Awareness days can often only serve as a superficial gesture, strung up in bunting and punctuated with cupcakes, they fail to trigger any meaningful change. Artificial attempts at inclusivity merely scratch the surface of critical issues like sexuality, gender, race, and disability subjects, pushing them back into the shadows until the next calendar year.
As an organisational culture and change specialist with over 25 years of experience, and as a bisexual single mother who’s experienced postnatal depression, Firefly’s CEO, Kirsty Maynor, has personally felt the need for genuine understanding and support from the team.
In this blog, originally co-written by Kirsty with frame create and published in “Women in Leadership” online publication, Kirsty talks about the importance of implementing year-round structures to foster a truly inclusive environment.
Badly handled awareness days cause sexuality, gender, race and disability subjects to be fleetingly addressed. There may be bunting, cupcakes and social media posts telling workers they're valued - but not much else and no lasting impact, causing employees and stakeholders to be cynical about the approach. Real issues affecting employees' daily lives are glossed over and won't return to the foreground until the next calendar year.
The effects can alienate instead of bringing enduring inclusive change. Organisations can use awareness days as a launchpad to support the diverse needs of employees every single day.
Who I am and my lived experience has sometimes required flexibility and understanding. Support from team members has been invaluable to me and my working contribution. Structures and support needed to be in place to ensure I worked at my best and happiest - I am far from alone and I share my experience to illustrate how someone's reality cannot be addressed over the course of one single day.
Not only through my personal experience, but in my work I have advised hundreds of public, private and governmental organisations on their change strategies, and have seen the amazing talents diverse employees have, and the specialised daily support that’s sometimes helpful to meet their needs and champion their growth.
Supporting workplace diversity properly is an invaluable asset. Research by McKinsey & Company* shows that organisations with executive teams in the top quarter for ethnic and cultural diversity are 36% more likely to achieve above-average profitability than the bottom quarter. Championing diverse voices every day allows organisations to create products and voices that better meet the needs of wider society. If their unique contributions aren't being properly valued, it can massively reduce output and employee retention. Poorly used awareness days can be counterproductive to unlocking employees' diverse talents.
It is vital that leaders view awareness days as the tip of the iceberg. A spotlight on an issue can be a great opportunity to listen to employee needs and build lasting strategies, providing daily improvement to their workplace experience. This requires leaders to have a genuine interest to learn from their teams and also conduct their own research and understanding.
A more proactive approach to awareness days also requires tough open discussions and introspection. Doing so may not be easy but the impact will be much more positive than the tokenistic way awareness days are frequently used to address deeply important subjects.
People's situations are a fact of life and can't simply be switched on or off. Awareness days should be about year-round change, not boosting an organisation's image for 24 hours.
*Diversity wins: How inclusion matters Report, May 19, 2020