Keya Bardalai, Author at Syngrity Transformation Solutions

The Syngrity Story

Keya Bardalai — Wed, 02 Nov 2022 09:15:09 +0000

Before Syngrity

Syngrity started in 2002 as an afterthought to my experiences at GE Capital International Services where I worked from 2000 to 2002. GE, or GECIS, as it was called in India back then, gave me an opportunity to learn in a way I have never learnt before and has laid the foundation of my work at Syngrity for the last 20 years.

However, along with these incredible learning opportunities at GE, came multiple questions and the desire to look at the world of L&D differently.

For example, one of the first things that I was ever taught when I was being trained to be a trainer was that you never speak about political, religious, and sexual opinions of people. I found this ‘wall’ very troubling. I strongly believe that shifts in behaviours, attitudes and perceptions must address such core issues, identities and thought processes or at least open them up for dialogue.

However, GE was much bigger than what I thought was the ‘right way’ and it made more sense to keep quiet about it and not rock the apple cart.

While at GE, I was also playing the Australian didgeridoo and was fascinated by the effects of sound on the brain. I started to listen to Gregorian chants and an African rhythm by an artist called Geoffrey Oryema. Studies have shown that listening to these voices and music allow the brain to switch from beta (conscious) to alpha (subconscious).

I experimented with this and noticed that while I played this kind of music, the retention levels of the participants increased significantly (additionally, as a trainer, your worst enemy in a session is silence, I needed the music so that I did not get bored with my own voice!)

The word got around that my sessions were ‘different’. But GE management did not believe in what I believed in, understandably so, as the research on the effect of sound on the brain, at least the modern research, was still in its nascent stages.

Primary Influences

While I was at GE, I introduced the Human Resources team to my teacher for the last 24 years – Mr. Rashid Ansari, a well renowned name in the martial arts and theatre world. He facilitated multiple workshops on understanding what stress does to the body and how you can address them through energy systems, movement, dance and other alternative practices. Although, I must say, many of these alternative practices from the east were unknown to the western thought process and all of us at GE were very much a part of the latter and very ‘American’ (I was Vik Chrysler). Regardless, in 20 years of running Syngrity, I can very confidently say that GE was one of the first organizations that were really interested in the wellness of their employees.

Around the same time, I met an outsourced vendor (as we are referred to by the industry), Dr. Arjun Raina; a Kathakali dancer who performed Shakespeare through Kathakali. He trained at the Royal Shakespeare Society in the UK and had been trained by the best teachers over there. He was hired to train us in phonology and Standard English sounds. I got trained in the same techniques as some great actors like Sir Sean Connery, Naseeruddin Shah etc. Somewhere towards the end of the training, he told me that the day I quit my job at GE, I should come straight to him.

While open to new ideas, at GE there was still a lot of resistance and I was not allowed to do what I wanted to do – which was to be able to enhance the learning experience. I was frustrated and began marinating with the thought of starting my own company. There was one particular day that I woke up at home and found myself quite anxious because I had seen a dream where somebody asked me if this is what I wanted, referring to my work at GE, and the answer was no. In fact, one day whilst at Rashid Ansari’s place sipping on some vodka, my tongue fumbled while we spoke of some values that martial arts emphasises. We were talking about the importance of integrity and synergy when the fumble happened and out came ‘Syngrity’. I decided to put in my papers at GE.

Birth of Syngrity

The day I quit GE, I went straight to Arjun’s house. I rang the bell and he came out in a Kathakali costume because he was rehearsing for a performance. He asked me why I was there. I told him I was done with GE and free to work with him. Arjun along with his childhood friend Ashim Ghosh – a brilliant speaker, teacher and multimedia artist – ran Peach Communications. This is where I learned some brilliant teaching skills and learned about teaching through audaciousness. We often experienced pushback from the corporate hegemony; the relationship between organisations and training vendors was very feudal (and this continues to be the case). Usually, companies push us vendors in to watertight contracts. Recently I pushed back with a client to honour our written contract and I was told that no vendor ever does that. Sigh.

But what started was a remarkably interesting journey of learning, sharing, and teaching communication skills specifically voice, listening and speaking. We were training all over the country with multiple organizations and constantly resisting their demands to make employees sound American or English. We did not see the need to make Indians sound American or English (our focus was to get people to understand and listen better). Organisations were not willing to take responsibility for the sociocultural impact that having aliases and speaking with an accent has on people, many of whom are from tier 3 and tier 4 cities.

It took a couple of years for organizations to even start comprehending what we were talking about. Some listened and some did not.

At some point when the call centre industry had peaked, I realised that a lot of the training was going to become standardised – something I did not agree with.

So far, I was able to create an impact in the minds of people on how they look at language, sound and culture. This was the time to increase my repertoire and I started writing what culminated into a training manual called “I Am Customer Service”.

This workbook spoke about looking at ourselves as people and what the customer service industry means to us. I wrote it across 16 chapters and trained over 4000 people in it. One of the biggest criticisms I received from a client (which I disagreed with) was that I created ‘A players’ (top performers) and the industry does not work on ‘A players’ it works on ‘B players’ (worker ants). I made the decision to not work with that client again. Some well-wishers called this a mistake because of the loss of revenue but I needed to reflect.

Sometime early in my journey as a facilitator, I certified myself as an experiential educator because I was fascinated by the outdoors. As an army kid, I experienced the outdoors a lot and one important thing I learnt during my certification was that the best time to reflect is when you are physically so exhausted that your mind does not look at anyone or anything else except inwards in silence and in sync with our own breath. It was fascinating. The thought processes in experiential education allow you to dig deeper into a person’s subconscious in a very non-threatening or non-invasive way.

However, not every client wanted to or had the budget to take people outdoors all the time. This was the time I started looking at learning outcomes through playing music together. As a percussionist, who at some point in time has played commercially, I realised that it was not about playing music together at the same time, or at the same volume. Rather. It was about every musician playing a part at a certain time that contributed to and supported the whole. That is what created the music instead of a cacophony. So, I started documenting the process in drum circles and ended up pioneering drum circles or what we call the Percussion Workout in India.

In the meantime, I read a book called Blue Ocean Strategy which was released in 2006. Once again, I was fascinated because it went against the norm. It spoke about finding newer markets in blue oceans. It spoke about expanding your mind. It spoke about moving your mental canvas. I was discussing this idea of the Blue Ocean with dancer and actor friend Charu Shankar and she suggested that we use the idea of a canvas as the blue ocean and the body as the brush through which we express ourselves. And that was the starting point of Moving Canvases. Today we use Moving Canvases as a human lab to foster a sense of creativity, innovation and brainsailing to deconstruct real issues that teams face.

In 1998 I was taught how to walk on fire by a “pir”, who I met at Jama Masjid. Over a period of three days, he taught me how to set the pit, and how to walk over a hotbed of coals. While I had experienced firewalking a few times I needed to make sense of what the intervention was going to do in terms of reflection and reviewing. The success and heart of every experiential intervention lies in reflection and introspection. If the reflection and introspection are not there then it is just an event.

In fact, that was one thing I did not envisage – people inviting Syngrity to conduct ‘events’. It meant revenue but no satisfaction and definitely no synergy and integrity. So, we started saying no to the demands of just events. Further, if a company asked us to do an intervention without reflection, we demanded three times our usual fee to compensate for the loss of our integrity. The message went out and was very clear.

Slowly we started creating a reputation for ourselves as a creative solutions provider. Our reflective processes and our ability to draw inspiration out of multiple disciplines became our USP.

Soon after, the recession of 2008 happened. Everything stopped and there was no work. That is the time that I also read the Chaos Theory. I was anyway fascinated by joining behavioural dots, so I created a unique module for understanding change. This is where I credit myself for having a ‘never say die’ attitude because the other option was to shut shop and take up a job. So, I trained people to brace for change. They saw value in understanding change as a pattern and that helped Syngrity survive the recession.

Around this time, I moved back to Delhi (up until then I used to live in Pune) and the economy slowly started coming back on track with experiential interventions resuming again.

Somewhere around 2014, I contacted an old colleague from GE and she introduced me to The Talent Enterprise based out of Dubai. They create diagnostic assessments based on positive psychology – a field that I was interested in. We started using their psychometric tool –The Thriving Index – and started weaving the insights with experiential interventions especially Theatre of the Self – one of our signature programs using improvisational theatre. We travelled the world demonstrating how communication, collaboration, agility, and creativity could be identified and enhanced using improv theatre.

Our work started getting recognised once again not just as an experiential organization but also as a group of people who could give multi-disciplinary suggestions around how to make learning impactful as well as fun. These are small successes but especially important for an entrepreneur to keep going. One of the key successes of entrepreneurship is in celebrating small successes and as my teacher, Rashid Ansari told me, ‘One needs to be friends with hunger.’

Having practised multiple martial arts for the last 26 years, sometime in 2018, I wrote Warrior’s Path where I talked about my learning from martial systems. I was initially reluctant because I was not sure if I was ready to share what I learned via my teachers – author and ex-Olympic gymnast Dan Millman via his book, ‘Way of the Peaceful Warrior’, Miyamoto Musashi ‘Book of Five Rings’, Yamamoto Tsunitamo ‘Hagakure’ and books like the ‘Bodhisatva Warriors’, ‘Loving What is’, ‘The Art of War’ and many others.

At this juncture, we made a mistake and partnered with a Bangalore-based travel company and a government-recognised adventure foundation. We were taken for a ride financially and it left a horrible taste in our mouth. Also, we left to test the Warrior’s Path on the Everest Base Camp and ended up reaching Annapurna Base Camp. We couldn’t fly to Lukla because of the weather and immediately decided to trek to Annapurna Base Camp. The experience was exhilarating; the partnership was not.

And that is why I realised how much we value our partnership with Aquaterra Adventures – one of India’s oldest and safest adventure experience providers. They have the best and safest infrastructure on any river or mountain in the country. We have worked with them for the last 15 years in organising some of our most avant-garde offsites in Uttarakhand. Imagine an unplugged sitar recital on a deserted beach on the upper Ganga!

Now we take multiple organisations for 3–4day learning journeys through an arduous terrain either on land or water deconstructing the person from the persona revealing the underlying emotions and what we really desire. We are about to launch the next Warrior’s Path.

And then Covid happened in 2020. Once again everything stopped and this time, we did not know what the future held. Everything moved to the virtual space and suddenly everyone in the industry thought it was okay to approach us and the other service providers to start doing virtual workshops for free. This kept happening and I started getting triggered because it was going to spoil industry standards. I called for a meeting with fellow learning providers. All of us unanimously decided that we were not going to give in to the ambiguity of our future and do workshops for free.

In the midst of the pandemic, Syngrity started working for a large IT firm helping develop their female middle-management talent. This was a relief because work had slowed down; not stopped, but slowed down. We also started working on a role-based leadership initiative for them which involved working 14 hours a day. In fact, it was during the pandemic that I was the busiest I’ve ever been, working 14 hours a day for at least two and a half months in Syngrity as well as in my security firm because we came under the Disaster Management Act and the Essential Services and Maintenance Act.

Syngrity Today

The hard work paid off and our client won 2 Brandon Hall Gold awards for the programs we supported them with. A huge kudos to them for running the program internally and a small part of that kudos to us to be able to share our skills and knowledge with our clients. If there is one thing that is at the core of our work it has to be an attitude of gratitude and finding balance. While we are highly skilled at what we do, it has been our customers and clients who have trusted us to create a meaningful journey for their teams and companies.

We have always had to push back; sometimes our clients, sometimes people who can’t take suggestions, and sometimes we push ourselves back to think and reflect and then eventually ask the right questions. It has been a fulfilling journey for us; the beginning of the next 20 years looks promising.

Syngrity Tomorrow

For now, we are gearing towards making Syngrity relevant for the next five to eight years. This is the time for us to think, to create, co-create and stretch our own mental canvases.

I do not forget UBUNTU – a lovely concept from Africa which means, ‘I am because we are’. This is the time to create an ecosystem of allyship where we can all thrive while working together irrespective of gender, race, religious differences etc. not only in teams and organizations but also as a human race.

Vikram Badhwar, CEO, Syngrity, is a communications coach, an experiential educator, and an artist trying to bridge the gap between the creative and the analytical side of our brain. He consults individuals and teams in the space of learning & development to enable transformations at a personal, professional and organizational level.

The post The Syngrity Story appeared first on Syngrity Transformation Solutions.

Percussion Workout – The Process

Keya Bardalai — Thu, 07 Apr 2022 05:36:15 +0000

Percussion Workout is a highly motivational processed experience using the energy of music and rhythm to bring together teams. It is one of the easiest ways of understanding the importance of clear and open communication resulting in easy collaborations.

Key Takeaways Of Percussion Workout

Deconstructing collaboration at three levels:
- Personal Contribution
- Contribution within teams
- Contribution across teams
Trusting the process and trusting the leader
Silence adds, not subtracts

Processes in Play During the Percussion Workout

Walk-in

The participants walk into a grand set up displaying musical instruments from across the world. The instruments they will be introduced to are the African Djembe, Brazilian Surdos, Maracas as well as Tambourines.

Observation

There are certain kinds of people who are drawn to the big Brazilian Surdo’s. They are loud instruments which attract certain behavioural traits.

Safety

The participants are instructed to remove all watches, rings etc., as it may hurt them while drumming.

Cacophony

The participants are encouraged to get used to their instrument and get acquainted with it. Usually, even with the toughest of the participant groups, there is a 2-minute cacophony. The cacophony acts like an ice breaker.

Introduction to The Process

Firstly, the participants are introduced to the instruments to familiarize themselves with the ways in which they are played. Secondly, the participants are introduced to the hand and voice signals which will be the key method of communication when the music comes together. The first two learnings of the Percussion Workout are reflected here:

Trusting the process
Trusting the Leader

Following the heartbeat

The notion of the Heartbeat is introduced – the most monotonous instrument. Participants vocalise the heart beat and test the hand/ vocal instructions.

Learning

Excellence comes out of repetition.
To collaborate, everyone needs to be in line, first.

The entire team starts responding to the hand and vocal instructions. The process is repeated a few times.

The first two deconstructs of teamwork are demonstrated here, by the team:

Personal contribution: The participants are getting their hands on the instruments and ensuring that they are in sync and playing it properly.
Contribution within teams: Participants start relying on their team mates to find their sync with each other.

Bringing it together

The master facilitator works with each of the 4 groups to share a sub rhythm.
Participants are given upto 15 minutes to choreograph and find their rhythms with the sub rhythm allotted to them.
After the break, all participants start playing their part in unison to finally reach a crescendo.
The third and final deconstruct of team work comes into play here:
Contribution across teams.

Learning

Participants observe how processes succeed
Participants feel an active and real responsibility towards the larger outcome.
Teams that work together, celebrate together

Debrief

The success of the Percussion Workout is in the debrief and the process questions.
The organizing committee and Syngrity will prepare a set of questions for which the answers are sought. The same will be discussed in the debrief.
The answers/ learnings to be recorded by HR.

The retention levels from the learning derived from Percussion Workout would be longer as compared to cognitive interventions as the experience is derived out of community-based learning and is rhythmically inclined. Experiential learning to the core!

Please click here to see a sample video and know more about the Percussion Workout: https://www.syngrity.com/percussion-workout/

The post Percussion Workout – The Process appeared first on Syngrity Transformation Solutions.

Part V – ‘Unpacking Diversity, Equity and Inclusion’ Blog Series

Keya Bardalai — Thu, 28 Oct 2021 03:58:02 +0000

Best Practices and Global D&I Champions

Last month’s blog covered a range of technological solutions towards monitoring and improving organisational D&I metrics and benchmarks. In this month’s blog, we’re going to take a closer look at companies around the world (and in India) that are excelling and making strides when it comes to diversity and inclusion practices. You’ll notice that they vary across industry and are embracing diversity in different ways. The intent is to draw/learn from these organisations and think about how we can develop our own diversity and inclusion strategies.

Global D&I Champions:

At the very outset, it is worth noting that according to global D&I scorecards:

The United States is leading with at least 25 companies out of the top 100. (Click here for a more detailed list of the best D&I performing companies for the year 2021)
The industry with the highest D&I score is software and IT services,
Gap, Inc. ranked first on the D&I index for 2021

Let’s take a closer look at some of the organisations that have performed well on D&I on a global scale:

1.Sodexo

Industry: Quality of Life Services

Number of Employees Worldwide: 460,000+

While gender, generations and sexual orientation are all part of the diversity hiring strategy at Sodexo, “gender balance is their business” with 55% of all staff members in Sodexo being women (up from just 17% in 2009). 58% of the members on the board of directors are female and the company runs 14 Gender Balance Networks worldwide. What they have found is that when there is gender balance within an organisation, employee engagement increases by 4 %,, gross profit increases by 23% and brand image strengthens by 5 %.

