On March 30, in honor of Women’s History Month, HR Brew reporter Kristen Parisi sat down (virtually) with Sara Porritt, chief diversity and inclusion officer at Omnicom Media Group and self-described “perpetual hand-raiser,” for HR Brew Live: Spotlighting Inclusion in the Workplace. The half-hour conversation, sponsored by Qualtrics, touched on concepts that may be familiar to industry veterans—diversity, equity, and inclusion, or DE&I—and then introduced a newish letter to the conversation: belonging with a capital “B.”
Backing belonging. Porritt argued the first reason to get on board with belonging is that it could help DE&I efforts be perceived as impactful instead of performative. Porritt said DE&I initiatives can seem inauthentic when they’re centered around a “let’s-hit-the-numbers [mindset] as opposed to ‘Let’s create opportunities.’” In contrast, Porritt said, focusing on “inclusion and belonging” drives organizations toward “intentional commitment”—the antithesis of performative action.
“If you’re focused on elements of inclusion and belonging, that’s going to drive you toward intentional commitment and then action comes along with it by creating policies, changing conversations, [and] being open, listening to what your employees have to say to create that change, as opposed to just putting something in place for the sake of putting it in place,” Porritt said.
Porritt herself brings multiple identities to the workplace. In her conversation with Parisi, she shared that she’s a new mom, an Asian woman, and a former-R&B-singer-turned-DE&I-professional. In Porritt’s opinion, that’s what the “B” in DEI&B is all about: she said that there is a sense of “uniqueness and individuality that comes with a feeling of belonging.”
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How to start. Porritt said fostering belonging can be a “moving target” for HR because it is such an individual experience. However, if HR can get it right, it will pay dividends in better retention and higher employee satisfaction. She recommended HR departments start to understand individuals’ needs—and, therefore, promote belonging—through active listening.
“What active listening means is not just having this one-way conversation, but creating an environment where individuals, on a one-on-one and group basis, feel truly comfortable with having difficult conversations, whether it’s in a public setting or in a more private setting with an HR professional,” Porritt said.
According to Porritt, these conversations should be happening “on multiple levels”—listing employee resource groups, one-on-ones, and anonymous surveys as great options to collect feedback.
To watch the conversation in full and learn more about Porritt’s approach to DEI&B, click here.—SV
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