As companies become more inclusive, one addition to diversity statements, employee resource groups and other initiatives is inclusion day or diversity day.
As companies become more inclusive, one addition to diversity statements,
employee resource groups and other initiatives is inclusion day or diversity day.
Some companies even host an inclusion week with an array of activities planned for each day that highlight various dimensions of their diverse and inclusive culture.
In 2018, the CEO Action for Diversity & Inclusion organization announced that
December 7 would mark a Day of Understanding.
On that day, more than 150 action signatory companies in various cities united to take, “a bold action and host a daylong discussion on understanding within each of their respective companies in order to further embrace difference in our organizations, educate our people and build more inclusive cultures inside and outside of our workplaces.”
The CEO Action for Diversity & Inclusion provided each organization with a full suite of resources in order to facilitate the sessions at no cost to the company.
The resources included unconscious bias training materials, difficult conversation best practices, and personal facilitators to help companies shape the discussions and customize the sessions to their organizational culture.
Inclusive Employers, a UK-based organization, hosted National Inclusion Week 2019 in September. McDonald’s the initiative’s sponsor, created a video showcasing their diverse workforce.
Activities included: “Inclusivi-Tea” sit-down conversations over a cup of tea, a
“Celebrating Others” event, films, a daily challenge sheet, tip sheets, and hashtags to tweet out their commitments.
IPG hosts National Day of Understanding focused on Issues of Race, Ethnicity, and Inclusion.
• Event features thought leaders Eddie S. Glaude, Jr., Katherine Phillips,
Derald Wing Sue and Kenji Yoshino
• Event takes place live in New York City at the company’s headquarters
and was webcasted to locations around the U.S
• Extends Company’s Ongoing Activism on National Events
Clorox hosted a Day of Understanding at five of locations and one virtually.
Hundreds of employees of different ethnicities, genders, ages, and religions, from the C-suite to newest college grads, joined the conversation.
Led by volunteer employee facilitators, the sessions were designed to help Clorox employees share their experiences and really listen to each other as they discussed sensitive topics that impact lives and sometimes make headlines, but that are typically steered clear of at work.
Clorox also hosted the CEO Action Check Your Blind Spots tour bus at the
Pleasanton, California, campus.
Virtual reality goggles provided a chance to “look through a different lens” and phone receivers challenged participants to “listen to someone else’s reality.”
Employees at Diageo held week-long series of events to celebrate diversity:
• Diageo, a prime employer for women, held “INC Week” – which is a week-long series of employee-led events, panels, workshops and further activity to celebrate and foster inclusion in the workplace.
• Following the success of Diageo’s inaugural INC Week event in 2017, Diageo repeated its emphasis on inclusion in the workplace a year later.
• In addition to hearing from some of the company’s top leaders, INC Week also welcomed a host of inspirational external speakers to address some of the above topics, including British author and TV presenter June Sarpong, chartered psychologist Nadia Nagamootoo, and Yasmin Sheikh founder of Diverse Matters.
To celebrate the value of diversity and inclusion, we host our annual National Inclusion Week to create an opportunity to unify our efforts and commitment to maintaining an inclusive culture throughout our company on an ongoing
basis.
