Gender & Inclusion

Nova Helvetia

Jul 20

Creating an inclusive future

The gender and inclusion working group started their exploration with researching the effects the COVID-19 crisis had on gender relations, especially on women. They looked at care work – the distribution and value between productive and reproductive work, the changes in the world of work, narratives around gender in the media and the effects of the pandemics on marginalised groups in our current socio-economic system.

Our prototype: Inclusive working practices for all

The purpose of this prototype is to create a first version of a resource website that features lived and tested inclusive working practices from teams across sectors in Switzerland. The website will be openly accessible to everyone and aims to break the idea that inclusion work is difficult and expensive or would only belong to a certain sector or hierarchy level.

Why is this important? In order to increase resilience and creativity to overcome sudden crises such as Covid-19, workplaces need to adapt practises that enable all employees to bring their skills and perspectives to the table. Everyone’s voice is needed if we want to find solutions to the complex challenges we face.

The impact we want to have:

Offer concrete tools that can be put into practice in order to strengthen inclusion and collaboration within an organisation of any size or type
Value and highlight the work on inclusion already done in Swiss organisations
Help teams to understand how they can fully benefit from the skills of all their members
Inspire teams to implement small changes that have a big effect

How will it look like? The website will feature a short video that illustrates the practice with a little story from a real situation, narrated by the person who has tested and used that practice. The practice will be backed up with research and a “how to” guide.

Outputs

Launch of the Inclusive Teams resource website that features lived and tested inclusive working practices from teams across sectors in Switzerland
The practices are presented in short videos accompanied by text and additional resources. During this prototyping phase we filmed and published a teaser video and 3 inclusive working practices, with experience sharing on inclusive communication, collective accountability in recruitment and leveling the playing field between on-site and remote co-workers. Have a look at the videos on our website!

Outcomes

Brainstorming together with different organizations about possible practices to share was a great door opener for a dialogue on diversity & inclusion in general and helped to create awareness for the more subtle but equally effective steps to be taken. Especially the recording was extremely helpful for the organizations to further shape and sharpen their inclusive practices. While sharing your practice is good for your image it also holds you publicly accountable about what you are saying. We see this as enabling a positive circle of influence.

In the near future, we plan to add subtitles in different languages to make the videos more accessible and to offer workshops for teams to develop their own inclusive practices. In order to do all of that, we need your support.

Here’s how you can contribute: