Diversity and Inclusion : The latest corporate fad ??

I was in the process of settling into my new assignment in one of the leading FMCG companies in India, when I got nominated for the first “Diversity and Inclusion workshop” within the organization. Much to annoyance of my boss who was inadvertently missed by HR in the CC list, I chose to attend this workshop. Was really intrigued by the topic and was really keen to explore what the two days entailed.

It was well attended by Senior Managers across various functions and the trainers were internal employee’s from various functions, in addition to HR who had been trained extensively on the subject.

In the cosy comfortable conference room of a leading five star, the session started with the executives sipping Earl greys and munching the delicious complimentary goodies. As the session progressed after a brief ice breaking session, We were shown films on the diversity, different situations were narrated. The idea was to highlight the subtle exclusions, a diverse employee/vendor/partner is exposed to, which have negative ramification on the situation/teamwork and finally on the overall organizations performance. It highlighted how our own value systems, education or socio economic background made us either inclusive or exclusive in a work environment.

We passionately debated as we discovered our biases which we had picked up inherently over the years owing to our religion, our value system, educational background, sexual preference etc-we use subconsciously to judge people often, which is not necessarily accurate all the time and we use these biases to exclude people from situations. It was an eye opener. People got excluded based on the time they had spent in the organisation, their physical appearance, religion, sexual preference and the list what was endless. We were inducted to the various tools to overcome these biases which were built around the concept of assuming positive intent of all involved parties.

What caught my attention was the gender bias. It was startling revelation to the newcomer’s in the group that “women in a work environment” were perceived as a diverse group. As I went back to my routine like the majority of the participants, I forgot about the D&I tools unless someone in good humour would refer to a situation as a D&I issue.

As my interactions within the organization grew, I was astounded by the efforts put in by the Organization to promote the D&I agenda, there were women councils formed to discuss the concern a working women faces at great length( at times bordering to a men bashing session), propose remediation, formation of task forces to implement remediation. Somewhere while attending these and going thru the process of how these agenda were driven, there was strong sense of all these being a lip service( Remember; this was an FMCG with a Woman CEO, who was and is still driving the diversity agenda- and we all are aware of the sycophancy that exists in the corporate world) . The Councils did spend significant amount of time discussing work life balance issues women face, sexual harassment, security at workplace etc etc. and how the organization could help : remediation would could in form of suggestions to change an existing policy, lesser working hours for women, crèche for children and so on. On the regular routine, once in a while one would get to hear barbs of colleagues attributing any success by a female counterpart to diversity. Snide suggestions on how a woman can take it easy in the garb of D&I agenda.

Somehow I was not too convinced with the Female diversity and was deeply conflicted by the this, I guess this situation was very different for anything I was exposed to earlier in my thirteen years in the corporate world. Since the early years of my education to all my earlier employments I was never perceived any less than a male counterpart. It started with my family and the precedence continued in all my employment.

Never could I imagine saying no to a job owing my gender. In fact, a few interaction on the subject many other female colleagues echoed the same sentiment.” We don’t want to treated specially or differently, in fact we found it highly offensive to our capabilities and intelligence”.

In the current economic environment or otherwise where Corporate’s are striving to be profitable, It is not prudent to accommodate diversity exceptions into the P&L. It is just not fair on the balance of the employee and not conducive to a positive and healthy work environment.

None of the successful and powerful women in India and the world – India Gandhi, Pratibha Patil, Hillary Clinton, Aung San Su Kyi, Naina Lal Kidwai, Indra Nooyi Chanda Kochhar have resorted to the crutches of reservation and I wonder if the modern corporate woman wants to either?

However to be fair to women in India, It is very important that these ladies in power and we in our own little way focus on women empowerment in the remote villages of north India or any other part of the world where female infanticide is prevalent even now.

Work in parallel on the larger issue along with the finer nuances :Corporates, while spending hours on debating lesser working hours for a new mom, could as well devote a few man days on how one can ensure education of a girl child in villages, incentivise survival of a female child, focus on removing the gender bias in Indian parent.Take the "Bottom of the Pyramid" framework in the diversity space.

What a world it would be where every woman is empowered with the education, intellect and exposure for her to decide whether she wants to be a President of a Country, Superwoman CEO, Subservient working woman or a happy homemaker at any stage of her life!!