Diversity & Inclusion Workshop Trade Centre, Dubai

Course details

In today's global business environment, diversity has becomeincreasingly important. As the awareness of the benefits ofdiversity and inclusion grows, these components become key inthe facilitation of talent acquisition and the ethical growth of acompany's employment brand. The importance placed onworkplace diversity and inclusion partly results from therecognition that improved diversity can contribute to an increasein organisational performance and, thus, the differentiation it canprovide in competitive markets.

Having said this, the diversifying of working environments can beeasier said than done, and actually delivering this vision across alllevels of an organisation is not a straightforward process. In anaggressive business culture, where companies are constantlystriving to identify the means by which to eclipse their rivals,characteristics such as gender, religion, ethnicity and social statushave been, and, unfortunately, continue to be, viewed negativelywhen juxtaposed to the societal perception of success beingwhite, male and Christian. One of the biggest issues with thisparadigm, and a significant threat to diversity and inclusion in theworkplace, is the undermining influence of unconscious bias.

If we truly wish to work in more inclusive teams, with a diversecross-section of gender and social strata, then we need to takeconcerted and aligned action. In doing so, we must not onlyaccept collective responsibility, but also individual responsibilityfor our actions, and acknowledge how and why we unconsciouslypass judgement within the workplace.