THE Covid-19 pandemic may have slowed down development on diversity and inclusion in the workplace, a senior executive has warned, as she called on employers to accelerate their progress.
P&G’s Geraldine Huse emphasized the importance of DE&I (diversity, equity and inclusion) and urged on senior leaders to prioritise it.
“At P&G, diversity and inclusion is bolted into everything we do,” she said. “We see it as a huge priority, because we know an inclusive world is a better world for everybody. That’s what we want to strive for.”
Huse said that diversity is critical as without it “you won’t get the breadth of ideas and thinking”.
“It doesn’t mean anything unless we really include that diversity and ensure that diverse population has an equal voice and has equal opportunities,” she said. “The good thing about inclusion is it’s a skill that we can all grow and develop to become more inclusive, and to make the world a better place.”
She also said consumers look at whether the company is socially and environmentally responsible. “The more we drive social equality, the more we drive sustainability and doing the right thing, the more our consumers want to buy our products, the more we can grow our brands and grow our business,” she explained, “then we can invest in giving back to society, and the environment.”
Huse said an inclusive leader must take the extra effort to include everybody – even if they disagree with them.
According to Huse, an inclusive leader needs to have the courage to be humble.
“You need to accept you’re not always right; you need to listen to other people’s points of view. Then you need to change your point of view,” she said.
She also said training is being given to P&G employees to speak out if they witness racism – “it’s no longer enough to say I’m not racist, we have to be anti-racist”.
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