What have we learned from lockdown?
There’s been the good, the bad and the downright ugly. On the phenomenal side, our Present Yourself Online workshop featured the phenomenal Emmy-nominated guest host Jeff Conway from Chicago, with guests from Malta, Germany and France. Lockdown has made inclusion possible from across the globe.
On the bad side, we know working mothers are being furloughed in droves with the prospect of redundancy looming while BAME/multicultural entry level schemes are being axed, with many mid-weight/junior roles on furlough (this is where we have made the most progress on multicultural talent). Data is everything, which is why we’re launching a Covid-19 Inclusion Tracker with Campaign next week to understand the impact .
We’re offering our services to every leadership team who wants to put inclusion at the heart of their restructures to help them become future fit, plus a workshop to imagine what they can build upon from lockdown, to retain top talent with ‘The Big Reset’.
Racism and Hate: it’s time to address it
Our free #AskUsAnything webinar series is our space where we can solve challenges together, drawing on the wisdom of professionals, from within ourselves and within the group.
Why remote working is the next frontier for inclusion
Last week we discussed inclusive remote working for line managers, with our industry experts Helen Matthews, Chief People Officer at Ogilvy, Lucy Hobbs, Founder of The Future is NeuroDiverse and Senior Creative and Michael Brown, Partner, Insight and Cross Culture at UM London. We touched upon how to bring employees back from furlough, key communication strategies, emotional intelligence in leadership and using Zoom inclusively.
Read our takeaways deck in our blog post here.
The ugly: why we have to talk about Zoom: Wed 13 May 2pm
We’ll be investigating Navigating Hate Hacks: How Brands can Respond with an Inclusive Lens. After our Zoom bomb and racist attack on a Creative Equals' colleague, we're looking at ways to learn from the experience as a company and as a sector.
Look on their site and you'll see Zoom do not have a D&I policy. It is clear D&I has never been at the heart of product and service design or in the DNA of Zoom's brand values, behaviours or leadership. We expected to hear a strong commitment to diversity, equality, equity and inclusion and robust customer support when a racist Hate Crime was involved. There have been over 500,000 attacks on the platform. How could brands behave? More importantly, in a world where everything is online, what should companies do to be safe?And, what should employers do when happens to an employee?
Next week, we’ll be featuring: Lydia Amoah, Learning & Cross-Cultural Director, Creative Equals, Sulaiman Khan, Founder and Chief Purpose Officer, ThisAbility, Michelle Raymond, HR Specialist, Ged Grebby, CEO, Show Racism the Red Card, Tamara Littleton, CEO, The Social Element and Shilpen Savani, Dispute Resolution & Employment Law Partner, Gunner Cooke.
Plan your back-to-work strategy
Over lockdown, the parameters of work, staff engagement, inclusion and business have changed. So have your staff’s expectations of line managers, teamwork and working practices. As lockdown begins to lift and your business goes back to the ‘new normal’, how will you manage this process in a way that keeps motvates talent (including those who have been furloughed or received pay cuts), upskills your line managers (who are key in delivering this transition) and what will this mean for your people? This one is for leadership teams and HRDs. This is 2x 2-hour workshops, which we can run for your teams or host as an open workshop (hit the button below to register your interest).
Outcomes:
Create an effective plan for a return back to work
Design a vision for the future workplace, understanding what has and hasn’t worked during lockdown
Optimise staff engagement for the return to work and keep your top talent in the process
Join this new bespoke workshop led by Liz Nottingham, former Executive HR Director and Ali Hanan, CEO & Founder, Creative Equals.
Reflective Journalling: our free Friday feel-good
Here’s one of the best kept mental health secrets. Write a journal. It’s an effective way to capture your truths, stop and reflect, and begin to create priorities for yourself. We held our first journaling session last Friday hosted by Liz Nottingham, former executive HRD, and immediately received incredible feedback. One attendee wrote: 'Thank you for creating a quiet, contemplative space to reflect - it was such a contrast to all the other live learning around at the moment.'
It’s free and only 30 minutes long.
Our next session is on Friday 15 May 12.15pm. All you need is a pen, paper and yourself
READ: Rebel Ideas, Matthew Syed. Yes, one of the best reads on diversity is now out in paperback. Embracing the power of cognitive diversity, the book discusses why different perspectives are important and cites a gazillion business cases from Silicon Valley and beyond.
WATCH: Unorthodox on Netflix. The series about the Orthodox Jewish community - based on a true story, filmed largely in Yiddish and featuring authentic actors in the series from Jewish backgrounds - this series has had us all talking in the virtual office this week. With a 95% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, this one’s on our list for weeks to come.
Enjoy the Bank Holiday. So nearly there...
Love, the Creative Equals team