 Hello everyone, so today we're going to talk about building an inclusive and diverse corporate culture But before actually heading on to that, let's do a quick brain exercise, right? So we're gonna do a quick brain exercise. So for that, I want all of you to close your eyes, right? So here it goes imagine You're getting really really late for the airport and you have to board a flight So you rush to the airport, get through the security check, reach the boarding gate and the moment you enter the plane the gate behind you closes The pilot comes out of the cockpit and says to you, hey, congratulations, you've made it Now you reach to your destination location, go to a restaurant to get some dinner And there is a beautiful couple seated beside your table celebrating their anniversary After that, you go back to your hotel Next morning, you are at the biggest tech conference of the world and this hot hot CEO of an emerging startup comes up on the stage and is about to give a speech Now I want all of you to open your eyes because I have a few questions for all of you Now when you were imagining was the person flying the plane of women was the beautiful couple seated beside your table two black men and This CEO this hot CEO was about to come on stage for women If the answer is no, then that is my friends unconscious bias and in some ways that is lack of diversity as well Now whenever you hear the word diversity, you immediately feel bored and uninterested, right? You feel like you'll have to sit through a lecture and go through slides like these Multicultural hands in the air Hands may be on top of one another And the favorite picture of all companies some random group of people from different cultures standing together and whatnot It's just that we look at diversity in such an unimaginative way that the topic becomes automatically done Now there are two groups of people or as I like to classify it One who really don't want to talk about diversity They just want to get over it and then look at the bigger fish to fry And the second type is the people who feel talking about it Leaders are so terrified about messing things up and saying the wrong words to their customers Board members employees that they're simply paralyzed into an action And this is the reason that as a result many a times companies hire women And people from different races simply because they want to check those diversity boxes They don't want to be looked at as sexist or racist They actually feel that hiring diversity is the answer to racism And that is why if you're someone like me and you achieve some success People are very quick to attribute your success to the fact that oh, you got it because you're a woman But the thing is if you actually look at it this way That most of these people who are hired as a part of diversity never make it to the board room The board room still looks like this Right and that is why honestly workplace diversity as I see it is not a very difficult topic It is not something that is very difficult to achieve Now you must be thinking What do I know about diversity? Am I not too young to talk about it? And honestly for a particular period of time that was true to some extent Now I did my bachelor's of engineering from an all-feminine university So the irony is even though I was a minority I wasn't really one at least in my college devices And that is why I did not understand in those times that when you're not the majority you have to speak up for things It could also mean being the only one to speak against the popular opinion Or becoming more visible to get the same level of recognition But when I got out of that comfort zone And started working at different places. I felt the same thing It was like I was the only woman in a team of all men I was the only woman in the whole board rooms and the meeting rooms Now let's come to the point. How do I create an inclusive and diverse work environment? And I have a real easy solution for that I came across this awesome website that is going to solve all your problems and that is Rent a minority right yay. That's like perfect solution one step solution to all your problems Because let's admit it diversity is time consuming and takes up a lot of resources as well And companies don't have that so we need something that is quick and easy We need diversity on demand Or as the co-founder calls it arba that is it's an uber for diversity There's a diversity for every occasion on this website and that you can actually look for So we have an intellectual black guy. We have smiling muslim women. We have ethnically ambiguous people Right fun. That's actually a solution So if you're not having enough black people at a conference, you can just look for it on the website, right? So there's a smiling muslim woman who's not going to create a chaos as well All the solutions all the minorities that you're looking for in one website And I actually read somewhere that there are peoples or there are companies actually asking for this service There are people signing up on this website as a minority Now Rent a minority is not real. It's just a fake solution to minority. It's not even anything real You can actually call it a joke But there are people who don't really get the joke. There are actually people who think that it's real Now and the reason why people don't really get the joke is because a random minority is very Very close to how many companies deal with the diversity question and that makes the issue worse This is the reason why people in companies feel diversity trainings as completely awful And honestly, this is not how you make a workplace diverse and