The 6th edition of Avtar and Seramount’s Best of Best Conference (BoB) held recently saw leaders across industries coming together in a day-long event comprising discussions around best practices relating to people, culture, and policies.
Among the several thought-provoking sessions at BoB 2022, a CHRO panel discussion ‘The need for culture custodians to drive inclusive behavior in business horizontals’ delved into the need for building and inspiring company culture. The panel consisted of Amarpreet Kaur Ahuja – Country HR Head, AstraZeneca Pharma India Ltd, Ritu Tushir – Head Hr APAC Services, Northern Trust Corporation, India; Kavita Kurup – Global Human Resources, UST; Vipul Singh – Senior Vice President, Head of Human Resources, ADP Private Ltd. The discussion was moderated by Amita Kasbekar, Principal Strategist, LGBTQ+ Practice, Avtar.
Discussing how easy or difficult it was for the senior leadership to role model inclusive behavior, Kavita said that storytelling played an important role. With newcomers (irrespective of the level they are joining at) constantly hearing about the leaders and their behavior, it was very important for the senior leaders to walk the talk and make the environment as inclusive as possible. “At UST, the cabins are always open, there is no hierarchy, and anybody is allowed to come in and have a conversation. This gives them the idea that they are invited and accepted. There are numerous opportunities to grow. I have also seen that the leaders give opportunities for the team members to grow by front-ending the client single-handedly,” she said.
Responding to the same, Vipul said, as per the World Economic Forum (WEF) gender gap today has jumped by 68.14%. If this continued, it would take 155 years to attain gender parity in this corporate ecosystem, and India ranks 135. He added that the McKinsey 2019 engagement reports said that a more diverse and inclusive workforce led to 33% more profitability for the company. “HR is not just an enabler but is also driving this cause, and there are a bunch of extremely supportive business leaders, a bunch of them are at the fence, and there are others passively detracted in some form or the other. So, there still exists a bit of hypocrisy in leading DEI. At my organization, we have implemented a few things even before the reading down of Section 377 in 2018, like same-sex partner insurance since 2013. We do many different things and have implemented many policies for inclusion, and we are still to implement many. I believe that as an HR head, I am an enabler and will continue to be so. There are many huge steps that HR needs to take to make the organization more inclusive,” he pointed out.
So, what are the one or two things that corporate India should do differently for DEI? Amarpreet said that each organization well established in DEI must handhold the organization uninitiated in DEI and bring them to a forum like BoB. Speaking of audits and metrics, she said, “The Diversity Auditor Certificate by Avtar is a great step taken by the team, and it should be mandated for each organization to understand their DEI journey. This will bring seriousness to the DEI journey and bring seriousness in the journey.” Kavita pointed out that while companies carried out the audits and assessments, they needed to humanize the entire process, adding it was important to respect people in the organization and take their consent before making them the poster child of the organization. Vipul said that women directors are on the board only for the listed companies and not for the others. “We must think about this from a regulations point of view as it will create a great impact from an inclusion standpoint,” he added.
Ritu added that companies should openly share the best practices of the organizations to inspire more.
Closing the session, Amita shared a few takeaways from her three-decade-long journey as a DEI leader:
- Have team members shadow you/the business leader for a full day. Do this at regular and meaningful frequencies. This makes people imbibe the leadership traits they ought to emulate.
- Be mindful of not interrupting people at meetings. Several studies conducted show that:
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- More women get interrupted than men in meetings and conversations
- Both men and women do that although not consciously
- Correct in private and praise in public.
