After the immense success of its previous talk on ‘Employer Branding’, All Things Talent returned with another successful session on 15th July, 2017 in Gurugram, which focussed on the concept of ‘Diversity & Inclusion’.
The event primarily catered to HR Professionals who were interested in obtaining a better understanding of the numerous ‘Diversity & Inclusion’ initiatives, holding considerable prior experience in the same.
In broad terms, diversity is any dimension that can be used to differentiate groups and people from one another. It means respect for and appreciation of differences in ethnicity, gender, age, national origin, disability, sexual orientation, education, and religion. Inclusion is a state of being valued, respected and supported. It’s about focusing on the needs of every individual and ensuring the right conditions are in place for each person to achieve his or her full potential.
To create more awareness on the incorporation of ‘Diversity & Inclusion’ initiatives in an organization, and to shed some light on new, upcoming trends in this field, All Things Talent invited several influential HR hiring and recruitment experts to this session in order to facilitate a discussion wherein HR professionals could gather keen insights on present trends in ‘Diversity & Inclusion’ and the initiatives taken by various organizations to create a more egalitarian and confidence-inducing work space.
Saumya Mittal – Head – Culture, Diversity & Engagement at Pepsico India, started off the discussion by highlighting the issue of inability to express one’s thoughts in a heterogeneous group of people. Citing irrational fears as the primary blockers for doing so, she also linked this effect to a basic human tendency, especially that of our brain which looks for convenience in stereotypes and quick judgements instead of processing all the factors before coming to a conclusion. In order to overcome this ‘unconscious’ bias or discrimination, PepsiCo India has come up with a Y Com level aimed at engaging Gen Y millennials in numerous decision-making roles, which are mostly relegated to X Com levels.
Harshita Chaudhary – Head – Talent Acquisition (SAR) at Nestle India set the agenda by decoding a common belief that Diversity is almost always discussed under the rubric of ‘gender differences’. By adopting the medium of television advertisements of the past and present times, she established the fact that “Diversity is a self-evolving entity, adding more and more parameters to itself as it grows”. By doing so, she traced the journey of Diversity over the past few years, which special emphasis on ‘Gender Diversity’.
She was also accompanied by her colleague, Ms. Meghna, who furthered the discussion by highlighting how Nestle was itself an ecosystem, comprising of nearly 70% women shoppers.
Vidhi Kapoor – Lead – Talent Leadership and Organizational Development at GlaxoSmithKline, emphasized on the fact that no matter how homogeneous a group of people may claim itself to be, there is no escaping diversity as each individual brings to the table some unique aspect which contributes to a larger diversity, therefore it becomes something to be embraced rather than used to create divide. She concluded her presentation by describing numerous initiatives taken by GSK such as ‘Horlicks Didi’, celebration of D&I week, in order promote Diversity & Inclusion.
(We’d like to take this opportunity to applaud Ms. Vidhi Kapoor as she filled in for the final panellist slot at a very short notice, upon our request, and still delivered an exceptional presentation, despite the paucity of time.)
Our esteemed speakers not only took care of their presentations but also answered numerous questions put up by the audience members, further enriching the entire interactive session.
The event concluded with a lunch session, with some off-the-mic discussions between our guests and panellists.
