Florence (Sai Wing) Chan speaks to our Alfred Ip about Diversity, Equity and Inclusion: from the pure concept of it to the reasons why businesses need to look at DEI as a necessity to strengthen their workforce, show empathy and build appropriate policies, programs, initiatives to achieve a better and more equitable balance.

Issues can be diverse: they range from women empowerment, disability training, culture, race and to (one of the most prominent efforts) LGBTQ+ inclusion. She talks about visibility, as well as research showing the positive impact that DEI has on business efficiency, revenue growth, investor support, reduced attrition rates, etc…

Florence points out that many companies in Asia which have strong focus on DEI are international companies, while most local companies tend to include the DEI concept into “being a family” or “teamwork” and think that DEI relates to values which are more Western. There’s an urgent need to explain the concept to encourage more local business to buy in, while it is also true that attitudes and cultural nuances play a role in approaching the topic slightly differently, especially within working environments which are traditionally more reserved.

More LGBTQ content: https://www.hugillandip.com/the-hip-pride/