Challenge
This Fortune 500 global property services company is a leading player in the Asia-Pacific (APAC) region with around 30,000 employees spread across all the major markets. Although the global organization has a longstanding commitment to Diversity and Inclusion (D&I), the regional industry tends to promote senior leaders from an expatriate background and reward male rather than female talent. We supported the company as they developed and rolled out their D&I strategy for the Asia-Pacific region.
The key objectives for the project included:
- Developing leaders’ self-awareness, particularly around their strengths, blind spots, and the effectiveness of their leadership.
- Increasing the pace of change around the diversity and inclusion agenda despite pockets of skepticism within the organization and a lack of knowledge of cutting-edge research and practice.
- Facilitating D&I in very different business, social and cultural contexts across the APAC region.
Solution
We designed a two-day workshop for the regional D&I champions to deepen insight into what diversity is and why it matters to a business, provide guidance on how to become more inclusive leaders and bring the team together to decide on key regional priorities.
The interactive program was delivered to the country executive teams of the eight largest markets / regional business units across APAC, the high potential regional talent group, and the regional HR leadership team.
The program included cutting-edge research into D&I and focused on creating a psychologically safe environment, taking a systemic approach to D&I and how to make a personal and a business case for why diversity matters.
YSC drew on regional consultants experienced in D&I who were able to facilitate in a way that was sensitive to the local market contexts.
“It was great to have you amidst us to work with the India leadership team. We all enjoyed the session and I believe that your sessions have helped us further the cause of D&I in a big way. Thank you.” “It was really a fruitful session and I believe everybody enjoyed the session as it was a good opportunity to think deeper about the importance of accelerating D&I in Japan.”
Impact
- The regional D&I team have made considerable progress on their agenda for change and established an internal and external communications strategy to promote awareness.
- At a local and business unit level, the leaders are much more engaged in the D&I strategy having been able to honestly discuss the topic and identify areas for actions. As a result, there have been a number of focused initiatives arising from this engagement.
- YSC are currently partnering with the company to identify the next stage in furthering the D&I strategy.
- The feedback from participants in the workshops was overwhelmingly positive.
Find out more about Inclusion, Diversity & Equity with YSC...
Leaders shape cultures and cultures shape individual experience. A more diverse, equitable and inclusive world of work is only possible when leadership and culture are aligned and activated to unlock value – for individuals, organizations and society at large.
