Diversity Secrets

#27 For the first episode of season 4 'So, What Now?', we are thrilled to welcome an experienced DEI advocate and practitioner, Elizabeth Anderson.

Elizabeth says that Diversity, Equity and Inclusion is at a Mirror Moment in its history. What does that mean and how did we get to this point? What comes next, once we've taken a good hard look into the mirror? Find out with us on this episode as we tackle DE&I at crossroads and its implications for the industry and its practitioners.

Elizabeth is also the founder of Venn DEI, a consulting and community networking agency that aims to connect people who believe in the potential of DEI to build stronger companies and a more equitable world. Follow their work on LinkedIn.

Curious to learn more about Diversity Secrets Agency Training & Consulting services? Get in touch: [email protected]
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#26 Welcome back to Diversity Secrets Podcast!

We’re back with a brand new season called ‘So, what now?’ Why this question? Well, because at Diversity Secrets we feel that DE&I is at an inflection point and we want to make sure that as an industry we take the right turn.

For several months now I’ve been asking myself wether DE&I, and its practitioners (myself included!) are holding themselves accountable to the very principles that we preach: authenticity, integrity and impact. DE&I hasn’t had it easy. But faced with backlash, stalling results, cynicism and a lack of common standards, we believe that together, we can find a new way of bringing DE&I forward. Our expert speakers will help us answer this season’s pressing questions: are we going in the right direction and aiming at the right goals, should DE&I get political, can practitioners set themselves common standards of integrity and results?

Listen to this episode for a sneak preview of what we have in store!
Trigger Warning: A section of this episode refers to an event that may trigger trauma connected to racism and violence against BIPOC. (5:14-5:50)

Curious to learn more about Diversity Secrets Agency Training & Consulting services? Get in touch: [email protected]
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#025 And that’s a wrap for season 3 of Diversity Secrets Podcast! We’ll be back with a brand new season during the next quarter.
In this episode, we go over what we’ve learned during this season, and give you a sneak preview of what to expect from season 4.

This season, we wanted to build a hands-on, practical blueprint to help YOU set your DE&I work up for success!
Here are the main lessons our guests shared with us on how to succeed at what sometimes can feel like an impossible job, i.e building truly diverse, equitable and inclusive workplaces:
1. Lay the building blocks for success right from the start. Build a solid DEI strategy that gathers the buy-in from the stakeholders that are critical to its success.
2. Setting your organization up for success in DEI, is also about setting yourself up for success as a DEI leader. Set personal boundaries and realistic expectation for you and your stakeholders, prepare for discomfort, and stay aware of your competencies and how to develop them.
3. Don’t build DEI on wobbly structures: deconstruct to rebuild. Review your whole recruitment and employee-life cycle (onboarding, compensation, development, benefits…) and restructure it from a DEI lens, in order to truly attract, hire and retain diverse talents that can belong and reach their full potential in your organization.
4. Finally, successful DEI is DEI integrated from end-to-end in your organization as a core business component. This means DEI sits at the C-suite table at par with other business units, the DEI team has a budget and is embedded in day-to-day business, you measure progress with KPIs and relevant metrics, and each function in the organization is held accountable for embedding DEI in what they are responsible for delivering at their level.

It’s not easy to succeed at DEI but we hope that through these honest conversations we managed to build a blue-print that will help you along the way. In the end, successful DEI not only means better workplaces for all. It also should lead, thanks to trickling effect, to positive impact beyond the company walls.
That’s exactly what we’ll be talking about next season: taking DEI from workplace to workforce and marketplace!

Thanks for tuning in this season and please don’t hesitate do send us feedback: it helps us grow! Don’t forget to subscribe to not miss out on Season 4!

This season was powered by Mixity.co, the all in one digital platform for assessing, managing and promoting DE&I in your organization. Mixity is offering our listeners an exclusive 2 months free trial for their all-in-one platform. Assess your DE&I footprint, define clear metrics and KPIs, and benefit from customized recommendations and hands-on support from their team of dedicated experts, all in one place.

Redeem your free trial here with the code ‘DiversityPodcast’ : Mixity.co

Curious to learn more about Diversity Secrets Agency Training & Consulting services? Get in touch: [email protected]
Your feedback helps us grow: add a review wherever you’re listening to this podcast!
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#24 For our last episode of the season on how to succeed in Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI), we are joined by the brilliant Jeffery Smith, VP DE&I at the online education streaming platform Masterclass.

