Witty Works Blog

How Tracking Language Patterns Can Help Create a More Inclusive Workplace

Written by Barbara Schülé | Mar 13, 2023 9:49:43 AM

 

Firstly, understanding the language patterns of a team can help identify non-inclusive terms and biases that may be embedded in the team's communication. By tracking the frequency of certain words or phrases, it is possible to detect language that may be offensive, exclusionary, or discriminatory. This information can then be used to educate the team on the impact of their language and help them make conscious choices about the words they use.

Secondly, tracking language usage over time can help identify areas where a team may need to improve their communication skills. For example, if a team is found to use "young" language, it could indicate a lack of age diversity and provide an opportunity to address this issue. Tracking language patterns can also help identify trends and patterns, such as an increase in the use of inclusive language, which can be used to measure progress and identify areas where further improvements are needed.

Lastly, by tracking language usage, a team can demonstrate its commitment to creating a more inclusive workplace. By openly sharing statistics about language usage and improvements made over time, the team can demonstrate its commitment to creating a welcoming environment for all team members. This can help build trust and respect among team members and foster a more collaborative and supportive workplace culture.

In conclusion, tracking language usage is essential for creating a more inclusive workplace. By identifying non-inclusive language, biases, and areas for improvement, a team can make conscious choices about their language and foster a more diverse and welcoming environment. Additionally, tracking language usage can help measure progress and demonstrate a team's commitment to creating a more inclusive workplace.

Uncovering Your Unconscious: Explore Your Bias Patterns

Witty's analytics features help you understand which bias patterns happen in your team. They give you the data upon which you can take action.

Witty's measuring of the frequency of bias triggers action  

Witty Analytics has the ability to identify into which bias traps your team is falling into when communicating. By analyzing the frequency of such traps, Witty helps the teams and their leaders to recognize and observe patterns. You can then develop strategies to avoid them. 

For instance, you may discover that the team tends to use wording that is excluding people of 50 and older (see in the graph above). As a first step, click on that category on the right and you'll get a deeper understanding of what this means for the excluded target group. And as a second step, you can share this new knowledge with the team and come up with new vocabulary yourself that you would like to use instead. Enter this new vocabulary into the Witty's dictionary - and voilà, you have created a more inclusive culture, sustainably.

Witty uncovers your team's language trends

Witty also provide statistics on the words that are most commonly used by your team. Thus, a leadership person or the whole team together understand much better which words are always at the fingertips and which not. 

 

How can this help you? Let's take an example: If you see, like above, that the word "competitive" is being used over and over again, it maybe means that your team has this word always on top of their mind when communicating, be it internally or externally. That could mean that your employees perceive the internal culture as competitive. By using this word, they might express an inner discomfort. The data might reveal a cultural mindset that you could not easily prove before (even if you felt it in your gut). So, based on that data, as a leadership person, you can go to your team and talk about it. Maybe you even want to have a broader session and discuss if something in your culture has to be adapted so that it feels less competitive. 

Beyond the Basics: Check out the Full Range of Our Reports

By tracking your usage consistently, you'll be able to identify any areas where your team might need a gentle reminder or if something's bothering them.

Witty provides valuable insights into how your team's use of Witty evolves over time. You'll be able to see important information like how many users are active, helping you understand how effectively your team is using Witty.

The second and third numbers give you a better understanding of your interactions with highlighted terms and alternatives. These insights will help you identify areas where you're clicking more or less often and allow you to adjust your communication accordingly.

At Witty, we understand that every company has its unique vocabulary and special reasons for using certain words. That's why we provide the dismissed words feature, where you can actively reject all alternatives for specific words. We believe in giving you the freedom to communicate in a way that works best for your team while still providing valuable insights to help you improve.

If you choose to ignore a word, Witty will respect your decision and won't highlight it the next time you use it. Our AI system is constantly learning and adapting to your needs, so it's okay if the ignored word number is low or decreases over time.

We're thrilled to share that the number of clicks on "Why" reveals how curious you and your coworkers are to learn about biases. By clicking on "Why," you can read about why Witty suggests an alternative, and this feature is designed to help you and your team learn as you communicate.

In the near future, we're planning to enhance this feature even further. We'll be adding short videos that explain biases, scientific studies that support these biases, and additional background information. Our aim is to provide you with a comprehensive learning experience that's easily accessible, allowing you to learn and grow on the go.

At Witty, we believe that learning should be an enjoyable and seamless experience, and our reporting features are designed with that in mind. We're committed to providing you with the best tools and resources to help you communicate more effectively, and we're excited to continue expanding our platform to meet your needs.

By using our browser extension, you'll be able to identify areas for improvement and make meaningful changes to your communication that will benefit everyone.

What's next? 

We're excited to share that we're constantly working on improving our reporting to provide you with valuable insights. Our goal is to ensure that our users have all the necessary information at their fingertips to make informed decisions.

One of our upcoming features includes a weekly email that will be sent to you with a comprehensive overview of your statistics. This will help you stay on top of your progress and identify areas where you can improve.

We're also working on providing more data about which terms are highlighted. Although our current feature only measures whether a user interacts with a term, we're exploring ways to track how many terms are highlighted or which highlighted terms are NOT clicked on. This will give you a better understanding of how your team communicates and identify areas where you can improve.

Moreover, we're keen to provide more insights into how a term evolves over time. For instance, we want to understand if your team is gradually adopting more inclusive language. This will help you identify areas where you're making progress and where you need to focus more.

We're constantly working on improving our reporting and welcome any suggestions you may have. So if you have any ideas or requests, please feel free to let us know. We appreciate your patience and look forward to providing you with even more valuable insights in the future.