I am coming down from the high of being a part of Workday’s diversity and inclusion luncheon yesterday. There was a fantastic panel of people passionate about making a difference in their organisations. We got to hear from Paypal, Linkedin, and Workday. I was fortunate enough to be able to also participate and share how The Inclusive Foundation can move an organisation, in a very practical and tangible way, from acceptance to inclusion of individual difference for the benefit of employees and customers.

A huge shoutout must go to Adrian Wicks and Imogen Riley from Workday for walking the talk and making a huge effort to include Scott Shoesmith and meet his specific needs at the event. It was a great opportunity for everyone involved to observe how to integrate the needs of the deaf into a corporate environment, and for others to appreciate the value of creating a world where everyone is included.

Diversity and inclusion is not just ‘the right thing to do’, it’s also not just about creating ‘a sense of belonging’ for your employees.

Scott and I had lots of examples of how we had both experienced exclusion due to Scott’s specific needs to share with the audience. Coincidentally two of those examples were with organisations that were represented at the event. You know who you are – so feel free to reach out and we are happy to assist you adjust your work practices to meet the needs of everyone. In fact there is a high probability we have an example of exclusion you could learn from to improve your work practices and increase a return to your bottom line.

Clearly inclusion is important to me personally, and at the end of the day I got a chance to ask Tom Shields, the GM of ANZ Professional Services for Workday, about why diversity and inclusion is important to him personally. You can check out the video on my LinkedIn profile.

For now I’ll just leave you with a thought that we can take up at another time;

Diversity and inclusion is not just ‘the right thing to do’, it’s also not just about creating ‘a sense of belonging’ for your employees. There is much more to it. I have the way to make it very real and very possible for your organisation to break through exclusion barriers, you may or may not be aware you have created, in your organisation.

~ Dr Elizabeth Shoesmith