Q&A with our Black, Asian and Ethnic Employee Network Group founders.
At Randstad, we have created an inclusive culture where everyone feels they can bring their whole selves to work. Fostering a culture of inclusion and belonging is part of our DNA, where we value the diversity of thought, background, experiences and skills that our people bring to our workplace. And we don’t simply talk about it - we take action to build our inclusive culture every day.
How? One of the many ways we foster inclusion in our workplace is through our Black, Asian and Ethnic Employee Network Group, founded by Abuu and Olivia in our Randstad UK team. We met with Abuu and Olivia to find out more about this great internal initiative.
Abuu and Olivia - GREAT to connect with you and hear more about the Embrace Employee Network Group. We’d love to understand more about this network and the actions you’re taking internally to promote ethnicity awareness in our business.
Q. When did you start Embrace and why?
A. We started the network group in November 2021 after taking part in Randstad’s Race & Ethnicity Listening Sessions. We wanted to create a platform where everyone within Randstad can connect, learn and make a positive change within the business. We have such a diverse culture within the business and we wanted to celebrate this by making an inclusive D&I Network group.
Q. As you started to build this network, how did you determine your key objectives of the Embrace network within the business?
A. We opted to use a bottom-up approach. Similar to world development, we believe that to truly inspire and create positive change it is important to listen to our colleagues about what they want to see being developed within the business. We believed that by working closely with our D&I teams we could have intertwined objectives that can help the business and the network group grow.
Q. What are your key objectives of Embrace and how does the wider Randstad business engage and become an ally to Embrace?
A. Our key objectives are as follows;
Create a feedback loop to the I&W team on initiatives and ideas. This allows us to give the leadership team clear feedback on initiatives and how they would be received by colleagues. As a result we will see these initiatives become more effective in the long run.
Be active role models demonstrating inclusive language and behaviours.
We believe the best way to influence is by creating active role models within the group that can influence other areas of the business further influencing the way we do business and the way our business grows.
Be an external ambassador
We want to be the best and very much create a blueprint on how diversity and inclusion can positively influence a contemporary global business.
Keep up with current affairs related to diversity issues.
This is done through open discussion where all colleagues have the opportunity to interact and listen to each other. There are no right or wrong answers and some ideas are positively challenged in order to create a growth mindset with the group where we all can learn including allies.
Creating a peer support system whereby we are all sharing lived experiences with colleagues for everyone to understand diversity in its purest form.
This allows everyone to learn from each other and gives allies a new perspective into different cultural experiences which allows them to grow. This growth is the key to further enhancing our group development.
Q. What is your advice to Embrace allies on how they can best support the network?
A. In terms of advice I would say to just get involved at the moment almost 35% of the group is made up of allies which is fantastic to see. Having an open minded approach allowing yourself to be exposed to the lived experiences and the positive actions we can make together is invaluable to not only the business but the future generation.
- If you’d like to join Randstad’s inclusive culture, why not explore the many career opportunities we currently have available:
