The importance of "Belonging" in the workplace

Recently we held our annual DEI & Citizenship week, an opportunity for our colleagues to come together to learn, share and celebrate all things DEI & Citizenship.  This year we chose the theme of "Belonging" to link all of the planned activities.  

We held a number of compelling time to talk sessions where our employee resource groups delivered inspiring and compelling sessions.  Some of the notable ones included: a session delivered by Luke Manton on his experience of living with Tourette's.  We also held a session around living in conflict and we had colleagues talking about living through the war un Ukraine as well as the Balkans conflict in the 1990s.   These topics highlighted the importance of belonging from very different and challenging perspectives.

When we asked colleagues to share what belonging meant to them, we heard many things, but core themes included:

"feeling heard and seen"
"sense of community"
"being accepted"
"connection to shared values"

It is clear that having an integrated approach to DEI, helps to build a strong sense of belonging.  This is something that we will continue to focus on going in to 2023, we know that it makes a difference to our colleagues and to our business, as highlighted in the attached article.

I'd love to hear your thoughts on what belonging means to you and how you are incorporating it in to your plans.