November 2020 | 15 pictures | 4-minute read
Diversity and Inclusion are core to the DNA at Tata group companies. To drive home the importance of diversity in all forms, and to further the culture of inclusion at the workplace, employees at Tata Chemicals spent a month ensuring that the message was imbibed by their colleagues across all sections.
Tata Chemicals believes that to truly flourish as an organization, every single perspective needs to find a voice, a platform to be heard and a complete sense of belonging.
Promoting the little things that make a big difference
Diversity and Inclusion initiatives at Tata Chemicals aim to respect, and promote respecting the differences – such as age, gender, ethnicity, race, physical ability, mental ability, sexual orientation, as well as latent and invisible differences like education, work experience and parental status – that are fundamental to an individual’s identity, and in shaping their perspective.
Making the mix work
According to Alka Talwar, Chief CSR & Sustainability Officer, Tata Chemicals, “Recruiting diverse people in the organization is the first step, it is like an invitation to the party. Inclusion is when all those invited can truly dance together making the party a success, releasing the true potential of diversity for the benefit of the organization. This is facilitated by embedding inclusion as a culture of the organization”.
A little more insight and a broad new perspective
The activities for the month were planned in line with Tata Chemicals' D&I LEAD strategy – Leadership, Ecosystem, Awareness & Communication and Data/Analytics. Diversity champions from a variety of backgrounds were identified and empowered to drive activities in their respective businesses and locations.
During the course of the celebrations, all Tata Chemicals locations had creative standees, banners and posters to drive home the message for the month and beyond. The employees were sent weekly mailers – informative, action-oriented and explaining their individual role in aligning with Tata Chemicals’ long-term diversity and inclusion mission.
R Nanda, Chief Human Resources Officer, Tata Chemicals affirms that D&I is not a destination but a journey: "we have to constantly keep looking at what more we can do to create a more inclusive enterprise. No doubt taking the first steps are difficult – comfort with the status quo and inertia to make the change can sometimes be the invisible roadblocks that we encounter during the journey. However our future as a sustainable organisation will really lie in making D&I as an integral part of our DNA.”
To ensure active participation, ‘Conversations on D&I’ were held across the oganisation along with online quizzes and similar healthy sessions of give and take across different hierarchies. This enabled employees to understand dilemmas, sensitivity, imbibe a culture of self reflection on unconscious bias, share experiences and learn best practices from group companies. Some of the more engaging activities included the fun and insightful musical live theatre experiment, ‘Playshops’ (Play + Workshop), performed and conducted at some locations by professional artists.
“The playshop made people understand an important topic like D&I and the 4 pillars of Tata Chemicals in a very simple manner. All of us are going to be far more inclusive and far more conscious of being inclusive going forward," says Vikrant Deoras, Head, Incubation & New Projects at Tata Chemicals
Ashwani Mahajan, Head, Supply Chain, Rallis, a Tata Chemicals subsidiary, says, “The stories during the sensitisation session gave me insights on how I need to deal with my vendors from diverse backgrounds effectively and use language that is sensitive.”
Looking at how far we have come
The initiatives concluded with the launch of the ‘renewed’ Tata Chemcials' employee health insurance policy that integrates diversity elements (LGBTQ+ inclusion).
The effort towards making the culture of diversity and inclusion further at Tata Chemicals continues.
