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Hello, my name is Kulbir Shergill
and I am the Head of Diversity and Inclusion
at Genesis Housing Association.
I'm here to share my top five tips with you today on what makes an inclusive
workplace. My first tip
is about having a strategy. Be clear about
what your goals are, where you're going and make sure they actually tie in with your business objectives.
It's really important that any strategy
helps the business to actually deliver what it's there to do.
But it's also really important that your strategy actually ties in with the values and behaviours of
an organization and buy in and leadership
is absolutely critical. My second tip is about being committed.
Don't just have a big *** and say, 'hey we've done diversity and inclusion'.
This is about keeping people informed about what's actually happening
Be creative about how you communicate with people
At Genesis we have our social internet
which is absolutely great, we have Yahoo groups, we have network groups, we have events so
we keep people informed about what the progress is and
our strategy, goals and objectives.
My third tip is about being engaging, don't just have
a paper policy. Create a culture where people are really involved
with what's happening. Do things in different ways. Create a culture
where people can actually get to understand what the implications of having
a diverse and inclusive culture are for their colleagues
and for their customers. My fourth tip is about being
visible. Make the whole process very
visible to people. Promote inclusion,
inclusive leadership behaviours are so very important here.
What leaders in an organisation say and do and say actually sends out very very powerful messages.
One of our senior colleagues, who has recently joined us at Genesis
actually commented that diversity and inclusion at Genesis
was very real. It wasn't just a paper policy
it was everywhere that was around us, it was things that were actually happening,
it was posters that were up at our offices,
but also about how people were actually engaged with what was going on.
Make it real and relevant to people.
My fifth tip is actually about being flexible. Be prepared to change what your
strategy and what your interventions are going to be because the environment and the
world around us is changing all the time. Demographics change,
legislation, politics, social
thought changes so be flexible and tailor your messages
to your audience.