Diversity and Inclusion – Important Values Not Only in Times of Peace

Summary of the programme and discussions at the International Conference: 2022 European Diversity Day – Diversity and Inclusion – Bridges to the Future of Work

Participants of the international conference 2022 European Diversity Day – both those present in the premises of the Czech Parliament as well as those on our online stream – were welcomed in the representative “Státní akta” room of the House of Deputies of the Parliament of the Czech Republic after a year. The conference was held under the auspices of the Speaker of the House of Deputies, Markéta Pekarová Adamová. 

Challenges will not wait for us

The 2022 European Diversity Day was opened by Deputy Minister for Science, Research and Innovation of the Czech Republic, Jana Havlíková, who spoke of accelerating trends in the fields of diversity and inclusion that require faster response from businesses as well as the state.

New Diversity Index confirms that the Diversity Charter signatories are the leaders!

Pavel Štern, Programme Director at Business for Society, presented the Diversity Index results. Diversity Index is a unique benchmark collecting realistic data on how employers view the diversity set-up within their corporate structure, the index uses the DISA (Diversity Inclusion Strategic Assessment) tool. The index was first published in 2017 and a comparison of the 2017 and current data provides clear evidence of progress in its key areas. In 2021, fifty-one signatories of the Diversity Charter representing almost 200,000 employees participated in the survey. The index evaluates four key areas – diversity identification and strategy, diversity strategy in relation to clients and the public, diversity strategy in human resources management and communication.

The Diversity Charter signatories are trend-setters and influencers. The biggest – and at the same time continual progress – was identified in the fields of equal representation of women and men in leadership positions, supporting working parents, age diversity, i.e. people at various life stages, engaging TOP management in diversity management and supporting LGBT diversity within a corporate structure. The objectives that businesses find most important include nurturing mutual respect between male and female employees, striving to build more innovative and creative teams and upgrading of work conditions.

Diversity and inclusion – the key pillars of progress

Ryan Stoner, Political-Economic Counsellor from the Embassy of the United States of America in the Czech Republic spoke on the panel “European and Transatlantic Cooperation in the Labour Market and Society”. He highlighted the crucial importance of the transatlantic cooperation between the USA and Europe in his opening remarks.

Ines Windisch, Head of HR, Communications & Sustainability, Zentiva Česká republika, shared her positive experience with the huge wave of solidarity towards Ukraine in the Czech Republic. This social upsurge has inspired Zentiva to take an active part in supporting Ukraine! “We are all connected in our company, we are inclusive, and we are fast, which worked out quite well when we started to help our colleagues in Ukraine a few months ago, it brought us all together. One of our diversity priorities is to support young people including talent development. I'm very proud that with the Diversity Charter we can all contribute to a better future,” said Ines Windisch in the panel discussion.

Libor Michalčík, Statutory Representative of Kyndryl Client Center, s.r.o. opened by explaining that diversity, inclusion and cultural diversity are the foundations of Kyndryl strategy. In times as complex as ours, he finds it important for the society, businesses as well as individuals to provide their support in a meaningful way. “The customer and innovation centre in Brno employs people of 100 nationalities who speak 30 different languages. Our corporate diversity strategy supports developing of activities and programmes such as: Brno Women, Kyndryl Inclusive Network, LGBT Community Support and MOSAICO programme that supports our foreigner employees. Our efforts to support Ukraine include among other things Czech and English courses for the people coming from Ukraine, some of these courses are even taught by our own employees trained in teaching. We also provided equipment and furniture for schools and accommodation facilities for the Ukrainians.”

Bridges to the Future of Work

The panellists on the main discussion panel: “Diversity and Inclusion – Bridges to the Future of Work” were Erika Vorlová, Chief Services Officer and Member of the Management Board, GasNet; Ctirad Lolek, Executive Director of Human Resources, Komerční banka; Barbora Pencová, HR Director, Provident Financial and Ctirad Nedbálek, VP Human Resources & Sustainability, Albert Česká republika.

In the initial part of the panel, all the panellists mentioned the importance of diversity and inclusion for their businesses. GasNet strives to create welcoming work environment for the employees to feel good in the company. GasNet understands that diversity is enriching, the company is trying to give people an opportunity to be their true self, which is reciprocated by the employees’ desire to perform and ability to face challenging situations. Komerční banka focuses on flexibility and insists that all employees should have an opportunity to work from home. Until 2025, the company would like to increase representation of women in the management to 40 %. There is an increasing trend of part-time employment, however, the Czech Republic is still significantly lagging behind Western Europe in this respect. Komerční banka currently has 6% of part-time employees, the objective is to reach 11%. Provident is trying to build a better world by facilitating financial inclusion, the company provides financial services to marginalized groups in the society. Provident launched a project called “The Invisible” (“Neviditelní”) highlighting problems of people who face hardships in trying to live a dignified life – senior citizens, single mothers, young families or the unemployed. The objective of the project is to shed light on the issue and point out the associated costs for the state. Albert explains its managers – the TOP management as well as the managers of all the 350 stores – why diversity and having different male and female workers on a team matter. According to Albert, the ability to see every employee as an equal partner, and the effort to create equal conditions for all employees now and in the future are the key skills every manager must possess.

