Fostering a Diverse Workplace and Team

Emily Luijbregts, PMP, is a project manager in Breda, Netherlands.

  Organizational Culture   Resource Management   Talent Management  

As a project manager/regular employee, you may think that you have very little say or authority in who gets hired or who you work with. But as an individual within the organization, this is definitely something that you can lobby your senior management and HR about. Diversity and inclusion is more than just ticking a box; it can be a great way for you to have the best possible team available with the talent that you need to complete the job well.

Social commentator Verna Myers articulates it well: “Diversity is being invited to the party; inclusion is being asked to dance.” We need to use our roles in management and the wider organization to expect, demand and promote having the best talent working in our company—regardless of their gender, ethnicity or orientation.

I would like you to look at your organization and teams today: What and who do you see? Do you see an organization that promotes and actively encourages diversity? Or is it all the same?

As someone who has previously actively recruited and reviewed prospective CVs, I wanted to ensure that we had an assortment of applicants and requested that HR choose all possible avenues and not just the “usual”’ routes for applicants (recruiters, websites, etc.).

There’s actually mounting evidence to support the fact that the more diverse and inclusive an organization is, …

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