Community Business

How is Social Mobility Advancing DE&I in Asia? Our guest, Holly McGhee, Diversity, Equity & Inclusiveness Director at EY Asia Pacific, dives into the intricacies of socio-economic status in Asia. She shares her personal journey with social mobility, how it can make an impact in the workplace and why now is the right time to further this conversation. She also shares insights on the Community Business’ upcoming research on social mobility. 

We would like to become a place where people who come from different socio-economic backgrounds can thrive, can really bring their full selves; the different perspectives that they have and their different experiences, together adding value to our organization.  

- Holly McGhee, Diversity, Equity & Inclusiveness Director at EY Asia Pacific 

Learn More: www.communitybusiness.org

This episode of Up for Discussion features Cattreeya Thithiwongsawet, Asia Regional Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Leader at Seagate Technology.

Watch the video to learn about:

1) Cat's journey to becoming a DE&I leader 

2) Some pivotal experiences that shaped Cat's approach to LGBTQ+ inclusion?  

3) How did Cat navigate the complexities of promoting LGBTQ+ inclusion in a region with diverse cultural, religious, and legal contexts?

This episode of Up for Discussion features Meenu Bhambhani from State Street, delves into the topic of disability inclusion and the rapidly advancing AI and accessibility landscape, in conversation with our Executive Director Sandhya Manoj.

Watch the video to learn about:

👉 How lack of accessibility affects the inclusion of people with disabilities in the workplace

👉 Use of accessibility tools in the workplace and the apprehensions around them

👉 What organisations need to do to empower, enable and support people with disabilities, while making workplaces more accessible

"There is a lot of conversation around raising awareness... I think we've done a lot in terms of raising awareness. I think now is the time to take action. If we're not going to take action, we're going to be raising awareness for the next 20 years and nothing is going to happen." - Manisha Wijesinghe, Executive Director, HELP for Domestic Workers

Ahead of International Domestic Workers Day on 16 Jun, we invited Manisha Wijesinghe, Executive Director of HELP for Domestic Workers to join us on Up for Discussion. Manisha's knowledge and expertise on migrant workers' experiences in Hong Kong brings a different perspective to understanding systemic inequality in the market, as well as encouraging the future of DE&I to broaden its horizons.

Watch the video to learn about:

👉What migrant domestic workers mean for the care economy

👉What role migrant domestic workers play in Hong Kong's society

👉How DE&I leaders can think more broadly about including the Care Economy in their initiatives and policies

Period Equity and Creating Social Impact: Insights from the Found of LUÜNA Naturals

This episode of Up for Discussion features Olivia Cotes-James, the Founder and CEO of LUÜNA Naturals sharing insights about:

👉The importance of destigmatising menstruation

👉Creating social impact and the social enterprise business model

👉How increasing awareness about periods benefits the entire workforce

👉Successful programmes LUÜNA has run that have had a positive impact on society

#impactxasia #gender #genderequality #periods #period #periodpoverty #socialimpact #entrepreneur #entrepreneurship

Empowering LGBT+ Equality: Insights from Jerome Yau | Hong Kong Marriage Equality & AIDS Concern

“Corporates can play a role in elevating and improving employees’ wellbeing... It’s important for leadership to [demonstrate] that as a company, we care, it’s beyond a slogan or a piece of policy.”

-Jerome Yau, Co-Founder, Hong Kong Marriage Equality

This episode of Up for Discussion features Jerome Yau from Hong Kong Marriage Equality and AIDS Concern sharing about his role in these two NGOs and the road to equality for LGBT+ people in Hong Kong, as well as the wider region.

Our Senior Programme Manager of the LGBT+ Campaign Scot Jones asked Jerome about:

👉How Hong Kong Marriage Equality was founded

👉Jerome’s observations about societal shifts in Hong Kong

👉AIDS Concern Hong Kong’s objectives

👉The role that corporates can play in improving the lives of LGBT+ individuals

Watch this episode to learn more about the LGBT+ landscape in Hong Kong and Asia from a leading figure in this space.