With over 25 years of experience as an HR and DEI leader both in-house and as a consultant, Jeffery shares with us what it means to successfully integrate DEI into your business.
Integrating DEI in your business means that DEI should be considered as a critical business component for every activity in the organization. This implies multiple things. For one, Jeffery explains how to foster accountability for DEI in the different roles and at the different levels in the company: making employees responsible for embedding DEI in what they are responsible for delivering, whether they stand in HR, sales or marketing.
Integrating DEI also means that DEI should be at the table. But not just any table: the C-suite table at par with other business leaders, of course. Not only that, but the DEI leader should be considered a business leader first and foremost, weighing in and participating in major business decisions. As an extension, the DEI team should aslo be integrated in the day-to-day of the business.
Finally, we discuss the importance of allocating budget to DEI - just like for any other business component in the organization. In the end, an organization with a truly integrated DEI will see its positive impact not only within the workplace, but also in its marketplace, thus expanding the reach of DEI beyond company walls.
A perfect segue into our next season that will air later this year and where we will explore how to take DE&I from the workplace to the marketplace.

Tune in today, and make sure to subscribe in order to not miss our next episode!

You can follow Jeffery’s work on LinkedIn (@Jeffery Smith).

This season, we’re partnering with Mixity.co, the all in one digital platform for assessing, managing and promoting DE&I in your organization.
Mixity is offering our listeners an exclusive 2 months free trial for their all-in-one platform. Assess your DE&I footprint, define clear metrics and KPIs, and benefit from customized recommendations and hands-on support from their team of dedicated experts, all in one place.
Redeem your free trial here with the code ‘DiversityPodcast’ : Mixity.co

Curious to learn more about Diversity Secrets Agency Training & Consulting services? Get in touch: [email protected]
Your feedback helps us grow: add a review wherever you’re listening to this podcast!
Find us on LinkedIn

#23 Anyone that’s done it before knows it: deploying a diversity and inclusion employee survey is no side project. It’s a complex endeavour that should not be taken lightly - and that’s an understatement.

That’s why we’ve invited Sandrine Charpentier, CEO of Mixity.co, the first 360 digital platform to assess, manage and monitor DEI in the workplace. We deep in the nitty-gritty of what makes a good DEI survey: from guaranteeing safe and anonymous data collection, to understanding the underlying expectations to deliver on shortcomings revealed in the survey results. Sandrine also shares insider tips on how to guarantee everyone is heard, by making the survey accessible to all employees, no matter if they sit at a desk, or work in a plant or in a store. Beyond measuring the level of diversity and feeling of inclusion in the company, DEI assessment is also about measuring the impact and effectiveness of DEI actions and initiatives by using the right variables and setting relevant targets. As a whole, DEI tracking is a real challenge. It’s a test on an organization’s transparency, humility and accountability for DEI. That’s why Sandrine believes in the power of tech as a tool to help organizations and employees in their DEI efforts. She founded Mixity.co to offer organizations the right platform to conduct their surveys, track their DEI, set clear KPIs and measure progress. She tells us how Mixity.co works and shares with us the best practices she’s observed among users.

Tune in today, and make sure to subscribe in order to not miss our next episode!

You can follow Sandrine’s work on LinkedIn (@Sandrine Charpentier) and Twitter(@SandrineSCC), and find out more about Mixity.co on their website or social media (Twitter: @Mixity_co / @EnMixity LinkedIn: @Mixity / @Mixity International)

This season, we’re partnering with Mixity.co, the all in one digital platform for assessing, managing and promoting DE&I in your organization.
Mixity is offering our listeners an exclusive 2 months free trial for their all-in-one platform. Assess your DE&I footprint, define clear metrics and KPIs, and benefit from customized recommendations and hands-on support from their team of dedicated experts, all in one place.

Redeem your free trial here with the code ‘DiversityPodcast’ : Mixity.co

Curious to learn more about Diversity Secrets Agency Training & Consulting services? Get in touch: [email protected]
Your feedback helps us grow: add a review wherever you’re listening to this podcast!
Find us on LinkedIn

#22 When we think of ‘diversity hiring’, we often think of the result: new diverse talents joining our organization. But if we wind up a bit, how do we get there?

