Zero Discrimination Day: The EMPAUA Approach

Remember when Martin Lurther King delivered the speech “I have a dream” to end racism in the United States, or when Oprah Winfrey used her voice at Golden Globe to send a powerful message with the purpose of influencing changes for women’s rights?

Today, on the 1st of March, we stand for the World Zero Discrimination Day. This annual United Nations program promotes and increases awareness of global efforts to eliminate discrimination based on, among other things, sex, age, health condition, occupation, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity, race, class, ethnicity, and religion.

Not just a day but rather a movement for change

As such, in the working world, while employees are constantly looking for non-discriminatory workplaces, employers, at the same time, are increasingly recognizing the value and benefits of diverse and inclusive workers. Recently, leaders and HR professionals have actively developed strategies to establish an open, welcoming and inclusive workplace in order to not only adhere to the law but also to attract a significant large number of ethical global talents.

However, as bold as these promises about greater diversity constantly being seen, 61% of US workers have witnessed experienced some types of discrimination at work, while this number is 55% for UK workers, according to surveys made by Glassdoor. This reveals the sad truth that the majority of enterprises are sure to talk the talk, but not many are willing to step up when it comes to taking real action.

What do we stand for at EMPAUA?

Ranting how much you care about an equitable and diversified workforce or putting up posts to claim that you remember these important world days won’t do any good. The one and only solution is to stop these surface fixes in favour of a more holistic approach. As a corporation, here is what EMPAUA has done from early beginnings in order to sustain and ensure an inclusive and non-discriminatory working environment for its employees throughout times:

• Always maintaining a workplace environment with zero tolerance for any forms of discrimination.
• Respecting everyone’s pronoun; whether they are she/her or he/him or they/them, they are human beings, and they matter.
• Providing flexible working schedules related to personal health issues or pregnancy.
• Promoting employees to be themselves: everyone can feel safe to take off their normal professional masks even in the business workplace.
• Defining our people not by the jobs or the roles they possess, but rather as individuals with different characters, interests and cultural backgrounds.
• Offering full transparency in salaries: reducing the traditional pay gap between men and women.
• Seeking not only a “culture fit” candidate but also a “culture add” addition to the team, regarding sex, age, occupation, race, sexual orientation or gender identity.
• Fostering dialogue that promotes honesty, openness and empathy through Non-violent Communication policy.
• Offering every employee opportunities to donate to their favourite organizations on their work anniversary and their birthday
  

But you may also wonder, what can you do as individual to make some noise in this day and show that you are not tolerant for any kinds of discrimination either? Check out this article to learn more about how to achieve that. 

Do you share the same values too? Join our team today!