May is ‘mental wellbeing’ month. Organizations around the world, including my favorite, Headspace, have a variety of events and launches scheduled throughout the month. However, as importantly, but not enough mentioned 19th May is also Global Accessibility Awareness Day and in some parts celebrated as Global Accessibility Awareness Month (GAAM). It thus quite fitting that … Continue reading Global Accessibility Awareness Day (GAAD)
Biases are good. Shoot me for saying that but deep inside, you know it’s true. The brain creates shortcuts (read biases/heuristics) for a reason. Some of these shortcuts are consciously wired in, some unconsciously learnt over time and some thrown in by the environment we grow up in. Are all biases good, no; but are … Continue reading The one bias to rule them all: Proximity Bias
For the past week, I have been waking up to news surrounding racial discrimination every single day. It is everywhere – on social media, the news, my inbox, phone messages and even Headspace. For the first few days, I told myself that there’s enough being said, maybe I do not need to say more. My … Continue reading We need to talk
Sometimes when you expose people to the same script over and over again, they become blasé. The effectiveness wears and it’s easier to ignore. I felt it happen to me with HR & AI. It happened with HR & technology. Then, to my dismay, it happened with diversity. Sometime in the middle of last year, … Continue reading Don’t let the conversation die
There are two major problems that the world faces today – (1) climate change and (2) societal inequality. I will refrain from talking about climate change at this point as it has gained significant conversational momentum since the Amazonian fires. What I will focus on is justice, equality and social mobility. I am a staunch … Continue reading Creating an equitable world
When in October 2017 the #MeToo movement grabbed all major headlines, many wondered if 2018 was going to be the ‘Year of the Woman’. With 2018 now closed and behind us, it is finally time to answer the question.
When it comes to gender diversity, I wonder Q1: Under the pressure of diversity, at the time of hiring, do we marginalize one gender over another? Q2: Will we hire a woman despite finding a man who performs better? Q3: Will women begin to receive an unfair advantage only because they were born a woman? … Continue reading Discrimination in the name of Diversity
When it comes to fighting discrimination at the workplace, the most popular solution that comes to mind is that of unconscious bias training. After all, if Google does it, it must work. When on April 12, 2018 a Starbucks manager called the police on two innocent men, the entire world went up in rage. Starbucks … Continue reading Does Unconscious Bias Training really work?
17 days ago, I was away on a faraway island that had no internet connectivity (hard to imagine in today’s day and age). As I sat beside the beach sipping sangria, Google employees across the globe staged a walkout. Eight days passed before I read details on what was possibly one of the biggest movement … Continue reading #GoogleWalkout
Every alternate article on the World Wide Web makes a reference to unconscious bias and discrimination in one form or another. Look hard enough and you’ll find it. There are, of course, some forms of discrimination that are referred to about more often than others are. Take for example, diversity. The words that probably come … Continue reading THE DOWNSIDE OF BEING WISER
The HR Business Partner Story 