#IMPACTxAsia #LGBT #LGBTQ #LBGTQIA #Equality #Diversity #Equity #Inclusion #HongKong #IDAHOT #IDAHOBT #Pride #Marriageequality

"At some point,

it would be more efficient, if we were to be focusing on how to design our businesses and our processes in a universal way, much like architects or interior designers

do universal design... How do we make how we do business

more inclusive for everyone without having to go back

and then put on these Band-Aids?

- Noelle Sinclair, Founder, Diverse Minds

Noelle founded Diverse Minds and helps organisations leverage neurodiversity to enhance team performance and business outcomes, offering specialised neurodiversity training for professionals and developing strategic plans, frameworks, and tools to address current gaps in neurodiversity practices. In this episode of Up for Discussion, our Client Solutions Manager Len Nguyen interviews Noelle about the intersectionality of Neurodiversity and Gender.

Watch this episode to learn about:

👉Noelle's personal experience

👉Gender biases in the history of ADHD and ASD diagnosis

👉What organisations can do to support neurodivergent employees

#impactxasia #neurodiversity #autism #adhd #diversityandinclusion #diversityequityinclusion #esg #business #universaldesign

Our CEO Janet Ledger recently joined our GIDA partners for a presentation on Centring Marginalised Voices at Work at the NGO CSW68, a forum run in parallel to the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women. Janet provided an Asian perspective, reflecting that, "the research we do at Community Business equally advocates for engagement with and listening to those with lived experiences to shape any DE&I strategies with ‘voices’ at the heart of work."

As well as presenting at the forum, watch this episode of Up for Discussion to learn more about:

👉SDG 17: Partnerships for the Goals and how crucial this pillar is in meeting the SDG targets

👉The relationships between funders and NGOs and how to demonstrate allyship in a partnership

👉The interrelationship between the climate crisis, economic crisis and care crisis

#IMPACTxAsia #GenderEquality #partnerships #esg #business #ngo #gender #caregiving

Struck by the slow progress on gender equality in her industry, Nasrine co-founded the Hong Kong Board Directors Investor’s Initiative in 2018 with the goal of influencing the investor/investee sphere to act on the important topic of board diversity.

She is passionate about driving change at the top levels in Hong Kong when it comes to board diversity, using both her day job to highlight the corporate governance aspects of board diversity, as well as the Investor’s Initiative to drive the conversation at the wider level.

Listen or watch our CEO Janet Ledger interview Nasrine about:

👉The need for board diversity

👉What companies in Hong Kong with all-male boards should focus on to meet HKEX’s target

👉Evaluating the success of voluntary and mandatory quotas

“Humanising difference is important, because when we start to humanise difference, people start to realise actually we’re all the same.”

-Shalini Mahtani, Founder and CEO of The Zubin Foundation, Founder of Community Business

Shalini Mahtani, the founder of Community Business, is a pioneering and much sought-after voice for good in the DE&I, CSR and wellbeing space. Her accolades speak for themselves. In 2009, Shalini was honoured by the World Economic Forum as a Young Global Leader and a year prior she was awarded an MBE from Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II for her services in corporate social responsibility in Hong Kong.

Today, Shalini is the founder and CEO of The Zubin Foundation, a charity devoted to reducing suffering for Hong Kong's ethnic minorities, racial integration and special education needs of local non-Chinese speakers.

Our Director of DE&I Dimuthu de Silva hosted this episode and spoke to Shalini about:

👉The origins of The Zubin Foundation and Shalini’s personal journey

👉The Hong Kong context around racial inequality

👉The initiatives The Zubin Foundation runs to improve the lives of ethnic minorities in Hong Kong

👉What organisations can do to accelerate equality for ethnic minorities in Hong Kong

Subscribe to our YouTube channel to watch the video, or catch the audio versions on Apple Podcasts, Castbox, SoundCloud or Spotify.

Learn More: www.communitybusiness.org/

#IMPACTxAsia #Racism #Race #EthnicMinority #EthnicMinorities #Equality #SDG10 #SDG5 #Intersectionality #Equality #Equity