During the online event, five speakers provided their vision on this theme and the added value of diversity and inclusion in the workplace. The afternoon was chaired by Hussein Adam Dia. Organization consultant and Manager of Inclusion and Diversity Bouchra Talidi was the first speaker. In her presentation, Talidi showed the added value of an inclusive work culture on the basis of the relationship between psychosocial safety, diversity and team performance. (00:04:30) She did this by, among other things, sharing her personal experiences of inclusion and exclusion and examples from her daily practice. Talidi closed with three practical tips for companies who want to move towards a more inclusive work culture. (00:20:47)

The session was mainly in Dutch, but you can watch the recording with English subtitles via YouTube.

Home

Consultant D&I and Senior Contract Manager Sander Oygur followed after her, to share his personal story (00:26:16). He was involved in organizing the Diversity Day activities last year at his employer Randstad Group Netherlands. "As a child of political refugees and raised in beautiful Twente, I have always wondered where I actually belong. Is it in the country where my parents were born and were no longer safe, or the country where I was born and my parents have built a new life? [...] As a Dutchman with a non-western background, do I have to prove myself and should I be grateful for the opportunities I have been given? Or do I just bring certain qualities with me and do I bring something to an organization? These have actually always been questions which I never felt comfortable to discuss."

However, last year Oygur decided to post a personal message on the Randstad Group's internal Internet page about this topic to see if there were any colleagues who were running into the same. He received so many responses to this, that he got the desire to do something with it. "How can we make sure that the stories of these people are actually heard? Eventually, we came up with the idea of making a podcast." (00:30:08) This podcast was launched on Diversity Day 2021.

No assumptions

For the interlude, poet Zaïre Krieger was present in the studio. She provided a spoken word performance (00:39:48). Krieger wrote the text especially for the Inspiration Session. Afterwards, she spoke with Dia about the struggle to remain herself in environments where she is expected to adapt. "I think I do a lot of little things about my appearance, or in my speech, when I have interactions with people, which force me to be myself. My blue hair is very nice, but it's actually a kind of armor. It forces me to be myself in the room and still choose not to adapt, not to codeswitch. So I do little things about myself, knowing that that might not appeal to other people. [...] I do always try to go into an interaction with as few assumptions as possible, because you don't know what kind of life people have behind them. At first glance, you wouldn't think that some people have been through so much. No assumptions or presumptions, but trying to see the person for who they are."

Gap

Keynote speaker was Prof. Dr. Jutta Allmendinger, managing director of the Wissenschaftszentrum Berlin für Sozialforschungen (WZB) and chair of the G7 Gender Equality Advisory Council. In her presentation, she discussed gender relations in Germany and what other countries can learn from this. She did this using theories from sociology and the findings of the WZB. (00:50:28) In her conclusion, she called attention to the income gap between men and women viewed over a lifetime. "If you compare women with two children born in 1985 with fathers with two children born in 1985, the difference is 1 million euros. [...] What needs to be done? First, we need to have a public debate on how to bridge this. There are two possibilities. One is that women are more and more transformed into men. That they take over male labor market trajectories, work 45 years full time. Then the wage gap between men and women would be closed. Both in terms of hours and life income. The other is that men move more in the direction of women and we move to a four-day work week or something like a 32-hour work week. This debate is not here and is missing in Germany and in the new coalition agreement. Our new coalition is currently giving incentives in both directions, instead of formulating a clear homogeneous family policy. It is the women who suffer from this. Not the men."

Advisor Learning & Development Anna de Haan (KPN) closed the afternoon with a presentation on the online course "Soft Landing," developed by KPN with platform Mom Inc. for all women returning to work after maternity leave (01:15:30). "As an employer, we understand that the transition from maternity leave to work can be a really challenging period," De Haan said. "So we want to facilitate this to the maximum extent possible, because we truly value a healthy balance between work and care responsibilities."

At the end of the Inspiration Session, Day, chairman Dia gave some tips on what activities companies are organizing as part of Diversity Day (01:26:08). "We also need to be careful to make it concrete," he said. "So when you come up with an activity or a tool or something like that: make it concrete, make it goal-oriented, and make sure it's structurally secured in the organization. And make sure to evaluate these tools properly when you apply them in the company. This, I think, motivates all of us to make Diversity Day 2022 a festive and also educational day."

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Want to sign up for de Dutch Diversity Day 2022 on 4 October 2022? You can do so at http://www.diversityday.nl/.

The day after Diversity Day, on 3 October 2022, Jitske Kramer and Typhoon will host a master class (NL) on diversity and inclusion. Curious? You can register through this link: https://www.rhythmoflife-event.nl/