Today is International Women’s Day, an empowering awareness day that provides a great opportunity to assess how organisations are working to become more inclusive and collaborative as they remove bias of all types from the workplace. Hybrid working has become an essential enabler of workplace flexibility, empowering every human on the planet, including women – to create the work-life balance that allows them to maximise productivity at the same time as accommodating their life outside of work. 

Technology is a critical enabler of this but the journey doesn’t stop with providing a unified communications system. Policies and behavioural expectations must be explained and supported to make sure all users are included equally. To achieve this within its own business, Poly has established its strategic IDEA programme, which stands for Inclusion, Diversity, Education and Awareness. The programme nurtures their culture of sensitive curiosity, converts conversation to action and helps educate its people through events, and hosts all-employee webinars with outside speakers to foster awareness and to provide support for Poly’s people. 

The company has recently hosted a session with the Neuro Leadership Institute to address the issue of unconscious bias. “There is a lot of unconscious bias around women, but we are just as focused on making sure all people are included because bias is not just a gender issue,” says Estelle Jackson, the global inclusion, diversity, education and awareness lead at Poly. “The reality is the world has changed and is becoming more inclusive and accepting of everyone’s needs. For example, I am in the US with my children at the moment combining work and parenthood and a colleague has been trying to set up a session with global participants. I pointed out that this will be difficult to align because of my children’s needs but the response isn’t that the session can’t happen or I will be excluded from the event, the response is that we’ll find a way to make it work.” 

This levelling of the playing field is symbolised by Poly’s internal phrase of: “We don’t do that here” which workers are encouraged to use to address non-inclusive behaviour. This extends to fostering allyship across the business. “I talk to smaller businesses and companies that don’t have people like me in their company and advocate that they ask themselves who is their only person of colour, who is their only woman or only person who is in a wheelchair and then determine what they are doing to make sure that person’s voice is heard,” adds Jackson. 

This type of education and increasing of awareness builds on advances that have already been made. “We’re busy ensuring we have built-in inclusion and collaborative experiences for everyone that uses our technology,” says Clare Tibbitts, the senior director of revenue marketing at Poly.

“In the 15 years I’ve been at Poly, I haven’t felt significant bias but earlier in my career I discovered my salary was considerably lower than that of a male direct report. Upon highlighting this issue, it was addressed within 24 hours, but it shows how important it is to eradicate bias from the workplace” 

“Work is what you do, it’s not a place you go to,” she adds. “If I look back to when I had my second daughter, I felt I couldn’t work full time and asked to work a four-day week because I was confident, I could make it work. Technology enabled this and is more widely accepted now, providing greater choice and flexibility, not only for women but for all workers. This International Women’s Day I would advocate that companies make sure they use the technology that is available and train people with the best etiquette for using it. If you’re the only participant that is external to a meeting that needs to be accommodated and addressed so you have the same ability to communicate, collaborate and share.” 

To learn more about Poly’s inclusion activities watch the UC Today video here. 

 

 



from UC Today https://ift.tt/rxlYM7b