On Heritage Day and even throughout September, diversity becomes highly visible in South African workplaces: traditional dress brings flair to photos, while cultural dishes, music and stories bring people together around the proverbial fire. But visibility is not the same as influence, just as inclusion is not the same as belonging. That’s why the real test begins after Heritage Month, when employees voluntarily bring these very same identities, languages, perspectives and different ways of thinking into every meeting, interaction and opportunity. Or they don’t. The difference may come down to one deceptively simple human need: belonging.
If engagement is the business goal, what is the human need?
We all know that employee engagement is a major business priority. Organisations survey it, benchmark it and go to great lengths to improve it through various recognition programmes, wellbeing leadership roadshows, values campaigns and employee communications. But the truth is that engagement is decided long before an activation campaign calls for it. And there are causes and conditions attached to its voluntary procurement.
Beyond Maslow’s hierarchy of needs
If not Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, there is still a 'conditions stack' that employees need fulfilled before they willingly engage with and at work. And it is very much a hierarchical stack, where one depends on the other to support what’s below and enable what’s above. While many organisations attempt to intervene at the top of this stack (namely DEI), which is still needed, getting the foundation right can mean the difference between employees engaging because they want to and showing up because they have to.
An engagement conditions stack should ask:
- Diversity: Who is represented here?
- Equity: Are the rules, resources and opportunities fair?
- Inclusive practice: Am I heard, involved and able to influence?
- Belonging: Am I accepted as a legitimate member of this group?
- Valued uniqueness: Can I belong without erasing or editing who I am?
- Psychological safety: Can I question, disagree, ask for help or admit a mistake without being punished or humiliated?
Belonging is human psychology not Gen Z jargon
Belonging is not Gen Z vocabulary dressed up as strategy. Back in 1995, Baumeister and Leary’s need-to-belong theory established stable, positive connection as a fundamental human motivation. Then came Shore and colleagues’ inclusion model which added a vital caveat: genuine inclusion requires both belongingness and valued uniqueness. Belonging without uniqueness is simply assimilation: ‘You can be one of us if you become like us.’ Uniqueness without belonging makes people visible but locked outside. The more productive condition is: ‘You are one of us, and your difference matters here.’
Included, but still outside
If inclusion describes practices and conditions the organisation creates, belonging is the employee’s experience of those conditions. An employee can be invited to a meeting without believing their opinion carries equal weight. They can appear in diversity statistics yet remain outside influential networks. This is why inclusion and belonging are not interchangeable. And while belonging is not the only link between inclusion and engagement (think meaningful work, fair reward, capable leadership, opportunity and manageable working conditions) belonging is often the link organisations assume exists, without ever asking employees whether they actually experience it.
South African companies putting belonging into practice (and policy)
In 2026, more South African companies are starting to move belonging beyond Heritage Day celebrations and EVP language into workplace structures and behaviour.
Woolworths places belonging within its 'Inclusive Justice Initiative', alongside safety, respect, fair pay and action on discrimination. This kind of executive ownership moves the subject of belonging from soft celebration into hard governance.
At Standard Bank, belonging is described as 'the outcome of diversity, equity and inclusion working together'. Employee forums build connection while feeding employees’ experiences into policy and strategy. This tests belonging as a test of whether DEI is working, not just another programme.
Exxaro frames its DEI strategy around 'Belonging Powers Possibility' and 'one Exxaro for all'. Employees and unions help shape business-unit employment equity plans, while skills development and inclusion initiatives support attraction, development and retention, connecting belonging to workforce planning and transformation.
Yes, these examples don’t prove that belonging independently causes better financial performance. But they do demonstrate that serious organisations are beginning to treat it as an organisational condition that can be designed, supported and measured.
What happens beyond Heritage Month?
Back to that inconvenient question. Perhaps there’s a simple answer: on Heritage Day or even throughout September, go ahead and celebrate difference. Then, once the celebrations are over, do a deep dive to learn how that difference (and be sure to include neurodiversity here) is really experienced in the workplace.
Before you add 'B' to your DEI policies and practices, test the conditions in place:
- Measure experience, not only representation. Ask directly about belonging and psychological safety, then analyse results by site, level, tenure and demographic group.
- Trace voice to influence. Who speaks, whose ideas shape decisions, who gets credit and who keeps being invited back?
- Audit pressure to assimilate. Examine promotion standards, ‘professionalism’, language norms, flexibility and access to informal networks.
- Put gaps into accountability. Name an owner, action and deadline, and report back to employees on what changed.
Just remember, the final question should not be: how can we make employees feel they belong? Feelings cannot be commanded or demanded. The real question is systemic: what must change in our systems, leadership and everyday behaviour before every employee can say, without hesitation, 'I belong here and my difference matters'?
