2025 Diverse Workplace Trends Report (1): Sustainable Strategies to Initiate Inclusive Change

Report Summary

Taiwanese companies' investment in diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) has shown progress from the perspective of employees. The overall rating of the organization's DEI implementation has increased steadily from 5.73 in 2024 to 5.96 out of 10 in 2025.

This improvement is reflected in the improvement in key indicators: 58.1% satisfaction with gender inclusion and 43% satisfaction with psychological safety and belonging culture. However, DEI is a long-term change, and bringing individual outcomes to mainstream consensus remains a significant challenge.

This report focuses on three key angles: change, resilience, and compliance, revealing three key challenges for companies to move towards inclusive maturity:

1. Mainstream change management: consolidate cognition and cross critical mass

The challenge lies in eliminating cognitive misconceptions and psychological barriers. The survey found that 38.7% of employees have misconceptions about equity. At the same time, the lack of psychological safety in high-risk cycles of brain drain (childbirth, menopause, care responsibilities) continues to pose resistance to change.

The current task of change management is to address fairness misconceptions through precise communication and turn resistance into change thrust by gaining collective recognition from a wide range of employees.

2. Teamwork maturity: Solve the institutional consumption of "high willingness and low practice"

The data shows that although 66.5% of workers are eager to help each other, this willingness is being consumed by institutional pain points. Core barriers include:

• Willingness, no tools: 47% lack a clear agency mechanism, and 32.8% pointed out that the assistance of the employee agency "does not reflect in work performance or affirmation".
• There are policies, but they don't dare to use them: 38.6% of people do not have or will not apply for flexible work, and 44.9% of them are mainly worried about affecting their jobs.
• Willing to invest, lack of methods: 34.9% expect team communication and collaboration training workshops, reflecting a gap in communication skills.

3. Legal compliance empowerment: reconstruction of inclusive culture and behavioral boundaries

On August 28, 2025, the Executive Yuan passed the draft amendment to the Occupational Safety and Health Act, which includes a special chapter on "Workplace Bullying Prevention" to bring opportunities for enterprises to transform.

Companies must shift from compliance risk control to active empowerment, protecting the rights and interests of both labor and management by drawing the line between the government's defined workplace bullying patterns (e.g., targeting individuals, isolation, and abuse of power) and acceptable management behavior.

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Mainstream change management: Overcome critical mass and improve the probability of change success

The successful implementation of the inclusion strategy is essentially an organizational change. Everett M. Rogers' Diffusion of Innovations theory points out that when the scale of new idea adopters accumulates to critical mass, change diffusion will move from a slow early stage to a self-driven acceleration stage.

In practice, this critical turning point often occurs when adoption rates are around 20% to 30%.

However, for inclusion change to successfully cross this 30% mainstream threshold, organizations must first identify and resolve potential resistance. This year's survey reveals three potential headwinds that are directly impacting the speed and depth of change:

Resistance to change 1: cognitive misunderstandings and mainstream thresholds

To cross the 30% mainstream threshold, organizations must first solidify employees' "cognitive critical quality" of DEI's core concepts. It's a defensive investment designed to dismantle misconceptions and psychological barriers that can hinder change.

38.7% Misconception of Equity: Although 61.3% of respondents agree with the core concept of "providing different resources to achieve fair opportunities based on differences", nearly 40% (38.7%) of employees still have misconceptions about Equity.

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Resistance to change 2: High-risk cycle of brain drain and security challenges

Resistance to change also lurks in high-stakes scenarios in the employee's personal lifecycle, reflecting a lack of workplace security, especially for female workers, where these life-stage pressures pose a unique risk of career interruption.

• Scenario 1: Unfriendly Workplace Fertility Environment|More than 40% (43.3%) of women choose not to actively disclose their birth plans, mainly due to "avoiding unnecessary stress" (65.1%) and "worrying about career impact" (46.5%). This indicates a lack of transparency and security in the workplace, hindering strategic talent support.

• Scenario 2: Menopausal workers face workplace gaps|Nearly 60% (59.3%) of women believe that menopause affects work performance, with 83.5% experiencing physical health challenges. As an administrative supervisor said in the survey: "There are rules for pregnancy, and there are leave for childcare, but menopause is almost blank in the workplace." This kind of "workplace gap" makes it difficult for employees to be understood or caught, forming a hidden risk of brain drain.

• Scenario 3: The psychological tug-of-war of the atmosphere of on-the-job caregivers|When employees take leave for care, they have positive feelings such as gratitude (59.3%), but they also face challenges such as nervousness (45.4%) and anxiety (41.1%). This emotional tug-of-war shows that although the human touch exists, the support of systems and processes has not kept up, making it difficult for employees to take leave with peace of mind.

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Action strategy guide

• Through precise communication, 38.7% of fair perception misunderstandings are addressed, transforming people's recognition into a driving force for change and establishing shared values within the organization.
• Extend care to the high-risk cycle of brain drain and promote active support and cooperation from all stakeholders by building a sense of psychological safety.