., reducing turnover in a key unit).
• Track and share early wins in financial terms to strengthen the case for scaling.

What Do We Measure Now?

With legal and political scrutiny rising, traditional inclusion metrics may no longer be legally compliant. Yet data has never been more important; without it, it’s impossible to know where you are or where to go.

Seramount’s surveys and benchmarking offer early signs of what the next generation of inclusion metrics may look like; join our upcoming webinar, Measuring Inclusion in Today’s Legal Landscape, to get a taste of what’s to come.

Action:

• Connect your inclusion metrics back to what the definition of an inclusive organization is.
• Benchmark with peers to identify emerging practices and track your own progress.
• In your next employee survey, pilot one new inclusion measure, such as belonging or psychological safety.

Solving Today’s Inclusion Challenges

In peer breakout discussions, inclusion leaders tackled four of the most urgent challenges facing inclusive workforces today: political pushback, talent lifecycle disruption, redefining the role of inclusion leaders, and responsible AI integration.

One area of particularly fruitful conversation was “how much the inclusion role and how we show up in them has changed in the past nine months.” Participants emphasized that inclusion leaders must be recognized as business partners with access to data and decision-making. Without visibility into organizational priorities, inclusion leaders struggle to demonstrate impact or align initiatives with strategy.

Action:

• Secure monthly touchpoints with at least one C-suite leader.
• Use those moments to connect inclusion initiatives directly to organizational strategy.
• Build an internal coalition of business-unit allies to strengthen influence beyond HR or inclusion.

ERGs as a Strategic Lever

Employee Resource Groups are among the lowest-risk, highest-value inclusion programs available today. They can serve as trusted communities for employees while also providing insights into customer segments, emerging talent, and business opportunities.

Leaders discussed where their ERGs land on Seramount’s ERG maturity model to help them determine not only what their groups are currently capable of but also if they are ready to tie back to the business priorities, moving beyond community-building to offering measurable business value.

Action:

• Take Seramount’s Employee Resource Group Maturity Assessment (SEGMA) to evaluate the current state of your ERGs and chart a path to greater strategic impact.
• Position ERGs as business drivers by linking efforts to customer or market outcomes.
• Launch one ERG pilot tied directly to revenue, retention, or customer engagement.

Think Bigger: Stories of Innovation

The closing spotlights showcased how organizations are rethinking inclusion across industries. The lesson: Inclusion efforts that are embedded in the culture of the organization and/or connected to broader organizational goals are most likely to endure in today’s climate. The leaders shared a variety of their programs, from how they’ve pivoted supplier diversity efforts in the new legal landscape to using more accessible topics, such as multigenerational diversity, to open the movable middle’s eyes about the real work we are doing.

Action:

• Reach out to a peer or two to find a program they are still successfully driving today.
• Identify a program and a C-suite leader who sees the value and bring it “to market” together.
• In the next 90 days, launch a small-scale experiment that links inclusion directly to a core business outcome.
• Capture impact data from pilots and share results widely to demonstrate proof of concept.

Implementation Considerations

Taken together, the Summit’s sessions reinforced a central truth: Inclusion leaders must balance reactive adaptations to today’s environment with proactive innovations that build trust and belonging in the workplace while driving measurable business impact. Success requires discipline and consistency: clear priorities, precise asks, and visible alignment with organizational goals.

The path ahead for inclusion leaders is demanding, but the conversations in Chicago showed that peers are finding creative ways forward. Leaders who refine their strategies now and embed them across the business will be best positioned to navigate both risk and opportunity in 2026.

The Think Bigger Summit underscored that inclusion is not optional—it is a core driver of business success.