The Croatian DC completed yet another successful round of the Workplace Inclusion Champion (WIC) educational program, created in partnership of the Croatian, Slovenian and Romanian Diversity Charters. 20 participants from across different sectors participated in the 7-modular training program for business professionals in Croatia.

The WIC training program is designed as a combination of lecture materials and video content, quizzes, various tools, and activities that all together create the foundation for implementing a Diversity & Inclusion policy for a business. After going through the entirety of the online content, participants have the opportunity to meet face-to-face with mentors, experts from the D&I field, and participate in open discussion and exercises, and creating a final project/seminar. We’ve aimed at creating a learning environment that induces concrete results in terms of knowledge, understanding and innovation in D&I topics.

What is particularly appealing about the WIC educational program is the mentorship element that brings on a one-to-one mentoring experience between D&I experts and participants. During the face-to-face sessions, participants interact with mentors, and decide the topic they wish to focus on in their final seminar. This mentorship relationship produces some exciting results in terms of new D&I policies, campaigns, and diversity strategies.

Some of the best final seminars of this round of the WIC program will be presented at the 15^th annual Sustainable Development Conference, 7^th and 8^th of November in Zagreb, Croatia. Additionally, in recognition of the importance of D&I topics in business, we will organize a panel discussion at the SD Conference named “Diversity Policy” with participants from the WIC program and other D&I experts. We are looking forward to the upcoming presentations and panel discussion, and would like to extend our invitation for the Sustainable Development Conference to all EU Diversity Charters or other interested parties.

At the Croatian DC, we noticed an increasing need and demand for diversity training among the business communities, particularly as new EU regulations (including the European Sustainability Reporting Standards, ESRS) are pressing down on diversity strategies. “S” in ESG topics are of high sensitivity and of increasingly high significance, while requiring deep understanding. The recently published Global Sustainable Development Report also indicates little to no improvement in nearly all “S” topics.

The time to educate and improve our ways is now. Join us in our journey to bring Diversity and Inclusion strategies in businesses through quality educational and mentorship programs.