Association of Online Publishers

Fostering inclusive working environments to sustain, retain, and grow

Date: 14 Sept 2023 , 9:00 - 12:00
The Apartment, The Hoxton, Holborn, WC1V 7BD

There is an art to cultivating talent, and an art to fostering inclusive working environments. This Thursday 14^th September, we joined leaders and changemakers at AOP CRUNCH to discover how they’re working to build a more diverse and inclusive digital media sector and what digital publishers can do to empower team members and prioritise budgets for DE&I and employee growth.

Bitesize

Here are just a few of our takeaways from the morning discussion…

Listen without judgement. No one person can understand the breadth of human experience, so consultation and listening to your employees is the key to developing an authentic DE&I strategy that makes a difference.
You have to follow through on your promises. Lack of transparency is a huge barrier to progress in DE&I because people feel there is a lot of lip service. And more than addressing fears that you’re not walking the talk, you also make yourself accountable to delivering that change.
Don’t be afraid to be vulnerable, and don’t be afraid to have the hard conversations.
Leadership creates culture. You need buy in from the top to create the policies that will create the culture. Ultimately, everyone knows that DE&I is the right thing to do, but you have to make sure that it’s a priority for the people who determine the budgets. Make sure you’re linking your strategies back to the goals and business priorities of the organisation and demonstrate the return on inclusion to make sure that you have everyone on board.
Working in DE&I will never truly end because what inclusion looks and feels like continues to change. We’re always learning, and the only way to make a difference in DE&I is to work together – we have to support others working to make positive change, regardless as to whether or not they’re your competitors.

As part of the discussions for AOP CRUNCH, we heard from Elaine dela Cruz about Coaches of Colour's recent project with Google. Discover how they created positive impact here: