Hiring Diverse Employees is Just the Tip of the Diversity Iceberg

AppNexus, and online advertising company, organized a panel of diversity and inclusion leaders at the 2018 Women’s Leadership Forum to discuss how to truly change the environment of inclusivity at your office. The panelists discussed that hiring candidates with diverse backgrounds, both professionally and culturally, is just the first step to changing the landscape of your workplace. In order to create a space that genuinely celebrates and encourages diversity, employees must have a sense of safety in their working environment, according to Rutgers University Professor Brittney Cooper. The panelists cited three steps towards embracing intersectional diversity: support and amplify all voices at the table, acknowledge your privilege, and practice empathy. “Anyway that we can, in our corporate spaces, make space for folks emotions, that is what we mean when we say the work of diversity and inclusion,” said Cooper.