Ergo Employee Spotlight Series – Announcing Yvonne Meijerhof, Head of Product Management, as our Diversity & Inclusion Champion
What does diversity and inclusion mean to you?
Inclusion is a sense of belonging. Being inclusive means that you make people feel respected and valued for who they are as an individual or group. This applies to both personal and work context. For me creating an inclusive environment is fundamental to everything we do, as it will result into participation of many rather than a few.
Diversity is about what makes us unique and includes our backgrounds, experiences, skills, personality, and characteristics such as gender, race, age, sexual orientation etc.
Inclusion and Diversity combined means for me the majority embracing the minority. This is easier said than done as there is a lot to uncover to understand what Diversity and Inclusion truly means. One of those things is unconscious bias. Often, we don’t realise that our behaviour is not inclusive, so step one is self-awareness. I have experienced both in my private and work life that if a group is inclusive, ‘magic’ happens.
What is your role as Diversity & Inclusion Sponsor/Champion?
My role as D&I Sponsor/Champion is to drive awareness of the positive impact of a Diverse and Inclusive Culture on our people and the business. Diversity and Inclusion is good for motivation and morale. Furthermore, there is a lot of research showing that diverse teams are more innovative and high performing. I hope to show, with the Ergo team, that our focus on inclusion leads to new perspectives & innovation, increases personal satisfaction and further business success. Now that is quite a lot! Our recently achieved Microsoft Azure Expert MSP accreditation is a perfect example of how a diverse team achieved major success through collaboration and innovation. A pragmatic approach, being open and honest with each other and everyone contributing, will keep us on the right track,
How can we educate ourselves on diversity and inclusion?
There are many ways to educate ourselves. As I said earlier it starts with self-awareness. Most of the time, we don’t even realise that we have an unconscious bias. Also, our brains are programmed to take the easy route. The easy route is to engage with what is familiar to you. It requires low effort and is low risk. Although trying to be more inclusive may require more effort at the start, longer term is doesn’t. Ergo’s People & Culture team recommended LinkedIn Learning training about the Inclusive Mindset and Confronting Bias recently. This type of training is great as it is short and easy to listen to. I like to listen to these sessions particularly when I am out for a walk. I also recommend meeting someone you don’t talk to usually. You will be surprised how enlightening a conversation outside your circle, your typical go-to colleagues or friends can be!
What Diversity, Equality and Inclusion initiatives are underway at Ergo?
Our people managers recently completed Diversity and Inclusive Leadership training with the Irish Centre for Diversity. The objective of the training was to provide managers with an understanding of how to develop inclusive thinking and inclusive actions understand how unconscious bias might be impacting culture, and demonstrate the positive role modelling that enables everyone to reach their full potential. During Pride month, we are sharing various resources such as webinars, training sessions on how to be an ally and support LGBTQI+ employees in the workplace, and LinkedIn Learning courses to help our employees educate themselves and build awareness. In addition, we recently undertook a review of our internal policies to ensure we are supporting equity, diversity and inclusion for all across the business. We have created a cultural and celebration calendar to ensure we all stay connected while working remotely and join together to celebrate each others cultural celebrations Our work in this space is never done, as we are developing our programme of work in this area an ongoing basis.
