“Every employee should feel welcome and feel included, and be in an environment where they can be their most authentic self,” said Lisa Dolan, Teleperformance’s Senior Vice President of Employee Engagement and Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, in a CSR Talks that explored the topic of cultural diversity.

Ensuring a fair work environment for all means understanding that workplace diversity isn’t only limited to how employees identify themselves based on race, or gender. Workplace diversity encompasses all the ways in which employees are unique, including age, sexual orientation, religion, ethnicity, physical or mental abilities, or socio-economic status. The key is accepting these differences, and creating spaces where employees’ differences can thrive in a respectful and thriving environment.

United Cultures of Teleperformance

Present in 170 countries, Teleperformance has over 420,000 employees who each have a story and a unique voice. In our CSR Talks, Lisa explained how a big company like Teleperformance embraces the true meaning of diversity. “At Teleperformance, one of the things that we understand is that everybody has taken a different journey in life,” Lisa shared. “For us, we have to take those categories of diverse talent skills, different perspectives… because if we don’t take that, we won’t create the right environment and that true sense of belonging.”

Teleperformance’s wide global footprint brings in a diverse mix of cultures and character. How then, is Teleperformance being proactive in embracing diversity? “We do a continuous listening approach, where every day, we listen to our employees. They’re telling us what support they need, what programs they want us to put in place, what HR and Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DE&I) teams can do to help support them,” Lisa stated. “We also need to have a better understanding of our people’s demographics, and ensure that we have mechanisms in place to have a two-way communication, and programs and activities where everybody can participate if they want to.”

To further create a true sense of safe spaces and to ensure inclusion across all diversities at Teleperformance, Employee Resource Groups (ERGs) are formed. These ERGs are led by our employees for our employees, in order to raise awareness about important issues and topics around diversity.

“Treat Other People as They Want to be Treated”

Joining Lisa in the CSR Talks is CallMiner’s Rick Britt, Vice President of AI. CallMiner, a conversation intelligence provider, has allowed Teleperformance to better understand customer interactions through analytics and data. Like Teleperformance, CallMiner is passionate about diversity and inclusion. According to Britt, it’s all about supporting employees the way they need to be supported. “Treat other people as they want to be treated,” Britt said.”

Constantly on the lookout to also raise important awareness on diversity and equality, CallMiner makes it a point to educate its employees and encourages open communication. “We’re focused on education. We teach our organization a common framework, a common foundation that we can all use to discuss these things,” Britt elaborated. “We’re also working on those discussions, and (acknowledging that) safe places need to exist, where people can come together to talk about a variety of topics in a safe environment. It allows us to unpack our own baggage.”

Join Lisa and Rick as they explore how to ensure a fair workplace and talk about a variety of topics on diversity and inclusion. Watch our CSR Talks on LinkedIn.