Working for an international company means that we must have an open attitude to different people and cultures. But that’s not enough: We want to internalize what diversity means to us as CENIT.
Sharing experiences and creating prospects
That’s why we want to gain a better understanding of our employees’ experiences and perspectives. Where are we doing a good job already? Where do we have to get better? This year, we initiated an in-house Diversity Round Table to find out. In a regular series of discussion rounds, we want use this format to sharpen our awareness of diversity within our company.
The idea is to create a forum for open discussion and participation. One major goal is to identify problems and challenges as a basis for finding solutions.
Our jobs as a constant throughout our life phases
In our first Round Table event, we encouraged the participants to share their experiences across different phases in their lives and their jobs. In our professional lives, we all go through a series of phases, from our career start to a phase of ongoing development in which we define professional goals for ourselves, and on to our career phaseout and retirement.
At the same time, we traverse different phases in our private lives, with all their joys and challenges: starting a family, perhaps falling ill, recovering and getting back to life on the job – these are just a few examples of the many directions our lives may take. The binding element between all these phases, which can differ radically from one person to another, is our job.
As an employer, we at CENIT want to take responsibility and support our employees throughout their diverse paths in life. The Round Table offered us important insights into how we might do so.
Open communication for a trust-based business ethic
The participants shared their experiences in open and trusting discussion. It soon became evident that diversity within a company begins with the characteristics and perspectives that define us and that we all contribute to our jobs.
One core insight gained during the event: We are never alone, regardless of the situation. Open and transparent communication isn’t always easy, but it builds understanding and prevents negative interpretations.
How socialization and role models define the way we interact
Some participants also shared negative experiences they have had at work. One aspect is always present and relevant: The interplay between socialization, role models and everyday discrimination. Socialization determines our values, convictions and behavior. It begins in childhood but continues throughout our adult lives. In the working world, role expectations are often deeply entrenched and not given much thought. They influence how we see ourselves and how others perceive us. And in the worst case, they lead to habitual, though often unintended, discrimination. This may be subtle, e.g. in the form of condescending remarks, but it has real, hurtful impacts on those who are affected.
Lessons learned from the Round Table
For this reason, it was especially important to us that we gain concrete takeaways for how we ought to behave in our jobs. We all saw clearly how important a respectful and open corporate culture is for a positive working atmosphere. We therefore plan to follow up with concrete programs to promote a diverse work environment.
Together, we worked on gaining a greater awareness of stigmatizing role expectations and becoming more ready to address and question them. One salient message from the event was that we must take a clear stance against any form of discrimination and are committed to identifying, addressing and combating it whenever we find it.
These are just a few of the many lessons learned from our first Diversity Round Table. We are grateful to those who were ready to share and look forward to upcoming events on diversity-related topics that impact our lives.
