CIPD

No responses? come on guys!

Tips and ideas will be helpful. I have written a draft plan, but i am sure i am missing something obvious.

 Every idea, no matter how basic is welcome.

In reply to Ebiere Claire:

Hello Ebiere

I started writing a response to you and realised that there is a lot to include. Would you like to contact me off line and perhaps we can have a discussion. I can certainly share some ideas and good examples.

Kind regards

Snéha  

Ebiere - Like Sneha states this is a huge topic - perhaps sharing what you have already done will enable others to see if you are missing anything obvious.

Hi Ebiere, whilst I agree the lack of responses is disappointing some insight into your draft plan might help the community to offer suggestions.  Personally I don't work in the finances sector and I've never worked in Scotland so my lack of experience here leaves me struggling a little.  Additionally I wonder about the catalyst for setting you the task in the first place as this could provide some clues.  If you were able to share your draft plan it is quite likely this would help with starting to understand your overall objectives.  :-)

In reply to Krys:

Krys and Clare are right. Sharing something of what you yourself have written usually goes down well with the community...

S 

Hi all,

thanks for the responses.

Clare this Company has a diversity week yearly but apparently local events in Edinburgh are quite few, and in the past they have linked in to sessions in London, which obviously did not get a lot of participation from Edinburgh site.

 I am to organise activities for 'live' events to happen in the Edinburgh office.

Okay here goes a summary of my draft plan and my rationale for it.

Firstly in thinking about diversity; different people, different backgrounds, culture, heritage, orientation, etc. I feel that a diversity week which highlights or addresses issues along the 9 protected characteristics of the Equality Act 2010 is key.

The theme of this diversity week is Inclusion, so i am thinking about activities and factsheets (to be emailed out daily throughout the week) that will deal with recognizing, respecting, and accepting different  people and their idiosyncracies.

During my brainstorming sessions (i hear 'brainstorm' is now politically incorrect, unfortunately i still use it as it usually aptly explains my situation), i have come up with the following ideas without a detailed plan;

Cultural Food lunch/ Cultural dressing on dress down friday) - employees all welcome to dress in their traditional attire, and also bring their local food to work. A competition for the best displayed food (not the taste!).- This event will be addressing racial exclusion.

A 1 hour Reversal of Stereotype event. i am still not sure what this is about. But something about getting men to come with a cake that they baked themselves, an arm wrestling competition between a males and females. I really dont know. But an event that promotes gender equalities.

 For disability i have thought of a few things. Maybe get someone in who is a British Sign language trainer to do a 1 hour session on basic sign language. Including the deaf? the last place i worked for 6 weeks they had notices 'I am deaf but you cant hear me, Why?'. i thought it was cool.It will be something different.  We could also have some form of fish bowl discussion/ talkshow with a panel consisting of a disabled person, a line manager of a disabled person, and someone with a disabled child. The discussion could be around challenges they face, situations where they have felt excluded, and the ideal workplace for them.

Factsheets 'I am a new dad, i dont sleep any more! Help', 'Parenting Skills', How to Unwind with Kids Around', 'Things to think about before your baby is born'.

 Cant think of anything to do with Age and religion. I kind of want to stay clear of Gender reassignment.

 So, what do you think? am i missing something, anything else i could add?

I bet i have given out some good ideas that you can employ in your next diversity event:-)

Hi Ebiere

It's a tightrope, maybe,  between catching participants' interest with a bit of fun, like the food bits / the dressing-up and being in danger of trivialising the issues.

For some participants, sure the lighter stuff will be likely to promote understanding, but think you'll need to include a bit of weightier stuff for the benefit of those to whom logical argument and empiricism appeals - business benefits of fully recognising *everyones* talents; socio-psychological roots of prejudice; essential / applicable employment law etc etc

But best keep constantly stirring the pot between those with diverse learning styles, and, overall you should  have a successful event - hope you do !!

One thing I have always done when it comes to diversity training/events is remind them that during the day discussions should be forthright, and that whatever is said on the course remains on the course only - to enable the "incorrect" comments to come out, to then be educated. (e.g. look at the Blashphemy/swearing thread that has been ongoing for the past day or so)

We actually created a specialist "diversity in a box" board game with teams trying to get round the board whilst answering "quiz" or "scenario" questions for situations which were also relevant to the organisation I was working for (the Police).

The scenario questions were around things like how would you react in a certain situation. One scenario being about one area of the county being particularly well known for having a large travelling community but that this could cause discord with the "existing locals" and how to harmonise relationships between the differing groups.

Whereas one of the quiz questions I remember (for the age section) was "who was Britain's youngest Prime Minister?" (and no it wasn't Blair).

The "game" aspect created competition between the teams, whilst also provoking serious debate around the diversity areas - this was because all teams were expected to answer every question, but the team whose "turn" it was only got to progress round the board if they got it right.

Like David says above it is about balancing people's learning styles. I like your idea about the cultural lunch/dress on the Friday - but is there enough diversity for this? I remember for the World Cup the other year for a twist for a bake sale we were having people picked out a world cup country and created a traditional dish from that country - this meant there was a great mix. So if there is not enough of a diverse background of participants for the cultural dress up/lunch (it would look a bit poor if say you only had 3 or four different cultures represented) - getting people to choose a culture from the Commonwealth countries will ensure diversity - but I'd recommend getting them to choose their country on day 1 so that they will have enough preparation time for the Friday!