In this episode, Yasar Ahmad, Global VP Talent at HelloFresh meal-kit company, explains what it takes to actually attract, hire and retain diverse talents. He shares insights, anecdotes and best practices from many years of experience in talent acquisition in the Tech sector.
There’s no sugar coating it: reaching your objectives when hiring diverse talents is no piece of cake. Standing your grounds is the biggest challenge. We cover the hard work that needs to fall into place in order to guarantee that your hiring processes are as inclusive as possible, and that your values and work environment are welcoming to all - no need to risk the revolving door effect where talents walk in, and right back out the same door.
How do you diversify your talent pool and partner with the right recruiters? What should your assessment process look like and how can you track diversity throughout your pipeline?
As Yasar shares his personal stories, we talk about the ‘back to office’ trend and how it’s affecting diversity too. Finally, Yasar tells us that culture and values are two very different things that shouldn’t be confused… tune in to find out why.

Tune in today, and make sure to subscribe in order to not miss our next episode!

You can follow Yasar’s work on LinkedIn (@Yasar Ahmad) and Twitter( @YxSxR), and find out more about DE&I at HelloFresh on their website.

This season, we’re partnering with Mixity.co, the all in one digital platform for assessing, managing and promoting DE&I in your organization. Mixity is offering our listeners an exclusive 2 months free trial for their all-in-one platform. Assess your DE&I footprint, define clear metrics and KPIs, and benefit from customized recommendations and hands-on support from their team of dedicated experts, all in one place.
Redeem your free trial here with the code ‘DiversityPodcast’ : Mixity.co

Curious to learn more about Diversity Secrets Agency Training & Consulting services? Get in touch: [email protected]
Your feedback helps us grow: add a review wherever you’re listening to this podcast!
Find us on LinkedIn

#21 We’re kicking off the year with a brand new Diversity Secrets Episode!

'Diversity hiring’ and ‘inclusive culture’ take up a lot of space in the DE&I discussion. But beyond recruitment and culture, a lot needs to be in place in a company setting to guarantee that all employees can truly achieve their full potential. So how do you guarantee inclusion and equity are embedded in all stages of an employee’s life cycle in your company?

To gather answers, we are joined today by Miguel Castro, Senior Director and Global Lead for Diversity and Inclusion at multinational software company, SAP.
Is your on-boarding process giving employees the right keys to start building their network? Are DE&I trainings delivering on expected results? Are feedback loops, up-skilling programs and career advancement processes clear, fair and equitably accessible? Are compensation and benefits equitable and inclusive?
Miguel shares insights as well as best practices at SAP that guarantee a fair, equitable and inclusive career for all employees.

Tune in today, and make sure to subscribe in order to not miss our next episode!

You can follow Miguel’s work on LinkedIn (@Miguel A. Castro), and find out more about DE&I at SAP on their corporate website.
Cited resources: Fair Talk: Three Steps to Powerful Feedback, Sergey Gorbatov and Angela Lane.

This season, we’re partnering with Mixity.co, the all in one digital platform for assessing, managing and promoting DE&I in your organization.
Mixity is offering our listeners an exclusive 2 months free trial for their all-in-one platform. Assess your DE&I footprint, define clear metrics and KPIs, and benefit from customized recommendations and hands-on support from their team of dedicated experts, all in one place.
Redeem your free trial here with the code ‘DiversityPodcast’ : Mixity.co

Curious to learn more about Diversity Secrets Agency Training & Consulting services? Get in touch: [email protected]
Your feedback helps us grow: add a review wherever you’re listening to this podcast!
Find us on LinkedIn

#020 What does it take to be a good Diversity, Equity and Inclusion leader?

Today on the Diversity Secrets podcast, we hear from DE&I coach, fellow podcaster, and keynote speaker, Ashanti Bentil-Dhue.
Ashanti tells us that if you want to have real impact as a DE&I professional, passion and lived-experience are not enough. Being a DE&I know-it-all either! So what skills do you need to succeed in this job? Well, that depends on the task at hand in the organization you work in… We cover change management, and stakeholder management skills, facilitation and negotiation, among other central DE&I skills.
One thing is sure: to be a good DE&I professional, you need to be self-aware and honest about your own skill-set and demand the external help that you need in order to deliver results!

Tune in today, and make sure to subscribe in order to not miss our next episode!

You can follow Ashanti’s work on LinkedIn (@Ashanti Bentil-Dhue), and listen to the Confessions of a DEI Pro Podcast on your favorite Podcast App for more insightful conversations with Ashanti and experts in the DEI field.

