National Inclusion Week 2022
Each year, national inclusion week is celebrated to keep the momentum going strong on building the most inclusive workspaces possible.
This year, the theme for National Inclusion Week is 'Time to Act: The Power of Now'. It's great that we're seeing more companies take a more active stance on building more inclusive workplaces, enacting concrete changes to ensure that all employees feel welcome and valued, no matter their background.
For example, did you see the recent Virgin Atlantic announcement, which noted that their airplane staff now have the freedom to choose the uniform that best suits their preferred gender expression?
This type of policy change is so crucial to ensuring that businesses remain aligned with the needs of their employees, and is just one way of many for companies to support their employees.
Below, we've put together some top tips and inspo for how we celebrate an inclusive workplace here at Matchable!
Certifications: Give Credit Where Credit is Due
There are different certifications that your company can be awarded in recognition of keeping inclusivity at the heart of your organisation. One of the big ones is becoming a B-Corp, which holds businesses to certain standards of impact and inclusivity – a massive shoutout to our fellow B-Corps (you know who you are!).
Another awesome certification that we're proud of here at Matchable is that we're Flexa Certified, which is an accreditation awarded upon offering employees certain levels of flexibility, e.g. remote first, flexible hours, etc. Congrats to our partner Silverrail for recently being named the most Flexible Travel and Transport Company by Flexa!
Perks, perks, perks!
To build a fully inclusive workplace, you need a range of exciting perks to make your employees feel valued and supported, both inside and outside the workplace. You're already a step ahead of everyone else because if you’re on this blog, you likely already have access to Matchable (lucky you!). These perks are there for you to use; you work hard, and you deserve to be treated! After all, who doesn't love that feel good factor of employee volunteering and giving back?
Educate Yourselves
A large part of inclusivity involves making sure your workplace is safe and accommodating to people from all backgrounds, regardless of race, gender, sexuality, and class. Our final top tip is making sure that we all continue to educate themselves on how we can be as inclusive as possible. Whether this is more formal workplace training, following LinkedIn influencers in particular topics, or even just reading a good book, it’s crucial that we continue on this path of learning. What’s more crucial is that the responsibility of this education does not fall on the marginalised groups. Oftentimes, this education becomes a form of unpaid labour for those in marginalised groups, which can be emotionally draining and frustrating. One of the best ways you can support your employees and be inclusive is to embed this learning into your everyday business as usual approach.
ABOUT MATCHABLE
At Matchable we work with companies and their employees to match them with high impact and innovative skilled volunteering projects at non-profits and impact startups.
If you’re interested in finding out more about how your employees can upskill through our social impact projects, get in touch here.