BrazilHow Capgemini Invent is building a diverse & inclusive workplace
Today, all over the globe, people are celebrating Diversity Day, paying tribute to the diverse minds and beliefs held by all cultures around the world. To find more about what Capgemini Invent is doing to nuture a diverse & inclusive workplace, Consultancy.org spoke with Gary Hinton, a Vice President at Capgemini Invent and Executive Sponsor of the firm’s Diversity & Inclusion agenda.
What does Capgemini Invent do in the field of Diversity & Inclusion within the organisation?
At Capgemini Invent we firmly believe that a diverse set of experiences, perspectives, and backgrounds is crucial to innovation and the development of new ideas that is why Diversity & Inclusion is a global priority with a focus on three pillars:
- Championing overall diversity of our teams
- Improving diversity of our leadership
- Ensuring an inclusive work culture
We don’t limit our Diversity & Inclusion vision to any specific group, we strongly believe that diversity is about attracting unique colleagues from all backgrounds. What makes our Diversity & Inclusion approach successful is that it’s driven both top-down and bottom-up. We have established a Diversity & Inclusion council assisted by a large team of supporters within Capgemini Invent to build a stronger culture and drive awareness across the organisation.
Demonstrating the support from the top, Cyril Garcia, the CEO of Capgemini Invent said on the topic: “I am a big believer in Diversity and Inclusion. For society, for Capgemini, and, naturally, for Capgemini Invent. For Capgemini Invent diversity is at the heart of how we operate. Challenging the status quo is in our DNA and this requires a diversity of thought: Bringing together different perspectives, having healthy debates, and learning from each other.”
Echoing Hinton’s integral view on diversity, Garcia added: “Diversity goes further than just bringing together people from different backgrounds, professions, gender, or ethnicity. We all have an active role to play to create an inclusive culture, a work environment in which everybody truly feels heard and valued.”
Laurence Metzke, the Chief HR Officer of Capgemini Invent meanwhile stated, “At Capgemini Invent, we do not only want to invite people in, we also want to make them feel welcome and contribute to shaping our culture, regardless of background, gender, age, looks, ability, sexual orientation, role or anything else that makes people who they are.”
How is Diversity & Inclusion embedded in employer branding and recruitment?
Diversity and Inclusion has for many years been a visible Group priority within Capgemini – the realisation that equality and equity creates a better company and challenging the status quo is in our DNA. This year we have taken further steps in ensuring we are an employer of choice for everyone – for example, we have updated our recruitment process, specifically updating all our job profiles to highlight many of the options that exist within Capgemini Invent.
In addition, we removed the need for specific studies to ensure we are able to attract talent from all backgrounds.
As one of our recent recruits with a diverse background put it, “During my first conversations with Capgemini Invent I noticed immediately that I felt welcome and at home. The people I spoke to were very understanding, easy approachable and pointed out that the firm promotes a healthy work-life balance which is very important to me as a mother of two young children.”
“I experienced from the beginning that they were not only interested in my academic and working experience, but mostly in me as a person and how I would fit in the team and the working culture of the company. As a young Muslim woman with a non-western migration background I find it important to commit myself to – and put my effort in – a company that embraces diversity and accepts it. I feel that Capgemini Invent is the right place to be!”
Building on this and many other experiences, this month we will launch a new Diversity & Inclusion section on our career website. The goal of this section is to share new and personal stories of our colleagues and highlight the different activities that we continue to prioritise within Capgemini and Capgemini Invent.
From a client’s perspective: what kind of Diversity & Inclusion services does Capgemini Invent offer?
Capgemini Invent has a significant number of initiatives to help our clients on their Diversity & Inclusion journey and just recently we successfully launched a new data driven approach which we developed through an internal pilot. In this initiative huge swathes of HR data were analysed and then complemented with numerous insights from selective interviews across the Capgemini Invent organisation.
The results provided us with tremendous insights and have helped us develop a more personalised Diversity & Inclusion approach. We are extremely pleased to see that more and more of our clients are interested in prioritising Diversity & Inclusion on their agenda’s, and are leveraging our insights and expertise to support their progress.
On today, how is Capgemini Invent celebrating Diversity Day?
For the first time, Capgemini Invent will organise numerous celebratory activities. The day will kick-off with a video and personal message from the leadership [led by Hinton himself] who will announce the day’s planned activities and call all employees to continue the fight for equality. One of the main events will be a panel discussion with Shobha Meera, Capgemini’s global Corporate Social Responsibility Officer who will outline some the global initiatives that Capgemini continues to work on.
About Capgemini Invent
Capgemini Invent is the digital innovation, consulting and transformation practice of Capgemini. The $1 billion consulting firm was founded in September 2018 when Capgemini Consulting merged with the firm’s digital and creative businesses.
