International Women’s Day 2022
Recently we held our first International Women’s Day (IWD) celebration at Aras, kicking off our new diversity, equity, and inclusion (DE&I) team, Aras Women in Leadership. The women’s leadership team is part of our Embrace Diversity initiative that also includes business resource groups (BRGs) El Mundo Hispanico at Aras, Black at Aras, and LGBTQ+ at Aras.
To get us started talking about this year’s IWD theme, Break the Bias, we invited well-known career and women’s leadership coach Kim Meninger, who discussed “Walking the Tightrope,” which focused on gender stereotyping and the double bind. With over 160 attendees, comprised of both women and men as well as colleagues from all parts of the company, and the world, it sparked a lot of interesting discussion and an appetite for continuing the DE&I conversation and expanding it to include subjects that are top of mind for our teams.
Our DE&I teams are committed to building an inclusive culture that serves our people and reflects our corporate goals by promoting the value of diversity, equity, and inclusion in the workplace. This is our mission. Our goal? To create an atmosphere of fairness, safety, and respect. As you may know, the most recent McKinsey Women in the Workplace report suggested that although women made gains in 2020, burnout is still an ongoing concern, and with persistent gaps continuing to exist in the pipeline promotions to manager are still not equitable, particularly for women of color.
Through a series of consciousness-building activities, we will continue to discuss these topics, as well as others, as we build a growing awareness among Aras people of the value and benefits of a truly diverse culture. There are many benefits, both to employees and the company, of a more diverse workforce at every level. A few facts to consider:
- Companies that welcome diversity are 1.7x more innovative.
- Racially and ethnically diverse companies have a 36% higher likelihood of financially outperforming less diverse companies.
- Companies with gender-diverse executive teams are 21% more likely to outperform on profitability.
Source: Clear Company Blog
Whether you are already moving forward with a DE&I initiative, or you are just dipping your toes in the water, you can’t escape the positive impact of a sincere and thoughtful diversity and inclusion program on not only corporate culture, but profitability as well. A more diverse workforce provides distinct business benefits, but the benefits to individuals, from employees, to managers, to the C-suite are immense. Company culture has become a real driving force in talent acquisition efforts, particularly since the pandemic began, and the positive influence of a diverse and innovative culture is immeasurable. Statistics suggest that Gen Z, who will soon make up the majority of workers, is the most diverse generation to date, and known for being a generation that includes “cultural fit” as an important factor in career decision-making.
As we move forward with our initiatives at Aras, we are excited and optimistic about what they will mean for the future of our company, as well as the future of the workforce at large. How will we get there? We will:
- Build awareness: learn and understand
- Educate and train: share information, activities, and skills
- Evaluate: iterate as needed
- Implement: new skills, team building, processes, and more
It is with great enthusiasm that we step from our first International Women’s Day to our next series of events and activities by our BRG teams. Coming soon… celebrating PRIDE at Aras, and more!
Onward and upward.