Diversity in the Workplace

Inclusion has the power to make people feel like valued members of a group, creating a strong sense of belonging. The first time I evaluated its power and its ability to teach new things was at my first job. I was working at a multinational, and there was great diversity and pluralism, but we still had room for improvement.

In Brazil, there is a law that reinforces the need to hire people with disabilities. The company I worked for was struggling to hire the necessary amount of people they need to comply with the law, this happens because it is difficult to find workforce to attend to the necessary activities in a factory where the security risk is 4 (companies classified as risk level 4 are high risk, that is: their field of activity exposes employees to frequent risks). The best solution for the company and society was to create a partnership with an institution specialized in industries, for training courses in the area for people with disabilities.

After that, my team received two hearing-impaired people to work with us. We had the chance to take a sign language course to better communicate with them, and all of that just fortified the importance of inclusion and how much we can learn new things, understand different points of view, grow and evolve when we have the possibility to be with people of different races, ages, personalities, languages, experiences, and so on.

Now, improving my knowledge of human talent and diversity management, I can better understand the concepts of inclusion, diversity and pluralism, as well as key concepts around it, and know human resources management strategies and some of the legislation around the subject.