Other discussed topics included future technologies and the inherent need to change and adapt to the new ways of working. GasNet is aware that everyone sees that the power industry must change. “Transition to hydrogen as the future medium has been planned for years, however, it has not been an easy task. Our network is ready to start using hydrogen mixes, but the market and industry are yet to join in, legislation has to be finalised and our employees need to be trained. We also have to interact with the society to be sure that there will be people interested in working for us in the future,” said Erika Vorlová. It is important to understand that some kind of gas will always be needed in the Czech Republic – hydrogen, biomethane or bioLNG. Not only we have to talk about this; we also have to educate the society so that we can be sure there is a “pool of talents” that will be able to support this transition in the coming years.

In the banking sector, Komerční banka – a traditional financial institution well known to people – has transformed into a digital bank of the future. The company adopted the so-called agile approach three years ago. Competences of employees and the way how they train one another have been transformed as well. Provident has digitalised its business with online loans, chatbots and background processes. Podcasts are now preferred to e-learning. Albert is also well aware of the technological advancement. The technological boom does not affect only online shopping, stone shops are being upgraded as well. Self-service checkouts and scanners monitoring movement of goods, store traffic or efficiency are being deployed. The company focuses on reemployment, i.e. offering new positions to employees, as many of the jobs that we know today will no longer exist in five years, on the other hand, there are new positions emerging every day and people need to be trained for them accordingly.

In Provident, diversity is embedded in the company’s corporate culture – the representation of women in the company’s management reaches respectable 40 % and the company applies an equal pay policy. Turnover of call centre employees typically reaches 50 %, in Provident the turnover is below 30 % thanks to the atmosphere at the workplace and corporate culture supporting employee loyalty. In Komerční banka, diversity is most reflected in the feeling of belonging and support among employees. The company offers programmes for single parents and assistance programmes for colleagues facing financial or health issues. Programmes like these build loyalty among employees. Komerční banka introduced a smart office concept two years ago allowing any employee to work from any place they wish. “Trust is one of the pillars of diversity. You have to fully trust your people in order to take something from them in return,” explained Ctirad Lolek.

GasNet is trying to give its employees freedom and an opportunity to reach their full potential. The company created internal IT and cultural communities where employees voluntarily assist each other across different departments. According to the company, if employee potential and diversity are nourished, things change naturally, and employees do not see change as something artificial that is forced on them, and the company benefits from this.

As far as the most commonly used tools are concerned, GasNet has chatbot Arnold, the benefit of which was discovered during the COVID-19 pandemic. The company is happy to say that the response rate is around 85 %. “It is important for an employer to receive constant feedback on various topics. It is essential to know what it is going on in the company and give people an opportunity to react,” said Erika Vorlová.

Provident launched a mentoring programme two months ago, each member of the management is in charge of one of the regions in the Czech Republic. “Employees like dialogue, and they appreciate when a member of more senior management visits them in their office to discuss things that work, possible issues and room for improvement,” said Barbora Pencová. The company also offers webinars on different topics selected by employees.

According to Albert, important issues must be highlighted, and people need to be reminded of good things that also need to be integrated in traditional tools. Succession planning and developing of communities are essential tools for Albert. The company has “Young Albert” and “Experienced Albert” groups bringing together employees from headquarters, stores as well as the company’s management.

All the panellists on the main panel also presented their activities to support Ukraine and Ukrainians fleeing war zones and coming to the Czech Republic.  

Diversity and inclusion – important values not only in the time of peace

Speaker of the House of Deputies of the Parliament of the Czech Republic and a long-term patroness of the European Diversity Day, Markéta Pekarová Adamová, formally opened the accession ceremony for seven new signatories of the Diversity Charter. In her address, she appreciated the importance and benefits of similar meetings bringing together people to whom diversity matters. She stressed that every year there are more companies and businesses that see the complexity of responsibility they have towards their employees.

New signatories of the Diversity Charter:

• Atlas Copco Services

• Heimstaden Czech s.r.o.

• JTI International

• Kyndryl CZ

• MSD Czech Republic s.r.o.

• Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield

• Zentiva Česká republika

By signing the Diversity Charter, companies and businesses voluntarily and publicly commit to developing the principles of openness, a fair working environment, anti-discrimination and diversity and inclusion in the workplace.

