Managing Cultural Diversity In Companies on-line event
Fuenlabrada City Council has a long history of working for diversity in all its aspects (cultural, ethnic, sexual, generational, functional...) and it is thanks to this commitment that the European Commission, through its Urban Innovative Actions Programme, recognizes this experience by funding the MILMA Project in 2017.
This project places public-private partnerships at the heart of its strategy as a driver of change and economic and social development. Companies are the protagonists of this pilot experience because we know and trust in their potential, their social value, and their capacity to generate an impact on improving people's conditions.
Within this framework, it was very easy to find common objectives with the work carried out by Red Acoge and its SENSIBILIZA Programme, which proposes tools for the management of diversity in the workplace.
With this initiative, and from the hand and experience of Red Acoge, we wanted to accompany companies on their path to competitiveness and offer them all the tools so that together we can build a more inclusive society where talent, creativity, innovation, and difference are the backbone of progress.
As a sign of this commitment, the event was attended by the Councillor for Economic Development, Employment, Trade and Industry, Soledad Martín. The event, which was developed through the zoom platform, was attended by more than 30 companies, associations working with immigrants, HR technicians, and public employment guidance services, among others.
It lasted an hour and a half, during which Red Acoge presented its diversity management tools, the SENSIBILIZA Programme and the RED+D. This Network of companies committed to diversity is a meeting place that allows inclusive companies and institutions to share ideas, experiences, and initiatives concerning diversity management, in which culture acts as the backbone of the different manifestations of diversity. It is funded by the ESF and the Ministry of Inclusion, Social Security, and Migration.
The RED+D offers member companies a space for contrast, debate, and knowledge that includes:
- Public recognition as a Company+D for its commitment to diversity and inclusion.
- On-demand training
- Shared knowledge through exchange spaces for the companies that make up the network.
- Dissemination of own good practices and knowledge of actions carried out by other companies.
- Public dissemination of its participation in the R+D Network.
https://indicediversidad.org/redd-que-es/
Next, 2 companies that are members of the Red+D network shared their experience in the management of cultural diversity and the benefits it had brought to their companies. Laura González, equality technician at Urbaser, and Rosa Escandell, director and founder of the social enterprise A-puntadas, answered a round of two questions:
- First round: How does your company understand diversity management? What kind of diversity variables do you take into account? Why do you manage diversity in your companies?
- Second round: Could you share any measure, experience you have implemented or are developing on diversity management in the workplace and tell us the benefits you are getting?
At the end of the session, the participants expressed their satisfaction with the subject matter and the focus of the session, considering this awareness-raising work in small and medium-sized enterprises as essential to achieving a fairer society where people from different backgrounds can find a decent job.
A video summary of the event is being generated and will be subtitled in English for its dissemination, but we would like to highlight two reflections from each of the representatives of the participating companies:
For Rosa Escandell (Apuntadas) diversity benefits people and if it benefits people and people are well, everything works, the company works, the economy works.
Laura González (Urbaser) launched this final reflection on how work is central in our lives and if we are happy in it, this will make us better people and as a reflection, we will have a better, freer, and fairer society.
The MILMA Project and Fuenlabrada City Council will continue to work to make these reflections an increasingly present reality.
Integration of migrants and refugees
