Resilient inclusion comms strategies to withstand external pressure

While the world continues to process Donald Trump’s retaking of the presidency, communications leaders in the social impact space are also trying to figure out how their work should continue.

During Ragan’s Internal Communications Conference last month at Microsoft HQ in Redmond, Washington, Ragan Event Producer Isis Simpson-Mersha Takeda asked a trio of DE&I communications leaders what they were doing to keep the work going despite external pressure and discord.

Embedding DEI into everyday practices

Takeda US Communications Director Vanessa Charles said that the DE&I work integrated into core business operations stands to make the largest impact.

She explained how Takeda’s Inclusion Bar Raiser program embeds the DE&I principles in hiring by training employees to identify and counteract biases by assigning trained employees outside the hiring department to ensure each hiring decision aligns with the organization’s commitments.

“Every one of us has a bias,” Charles states. “It doesn’t mean we’re bad people… but unchecked biases become problematic.”

Building DE&I capacity for managers