How comms can make material impact with DE&I

When your workplace allows employees to be their authentic selves, you’re much more likely to establish a thriving, vibrant culture. But there’s more to it than just outlining the tenets of positive work culture in your organizational mission statement — developing a workplace that focuses on diversity and inclusion takes lots of active listening. At Ragan’s Future of Communications Conference earlier this month, we spoke with Aray Rivera, senior manager of internal communications at J. Crew, Suzy An, justice, equity, diversity and inclusion lead at Porter Novelli and Emily Graham, chief equity and impact officer at Omnicom to learn how they make a material difference in the workplace through diversity and equity initiatives.

Focusing on psychological safety

Psychological safety is broadly defined, within an employment context, as the ability to share one’s own true thoughts and feelings at work with no fear of retribution or negative impacts. But it’s important to note that each might have their own specific understanding of what constitutes psychological safety.

“Psychological safety is nuanced,” said Graham. “Our role is to define what it means and create guidelines around it. It shouldn’t be a buzzword, but something that’s embraced.