On the 1st of October the Human Resource Management chair of the University of Twente celebrated its 30th anniversary with a symposium about diversity and inclusion, thereby joining the national Diversity Day (https://www.diversityday.nl/).
Looking back at the technological and innovative developments in HRM, the past 30 years have brought us many challenges, which resulted in even more questions than answers. We decided to celebrate 30 years of the HRM chair by arranging a gathering dedicated to inclusion and diversity. Promoting and supporting diversity in the workplace is an important aspect of good people management - it’s about valuing everyone in the organization as an individual. However, to reap the benefits of a diverse workforce it’s vital to have an inclusive environment where everyone feels able to participate and achieve their potential.
To discuss this topic, we organized the Diversity Snacks & Drinks Symposium. Several colleagues shared and discussed the latest ideas about diversity and inclusion. And HR professionals of our university talked about their views and policies and the university’s plans to foster diversity and inclusion. This allowed us to learn about the specific issues related to diversity in a university context.
The speakers were:
- Tanya Bondarouk (head of HRM chair; 30 years HRM)
- Maarten Renkema (researcher HRM; on diversity research)
- Nicole Torka and Annemiek Baars (HR UT; HR policies)
- Carla Millar (Ambassadors Network)
- Eric Louis and Alex Jonkhart (Pride Platform)
- Veronica Junjan (FFNT: Female Faculty Network Twente)
To conclude, it is our believe that a diverse and inclusive workforce can contribute to sustainable business performance, because it offers access to the greatest number of ideas and the flourishing of talents to reach their full potential. To enable employees to reach this, an inclusive organizational culture is necessary, which gives equal opportunities and participation of every employee regardless of cultural background, gender, ethnicity, (dis)ability, age, religion or sexual orientation.
We thank all speakers and participants for their presence!