inclusive This does not solve any issues. This only makes it worse Now Why I introduce the whole concept is because sometimes humor about inequality is the best way to get people to talk about it And that's why we're here to talk about it Now let's come to some real solutions that could actually solve our problem In this talk, we're not going to talk about what are the advantages of having workplace diversity because that's the subjective topic You may or you may not agree to it For those people who are interested We'll just consider some very simple steps that you can take to include workplace diversity And honestly, these are small things really really small things that can help solve the issue First for that would be to have unconscious bias training for recruiters If you are in HR, then you might want to reduce your unconscious bias You're not just looking to diversify your team. You're looking to diversify your hiring process Because when you cast a wider net and explore new candidate sources You reach out to people who already have the right skill set And thus this task of hiring the best candidates out there isn't so difficult anymore The second thing that you can do is you create a feedback mechanism Is it's honestly just as simple as listening to your employees and ensuring that you have a culture Where people feel they can give feedback and the company does something about it It's so simple yet so difficult for some companies to do And third what you can do is you can establish diverse mentorships A mentoring program for diversity is a great way for all employees to network with one another It should also promote knowledge sharing across various cultures Work styles and backgrounds This means the program should not exclude anyone The entire program or the organization should be encouraged to participate in the mentoring For me personally, I feel that the most effective solution Is talking about it Please say something if you are in the same company Same meeting rooms with same people and nothing's changing say something Talk to your manager about it because you don't want to be in a company. That's like that And the reason for that is because diversity and inclusion are a necessity. They are not a nice city Thank you. I hope it was time useful for all of you I'm open to taking any questions if anyone has anything they want to talk about it Okay, so like I said, I'm just a fresh graduate like I just graduated my university and That's why um, when I just immediately entered into the industry that was a very big shock for me. I was like um, I What the engineers in my team and I was the first woman who actually like uh stepped in in the role of um Engineer and I was like a lot quite shocked to see that process So I think the first thing that I actually did to solve this issue was that I talked to my team lead I went to talk to him about it. I said that the hiring process is I don't think really good Or I think the hiring process is too grilling for a person to think about this particular position What my manager told me about is that It's not like they don't want to hire enough women. It's just people already have this mindset that The hiring process for my company is too hard. So there are people who do really don't think of applying to that position So I think the first thing that I did Joining this company was I tried to schedule Kind of sessions kind of prep sessions who are actually trying to Apply to this company and also to create a different image for the whole organization As in to create that image that yes, we do try to Include an environment where people can actually apply and it's just more about your skills than about your Gender that needs to be considered while applying this and as a result I've been working here for about as in come including my intern period and also my full-time period now that Number from one has actually moved to nine So in the past I would say six to seven months The team was actually able to include more people and there are currently about 30 more women in the pipeline so I think the reasons what how I was able to achieve was To talk to my manager about it that I see a particular issue And I think that's something that needs to be talked about and the other issue that was that In the whole meeting room. I'm the only woman. There's literally no other woman in the whole thing So there's just group of people who are already talking who have already made a set of decisions Who are really not interested to you know talk more about it or discuss it over it or I would say not really Wanting to discuss the difference of opinions. So that's why I made sure that I talked to my manager about it I made sure that if we are in a meeting if there's a meeting going on in the end There's a conclusion statement by everyone There's a statement which everyone has something to add to it And we don't feel that there was some set of group of people or someone who did not Talk at all about this And now for smaller companies, how do you recommend bringing up lack of diversity? I would say I am working in a startup right now and my company literally literally has Just I would say Initially, we were just a group of employees of 60 70 people. So we were really really small So in small companies issues like diversity, like I said, take a backseat They're not really given much importance as such. They are really just considered as something which you might take up in The picture some years later when you are a big organization But what they don't realize at that point is if these issues are tackled early in the stages That actually leads to a greater profit