Cultural Diversity: Inclusive celebrations
Cultural diversity is an essential element of every workplace. However, creating an inclusive environment that supports the cultural diversity of employees is a much more complex task. To create a feeling of safety, trust, and belonging across the whole team, it is critical to ensure that every faith and culture is celebrated and recognised in your workplace. In this blog, we will look closely at how your organisation can support and recognise various observances, and celebrations throughout the year.
There are several benefits associated with recognising and learning more about different cultures, traditions, and celebrations. Perhaps the most important benefit of this is that it creates a culture of belonging. This is an integral part of cultural diversity and inclusivity. Whether your team members celebrate different holidays or celebrate a holiday in different ways, it is our responsibility to make sure that they receive enough recognition and support to express their culture, religion, nationality, or identity.
Expanding Workplace Cultures Around Celebrations and Holidays
While we think about holidays and celebrations, we probably only consider the ones we grew up with. However, cultural diversity in the workplace requires actions around “non-dominant” celebrations. When you begin to recognise other people's backgrounds, you realise that you can’t assume what should be and should not be celebrated as an office holiday. Therefore it is important to ask yourself how you can create a culture of inclusion and how you can determine which holidays your employees would like to observe.
With a more diverse workforce than ever, it is essential to introduce educational opportunities for your teams so they can learn about different traditions and religions. These activities will bring awareness and allow all of your team members to gain an understanding and participate in celebrations outside of their culture. Here are some examples of how you can ensure that cultural diversity is well-managed in your workplace.
Cultural diversity and office celebrations
Discussing religious affiliations may be uncomfortable for many, hence making that process smooth and easy for everyone will require a certain preparation. Managers will play a key role in that process, as they will be responsible in ensuring that those conversations are comfortable for each and every team member. It can be done through a survey to understand how your team members would like to share their feedback and preferences in regard to holidays and celebrations.
Putting an equal emphasis on holidays that are not considered to be the dominant ones in a particular country or region, will feed into support of the cultural diversity in your workplace. Instead of focusing on the most commercially celebrated holidays such as Christmas, consider hosting a party that is more inclusive. For instance, having a New Year’s celebration takes away the focus from recognising just one religion among your team members.
Excluding alcohol from parties will also showcase your understanding of cultural diversity and not only. Many people choose not to drink for many reasons, including religion as well as personal preferences.
Offering floating holidays is an amazing way to emphasise the flexibility of how people can choose how and when they want to recognise specific holidays or traditions. When you give your employees a chance to select which days they would like to have as a day off from work, you directly help to eliminate the bias towards national or Christian celebrations. This way you foster inclusion in the workplace and demonstrate respect for everyone's beliefs and nationality. Additionally, you can create a diverse planning committee that will ensure every celebration is organised with inclusion in mind.
Best practices for cultural diversity with Ikigai Authentic
As a business owner or a manager, you have a choice to create an inclusive and welcoming workplace environment. To ensure that cultural diversity is well-managed in your workspace, including a plan on how to create inclusive holiday celebrations needs to be placed among your priorities. Our experts can provide you with the necessary tools and knowledge to establish a culture of inclusion that will create a sense of belonging across all your team members. Providing your team with an opportunity to express their preferences and creating an environment open for suggestions will significantly improve how heard and recognised your team members feel.
Our team of DEI experts can help you achieve your cultural diversity objectives and create a healthy work culture, where everyone can enjoy being heard and included. Get in touch with us today, and let’s walk the talk.