2. Johnson & Johnson

Industry: Medical Devices, Pharmaceutical and Consumer Packaged Goods

Number of Employees Worldwide: 132,000+

J&J’s Global Diversity and Inclusion vision is “to maximise the global power of diversity and inclusion, to drive superior business results and sustainable competitive advantage. J&J has strong employee resource groups, mentoring programmes and a ‘Diversity University’, which is a dynamic website that helps employees to understand the benefits of working collaboratively. The Chief Diversity officer also reports directly to the CEO and Chairman of Johnson & Johnson, meaning that senior leadership is intimately involved in achieving D&I goals. J&J has received various awards and recognitions for strides made in diversity efforts, and is one of only two companies that have been on the Working Mother 100 Best list for the past 28 years.

3. Mastercard

Industry: Financial Services

Number of Employees Worldwide: 13,400+

Mastercard consistently makes it into the Top 10 of DiversityInc’s 50 Best Companies for Diversity list. They believe that “diversity is what drives better insights, better decisions, and better products. It is the backbone of innovation”. A unique initiative that Mastercard has executed over the past few years involves getting older employees in the company more active when it comes to social media. To address generational barriers, “YoPros” BRG (the Young Professionals Business Resource Group) offers a one-on-one ‘Social Media Reverse Mentoring’ program to older employees who want to become familiarised with the platforms.

4. Accenture

Industry: Professional Services/Consulting

Number of Employees Worldwide: 513,000+

Accenture believes that “no one should be discriminated against because of their differences, such as age, disability, ethnicity, gender, gender identity and expression, religion or sexual orientation.” Diversity training within the company is broken into 3 different categories:

1) Diversity Awareness – to help people understand the benefits of working with a diverse organisation.

2) Diversity Management – to equip executives to manage diverse teams.

3) Professional Development – to enable women, LGBT and ethnically diverse employees to build skills for success.

The organisation also hosts a company-wide celebration of International Day of Persons with Disabilities as well as endeavour to help their employees with various supports, like assistive technology, flexible work arrangements and additional training.

5. Ernst & Young

Industry: Professional Services

Number of Employees Worldwide: 280,000+

At EY, they believe that “only the highest-performing teams, which maximise the power of different opinions, perspectives, and cultural references, will succeed in the global marketplace.” The organisation was the first of the Big Four to assign full-time, partner-level leadership to diversity recruiting. Ever since, the number of women in top executive management positions has increased by more than 20% and programmes such as ‘EY Launch’ which is for ethnically diverse college freshmen, sophomores and transfer students builds awareness of accounting as a major and professional services as a profession.

6. Coca Cola

Industry: Beverage

Number of Employees Worldwide: 86,200+

At Coca-Cola, diversity is seen “as more than just policies and practices”. It is an integral part of who the company is, how they operate and how they see their future. Diversity education programmes include Diversity Training, a Diversity Speaker Series and a Diversity Library. In 2017, a new parental benefits policy was implemented, whereby 6 weeks of paid leave is extended to all new mothers and fathers. The move was championed by ‘Coca-Cola Millennial Voices’, a group of young employees tasked with making sure there is a healthy level of employee retention in millennial consumers and staff members.

7. Marriot

Industry: Hospitality/Tourism

Number of Employees Worldwide: 174,000+

Named as one of the ‘World’s Best Multinational Workplaces by Great Place to Work’, the world’s largest annual study of workplace excellence, Marriott International extends their commitment to creating an inclusive guest experience to their workforce around the globe. Women-owned business enterprises make up approximately 10% of Marriott’s supply chain and they vow to spend $1 billion with diverse-owned businesses by 2020. LGBT inclusion is also a top priority for Marriott International. They received that ‘Best Place to Work for LGBT Equality’ accolade when they earned a perfect score on the HRC’s 2016 Corporate Equality Index, a widely recognised benchmark for diversity and inclusion.

8. Novartis

Industry: Pharmaceuticals

Number of Employees Worldwide: 125,000+

Novartis believes that diversity is integral to their success, because it helps them to understand the unique needs of their patients and find innovative ways of addressing those needs. Within the organisation, the word ‘disability’ has been replaced with ‘diverseability’ because they don’t view people living with disabilities as having a lack of ability, but rather having diverse skills and proficiencies. Human Resources professionals in the company are also educated on topics such as unconscious bias, inclusive leadership, disabilities/accommodations and compensation/pay equity in order to improve their diversity hiring methods.