for the whole organization And that's like a crucial step that you need to take So I would say if you are in a small organization like I was And there's not much hierarchy. So if you are in a small company, I'm assuming that there's not A much hierarchy that exists in an organization So a good way would be to directly talk to the person who's recruiting people Right to change the image of the whole organization if it's like that like in my case people were already reluctant to apply So our organization had little part to do in it to enroll diversity people to make sure you Change that image of your organization to make sure you look like an organization Which actually wants to hire people and which actually cares about the people who are hired as well If you want you can actually use the social media platform as well to you know Promote this kind of a structure of how important it is and actually, you know Take testimonials of the people who are already working in the organization So let's say if I'm the only woman currently in an organization who's a woman or who is let's say a A person of brown a brown person Then I would like write to give a would be willing to give a testimony testimonial in on social media Like saying yes that I was benefited with this organization And what's the actual culture of this company is apart from what it actually looks like I hope that helps I'm currently working at interview bit Interview bit is a company. It's an edutic startup in India. It's one of the growing startups in India I feel The success rate or the growth rate for the company is really really good It's like an edutic startup which basically enrolls people over a period of six months For some for helping them learn computer fundamentals and then it helps them to grab better jobs in the industry Henry's okay. Henry. I think I totally relate with you as an educator Henry says as an educator. I have found a lack of minority students in ICIT program What do you feel would encourage the enrollment and completion of degrees in computers by minority? Yes That's another very important issue so This happens in my company as well since I am in an edutic startup. Um, there is this Enrollment of student that goes on almost every three months We're in you enroll students for this particular program that goes for six six months and the most important thing is There is already less enrollment from women There is very less involvement from women That's like an 80 20 ratio and even if those 20 women do enroll They do leave the course over a period of time and they don't really complete the degree or They do switch to some other course or they do try to get rid of it Now to make sure that you stick those women or you stick those people of different races and genders to those course and why they feel They don't want to stick to this Stick to this courses because they already see a lack of minority Right, so you need to make sure that from the very start you stress on this issue that yes And you recognize this so I think the first thing About diversity is to first actually recognize that you do have lack of diversity if you're not going to accept it If you're not going to accept the issue, you're not really going to solve it. So um, I think one of the big solutions would be to first Recognize that you do have an issue and you do want to solve it and then you accept it as is it as well Right, you accepted that there was an issue There was something to be solved about and then you take it down to the people as well that you are working on it And you would want them to support and it's if if it if it's possible for your organization You can just uh circulate some extra resources as well ask them to make sure they are enrolled you You constantly tell them about the end goal You constantly like tell them that this is what you will be achieving once you have said those Milestones or once you have achieved it. That's what I feel um Yes, so I totally agree with you on this fact rusell that my manager was actually supportive of this fact that They actually when I talk to them about it, they actually recognize that issue So I think that's one of the first step that you take to solve this issue as well If I if you feel that that's not something that you really The person is not thinking about Make sure you Think about the reason as well, right? There must be a reason why your manager or your team leader does not really want to think about that issue Try to think of it in this way that maybe you can solve that issue for that person so that they Maybe then try to look at the solution for that problem Or maybe they do try to take a look at how diversity is useful in that case if that's possible I think Majorly I would say in startups the issue why people are not really trying to give a good look at diversity is because They feel they don't have enough time for that, right? So Making time making a small amount of time making let's say addressing that issue in a weekly meeting also Let's say for 10 minutes only we'll do wonders as well and make sure it like leads you to the better I would say Growth or it makes you I would say feel that you are making some building steps to reach that particular step So I think if you Don't feel that the manager is responding as such you make sure that you try to address that issue Or you try to let's like I said in my video also in the presentation Also, you can try to launch some programs by yourself if that's possible and not really associating to the company Yeah, that's it. I don't see questions anymore Thank you so much. Thank you all of you for attending. I hope that was useful