How our Global Belonging Programme fosters unity at DICE

When National South Asian Heritage Month came to the UK in August, DICE’s Diversity, Equity and Inclusion team was keen to celebrate and show what South Asian heritage meant to them – our Global Head of DEI is Bengali, after all. And so we hosted an afternoon of music, film, and live performance for the entire London office to enjoy, catered by Dishoom. 

Over the course of the day, we blasted bhangra from the speakers and screened the Hindi-language action classic Sholay. Henna artist Fariha Akhtar painted our hands with intricate patterns, and we enjoyed a memorable performance by Tottenham singer-songwriter and sarangi player Amrit Lohia Kaur, whose style has been described as “where Aretha soul meets Punjabi folk”.

The celebration was a highlight of the summer, and just one of many initiatives put forward as part of DICE’s Global Belonging Programme. Spearheaded by our DEI team, it encompasses the many ways we stay connected with our people across all our global territories, to build a sense of belonging at work. 

We know that having a variety of perspectives makes us better people and that makes us a better company. That’s why, as part of our Global Belonging Programme, we regularly bring different leadership, department and territory-wide groups together though listening tours to hear different perspectives and provide meaningful feedback and contributions to our DEI work. We’ve recently conducted a listening tour with each of our global teams to better understand them and the territories they work in, so we can continue to enhance our Global Belonging Programme. 

Our Employee Community Groups are also integral to our Global Belonging Programme. Our ECGs exist to provide support to their members and create a sense of belonging and community. By supporting these spaces, we want to empower all our employees to bring their whole authentic selves to work, and assure them that their voices are truly heard.

In July, our Pride 365 ECG hosted a virtual panel in honour of International Non-Binary People’s Day. The speakers – DICE Client Success Specialist Mica, and Teddy Walker, an actor, writer and mental health worker – spoke openly about what it means to identify as non-binary, what challenges the community faces, and how allies can proactively show support in their day-to-day lives.

Similarly, in August, our BIPOC ECG staged a celebration of British West Indian culture in the lead up to Notting Hill Carnival in our London office, with music and a feast of French Caribbean street food from Bokit’la. And from mid-September to mid-October, we celebrate National Hispanic American Heritage Month across our US offices, recognising the achievements and contributions of Hispanic Americans. Max Batchler, our NY-based Office Manager, and team organised opportunities for the US team to get involved in-person and remotely across the entire month – from a sampling of tasty tamales, pupusas and empanadas from local restaurants to salsa lessons in the local park, and an in-office event with Puerto Rican author Adam Silvera, who read from his book They Both Die in the End. 

At DICE, we are all responsible for creating psychological safety, and our people contribute in different ways – and that includes our leaders. Our Leaders Who Learn sessions centre around DEI from a leadership perspective, exploring how our leaders have proactively engaged with DEI topics and, more importantly, what they have learnt from their exploration. It provides an opportunity to hear from our leaders directly, hold them to account to learning, see how it’s shaping their life at DICE and ensure they demonstrate their learning through action.

In September, our VP of Content for Europe, Amy Oldham, led a Leaders Who Learn session and shared her experience of her neurodiversity as a superpower. And earlier this year, our Head of Product, Praveen Das, helped us to better understand the nuances of affirmative action and how his own learnings about this topic has shaped hiring and retention at DICE. 

Not all of the Global Belonging Programme takes place in our offices. Our DEI Global Calendar, which can be accessed by all employees online, is a one-stop resource that charts and explains dates that are important to different communities and groups across DICE’s territories, from religious festivals to awareness days; and alerts everyone to related activities planned for our offices. As an extension of the Global Calendar, we also acknowledge the dates through our Weekly Digest, too, ensuring that we’re learning about why they’re important. 

Keeping people aware of key moments increases knowledge around different communities and backgrounds, and this cultivates feelings of inclusion and being seen at work. We see greater participation and a sense of belonging from our teams at all levels, and this brings greater value to diversity and equity and inclusion commitments at DICE.

As the company grows, we continue to call in our people and learn more about the cultural nuances of our global team to better understand all the things that are important to them, and truly foster belonging at DICE. 

Top photo courtesy of Charlotte Patmore.