9. Microsoft

Industry: Computer Software

Number of Employees worldwide: 163,000 +

The tech company provides day-care services and has an employee resource group voluntarily formed by workers. The company also set targets to be achieved on diversity and inclusion and has a policy regarding gender diversity and a policy to promote diversity and inclusion in its workforce. When it comes to racial and gender diversity, Microsoft also tops the list. According to data from 2020, 39.7% of the company’s board was made up of racial and ethnic minorities, and its workforce as a whole was 49.8% racial or ethnic majorities. Based on the same data, Microsoft’s managers also consisted of 41.3% racial or ethnic minorities.

D&I in the Indian context:

In the case of organisations in India, we do not perform as well as companies in the west (most MNCs in India tend to have a better track record because of global mandates). However, in recent times, conversations in India around D&I have been strengthened by the explosion of social media, increased awareness of global events, policy initiatives, efforts by advocacy and consultancy organizations and some progressive judgments from the Indian judiciary. During Pride Month in 2019, several India Inc. members came forward to discuss the importance of D&I and the measures they have put in place to ensure a more supportive and collaborative work environment.

Let’s look at some noteworthy initiatives in the Indian context:

1. Myntra

With measures such as reserved parking for expecting mothers, an in-house creche in their Bangalore office, and the #WeForShe initiative, which conducts brown bag sessions to holistically address the challenges faced by women at the workplace, be it casual sexism or beyond – Myntra seems to be raising the bar for how Gender sensitization and Diversity is approached in the modern Indian workplace.

2. Zomato

Zomato has announced paid maternity and paternity leave for all their employees, and also extended this to non-birthing parents (parents who have adopted children). Another slightly controversial policy that they announced was the controversial Period Leave for all women and transgender employees facing discomfort due to menstruation. A policy implemented in good faith, with employees having the discretionary power not to misuse the leaves.

3. Godrej

Legacy company Godrej values diversity in experiences and beliefs to shape a well-rounded workforce. Their HR policies allow you to add a partner as a health insurance beneficiary and not just a spouse. They have work-from-home policies, flexible timings, and other such measures to make employees feel safe and welcome. They are ultimately trying for all their employees to have the same experience, be it in the Mumbai office or in the hinterlands of India.

4. Tech Mahindra

Tech Mahindra has received global recognition for its excellent Diversity and Inclusion policies. They have a gamut of policies to meet the needs of all – the parents, the kids, the LGBTQ+ community, new mothers, people of different nationalities, ages, sexes, specially-abled people, underprivileged communities, etc. Programs such as COLORS, Mentoring Tables, Role Model Series give women an opportunity to develop their careers. They also have self-defense and financial wellness programs for women to have a secured future.

5. Infosys

The D&I vision of the corporation is an integral part of the Infosy Code of Conduct contained in a powerful tenet viz., ‘Respecting Each Other.’ D&I Goals on the corporate scorecard flow into leader and manager goal sheets. D&I councils at the business unit, location, and geo levels provide a rich matrix of responsibilities and relationships to collaborate on the strategic intent of the organization to build inclusion for everyone. Employee Resource Groups (ERGs) act as huge enablers. Some of the ERGs at Infosys India include: Infosys Women’s Inclusivity Network, InfyAbility (for employees with disabilities and their allies; iPride (for employees of the LGBTIQA+ community and their allies) and Family Matters for all employees focusing on childcare; parenting; relationships; health and wellness. ERGs serve to strengthen peer support groups towards building inclusive work environments.

6. FedEx Express

In Feb 2021, FedEx express, a subsidiary of FedEx Corp (NYSE: FDX) and the world’s largest express transportation company, was recognised with the award for ‘Best Gender Equality Workplace’ by the World HRD Congress at the Diversity and Inclusion Leadership Awards 2021. Their commitment to diversity, inclusion and gender equality is an integral part of their culture and strongly believe in providing all team members with an equal opportunity to excel and grow. Recently, FedEx Express launched the Leadership, Education, Advancement, and Placement (LEAP) initiative in its MEISA region; a mentoring program aimed to equip women with mentorship opportunities, and the tools they need to advance their career within the organization. To showcase its commitment to helping women in the workplace advance their careers and explore possibilities. FedEx has been named by Forbes Magazine in 2019 as one of the Best Employers for Diversity globally, and was also recognized as one of the top Top 50 Best Workplaces for Women 2020 in India, by the Great Place to Work® Institute.