Workshop: Diversity & Inclusion MasterClass – Presentation of newly developed and under-development open tools and a presentation of a newly developed “MasterClass Manual”

Moderator: Jana Skalková – Head of the Cabinet Expert Team Department, Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs

The Diversity & Inclusion MasterClass is funded through the Citizens, Equality, Rights and Values Programme (CERV) of the European Commission. The project is being implemented by Business for Society. The objective is to reinforce and support positive perception of diversity and inclusion in the Czech labour market as the key sustainability and competitive corporate values of the 21st century by creating open support tools. These tools should motivate more Czech employers to embrace the topic of diversity and inclusion at work and identify various employee groups and address their needs. The key project activities include development of Diversity Compass, an open analytical tool, and Diversity & Inclusion MasterClass representing a follow-up toolkit.

Leading Czech and multinational companies meet on a regular basis within the project’s “Diversity Platform” and take part in developing the D&I MasterClass open toolkit. Currently, they are also drafting a “MasterClass Manual”. The Manual will be an interactive guide to the world of diversity and inclusion prepared by signatories of the Diversity Charter for the benefit of less experienced employers; it should provide inspiration through best practice and experience sharing.

At the Diversity & Inclusion MasterClass workshop, the participating companies presented their experience and best practices that will be reflected in the “MasterClass Manual”:

• Kamila Černá – People Transition & Transformation Lead, Accencure CZ

• Helena Steinerová – Senior manager, Recruitment, Development & Employer Brand, GasNet

• Sherin Abazeidová – Chief Culture & Diversity Officer, Human Resources, Komerční banka

• Simona Dalihodová – Diversity Officer, Raiffeisenbank

• Ladislav Kučera – Human Resources Director SAP Czech Republic

• Martina Zimmermann – Diversity Manager ŠKODA AUTO

Due to time constraints IKEA, McDonald's and ExxonMobil, other members of the Diversity Platform participating in the development of the MasterClass Manual, were not able to attend. For the recording of the workshop click here.

Workshop: Diversity and inclusion strategies and their implementation

From international headquarters to local practice and implementation of the D&I strategies in the Czech Republic. Sharing the best practice and experience among Diversity Charter signatories and other companies.

Moderator: Lucia Hronková – Communications manager, Business for Society

At the “Diversity and Inclusion Strategies and Their Implementation” workshop held in English language participants had an opportunity to ask invited panellists – two CEOs and an HR Manager – questions. The panellists presented their companies’ experience with cascading diversity and inclusion from “headquarters to local businesses”. The workshop panellists were:  

• Radek Nešleha, General Manager, Atlas Copco Services, s.r.o.

• Jaromír Staroba, Prague Capability Center Director, Anheuser-Busch InBev Czech s.r.o.

• Jaroslav Neuvirth, HR Manager, Eaton European Innovation Center 

The workshop focused on sharing experience and best practice in implementing and managing diversity and inclusion from parent companies to local businesses. All the panellists mentioned the importance of the value, i.e. diversity and inclusion, sharing not only within a local business in a particular country but across the entire business structure including the “headquarters”. Referring to their own experience, the panellists agreed that supporting diversity implementation and management from the top – including the experience and best practice sharing – is important and meaningful. Representation of underrepresented groups in top managements was also one of the discussion topics. You can watch the recording of the workshop here.

Workshop: Intercultural practice, cross-border cooperation and integration of foreigner workers in the Czech labour market

Diversity and inclusion of Ukrainian refugees from the war zones into the Czech labour market and society and best practice.

Moderator: Petr Bittner – journalist and editor, Deník Referendum

„The character of every institution stands and falls with the character of the people who constitute it.”

This workshop discussing integration of foreign workers brought both – emotions and space for sharing good practice. The panellists represented signatories of the Diversity Charter. International companies were represented by Kateřina Piechowicz, Spokesperson, CSR Projects, Heimstaden, s.r.o. and Adriana de Martini, Head of Human Resources, Deutche Börse Group. Alongside the two ladies, the third panellist was Milan Čigáš, Head of HR Department, Regional Authority of Central Bohemia Region, the largest public institution that has become the Diversity Charter signatory so far. The workshop was moderated by Petr Bittner, a journalist and editor.

The workshop offered a great opportunity for networking, good practice sharing and dialogue between seemingly distant worlds of international and private businesses and a regional public administration institution. Due to geopolitical circumstances, namely the Russian aggression in Ukraine and the related flow of Ukrainian citizens to the Czech Republic, the dialogue was very consensual and created a platform for inspirational discussion on how to integrate and include the Ukrainian citizens, as well as on other issues important for foreign employees of multinational companies living in the Czech Republic.

For the recording of the workshop click here.