This season, we’re partnering with Mixity.co, the all in one digital platform for assessing, managing and promoting DE&I in your organization. Mixity is offering our listeners an exclusive 2 months free trial for their all-in-one platform. Assess your DE&I footprint, define clear metrics and KPIs, and benefit from customized recommendations and hands-on support from their team of dedicated experts, all in one place.
Redeem your free trial here with the code ‘DiversityPodcast’ : Mixity.co

Curious to learn more about Diversity Secrets Agency Training & Consulting services? Get in touch: [email protected]
Your feedback helps us grow: add a review wherever you’re listening to this podcast!
Find us on LinkedIn

#019 There’s a lot of talk and literature out there about how important DEI is for employees, and for companies. But when it comes to finding out what initiatives actually work to build diverse, equitable and inclusive workplaces, it suddenly becomes overwhelming, with a lack of benchmarks, an overload of resources and literature and no clear one way to go.

That’s why today we are joined by Julie Coffman, Chief Diversity Officer at the global consultancy firm, Bain & Company, and author of the Bain & Co and Grads of Life 2021 study, ‘10 Proven Actions to Advance Diversity, Equity and Inclusion’.

This study constitutes a real blueprint for effective actions that drive real impact and results for DE&I. Together, we take it apart and take a deep dive into its learnings as Julie summarises its main takeaways for our listeners. We learn about 5 DE&I best practices which companies have been missing out on, and 5 others, just as important, that companies have been putting into practice but not in the most effective ways. Each of these 10 actions resulted in verifiable positive outcomes for an organization’s diverse or underrepresented talent!

If you’re looking for actionable recommendations as well as concrete examples and case studies from organizations that have tested these actions, look no further!

Tune in today, and make sure to subscribe in order to not miss our next episode!

This season, we’re partnering with Mixity.co, the all in one digital platform for assessing, managing and promoting DE&I in your organization. Mixity is offering our listeners an exclusive 2 months free trial for their all-in-one platform. Assess your DE&I footprint, define clear metrics and KPIs, and benefit from customized recommendations and hands-on support from their team of dedicated experts, all in one place.
Redeem your free trial here with the code ‘DiversityPodcast’ : Mixity.co 

Resources cited in this episode: 

• Read the Full study cited in the episode on the Bain&Co website. 
• Learn more about DE&I at Bain & Co on their website page, as well as on LinkedIn (@Bain & Company). 
• Finally, don’t hesitate to follow Julie Coffman (@Julie Coffman) for more precious insights on DE&I. 

Curious to learn more about Diversity Secrets Agency Training & Consulting services? Get in touch: [email protected]
Your feedback helps us grow: add a review wherever you’re listening to this podcast!
Find us on LinkedIn

#018 Embark on a time travel with Leïla Grison, DE&I Director at Publicis Groupe, as she takes us back to her first day on the job and tells us how it all started.
Leïla takes us back in time and shares her family story, the social ascension  of her grandmother and mother, a story of social inequality and a real obstacle course.
Fast forward and it’s Leïla’s first day as DE&I Director at Publicis. She tells us how the role got created, how she managed to gather support and commitment from the executive team. So where do you start the work? Which stakeholders do you involve when creating your very first DE&I strategy? How do you build a team and secure a budget to implement the goals you’ve set out to achieve? Leïla tells us everything about how to kickstart your DE&I work!
 
Leïla also shares with us two success stories from her first year on the job:
1. How they developed and rolled out an employee survey on DE&I thanks to the help of Mixity.co - the first thing to do, according to Leïla, if you want to pin point your priorities for your strategy and convince stakeholders with facts and figures. 2. How they launched their first equal opportunity program, ‘Publicis Track’ - going full circle with her family history, social mobility and equal opportunity is at the heart of what Leïla has set out to do at Publicis!

So tune in today, and make sure to subscribe in order to not miss our next episode!

You can stay informed on Publicis’ DE&I work by following Leïla on LinkedIn (@Leïla Grison)
Learn more about DE&I at Publicis here: DE&I at Publicis Groupe

This season, we’re partnering with Mixity.co, the all in one digital platform for assessing, managing and promoting DE&I in your organization. Mixity is offering our listeners an exclusive 2 months free trial for their all-in-one platform. Assess your DE&I footprint, define clear metrics and KPIs, and benefit from customized recommendations and hands-on support from their team of dedicated experts, all in one place.

Redeem your free trial here with the code ‘DiversityPodcast’ : Mixity.co

Curious to learn more about Diversity Secrets Agency Training & Consulting services? Get in touch: [email protected]
Your feedback helps us grow: add a review wherever you’re listening to this podcast!
Find us on LinkedIn