Other initiatives that deserve attention:

The Kochi Metro which hired 23 transgender persons (in 2017), deploying them in different sections based on their qualifications. The progressive move garnered a great deal of attention, and rightly so. However, soon after the news broke, about 10 of these employees quit, as they were unable to find accommodation in Kochi , thus highlighting the systemic barriers that continue to operate at a societal levle.
Nukkad, The Teafe, in Raipur is reversing social barriers by only employing transgenders and people with visual and speech impairments. The intention behind this endeavour is to provide a space of equal opportunity for marginalised groups of individuals – who are more or less persistently denied opportunities to work and progress, because of their perceived physical capabilities and their affiliated social stigmas.
The Lifestyle brand and company designed a remarkable initiative, called the “Creating A Ripple” program whose objective was to create an ecosystem where employees display a high degree of sensitivity and empathy towards each other’s issues / problems / troubles (grievances). To encourage this cultural change, activities and training programs were conducted across the organization. Employees were introduced to the idea that they themselves could help another employee with a grievance where they were given a choice to be a solution provider, a connector or even an empathizer.
Recently, Diageo India rolled out an “enhanced wellness policy” for all employees effective July 2020 regardless of sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, including LGBT+. As part of the company policy, “medical coverage and leave benefits are to be extended to both same sex and opposite-sex domestic partners”. It also provides medical coverage for gender confirmation procedures. Similarly, surrogacy and fertility treatment medical benefits will be made available for all employees thus involving a revision to the definition of family to include ‘same sex’ and ‘live-in’ partners.
L’Oréal India, which is the only FMCG company in the country that has been awarded the advanced EDGE (Economic Dividends for Gender Equality) MOVE level certification for gender equality, has inclusivity policies like medical insurance that covers employees with same sex partners. “Our LGBTQI+ employee base feels respected, valued and entitled to every opportunity and benefit that any other employee would. Notably, this year, the company launched the Employee Human Rights Policy “with the principle of non-discrimination, particularly for the LGBTQ+ community” and covering aspects like hiring, remuneration, access to training, company benefits and services, promotions, terminations or retirement.

Although Indian companies (not MNCs) have a long way to go, it is endearing to see them take steps towards gender diversity and inclusion by enabling conversations and policies that get the ball rolling. It must be said that India’s diversity is complex and inclusion goals require great nuance and concerted efforts to be truly impactful. Our involvement with organisations over the last two years also indicates a growing awareness and desire to enhance and empower diverse employees within the workplace. In particular our flagship women in leadership program – She-Leads has been an incredible success at DXC Technology (for over 200 participants) where we have seen tangible results and shifts in mindsets.

Having laid out all these best practices and success stories over a series of blogs these last few months, I now ask you to introspect on what diversity and inclusion means in your organisation and what has worked (or not) for you?

Ask yourself:

Do I feel a sense of belonging in my organisation?
Does everyone in my team truly feel that their ideas and suggestions are considered when making decisions?
What does leadership in my organisation look like?
What does the language used in corporate documents or during meetings sound like? – is it gender-inclusive? Or does it make some people in the room feel that they don’t belong there?
What policies does my company have in place to support people from diverse backgrounds? Is the tone of these policies about mutual respect or just meeting legal obligations?

As you reflect on these questions, do check out our flagship D&I program – We-Lead – to learn more about how we can help you address, improve and align diversity and inclusion goals in your organisation.

Keya Bardalai is a Senior Research Consultant at Syngrity. She has a Ph.D. in Social Anthropology and specializes in work and employment in the service economy. Keya has a keen interest in gender in the workplace and works on how spaces can be made more just, equitable, and inclusive for all.

SOURCES:

https://www.mondaq.com/india/employee-rights-labour-relations/1086642/workplace-diversity-and-inclusion-in-india-a-possible-blueprint

https://apna.co/blog/indian-companies-at-the-forefront-of-diversity-and-inclusion-at-work/

https://indianexpress.com/article/lifestyle/workplace/transgender-diversity-inclusion-wellness-policy-diageo-india-6526423/

https://www.peoplematters.in/article/diversity/creating-inclusive-workplaces-for-india-29576

http://orinam.net/resources-for/workplace/list-of-transgender-plus-inclusive-employers-india/

https://www.socialtalent.com/blog/diversity-and-inclusion/9-companies-around-the-world-that-are-embracing-diversity

https://fortune.com/2021/06/02/fortune-500-companies-diversity-inclusion-numbers-refinitiv-measure-up/

https://linkhumans.com/diversity-inclusion-tech-companies/

https://homegrown.co.in/article/802154/diversity-in-the-workplace-5-indian-companies-with-inclusive-hiring-policies

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