Navigating Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion from a Lens of a Beauty Tech Company

Kingley Lim, Head of Talent Acquisition, DE&I Lead Singapore, L'Oréal

When people of all identities, cultures and backgrounds are accepted and valued, this makes for stronger companies and more harmonious communities.Diverse teams with diverse perspectives are more adept at understanding different ideals of perceptions, serving a diverse range of consumers and seizing opportunities. And at L'Oréal, a company with over 86,000 employees globally across 35 international brands with presence in 150 countries values DE&I as it fuels the innovation, inspiration and ambition that helps us to create the beauty that moves the world.

In a multigenerational workforce,we embraced DE&I since 1960s and ever since we just gone stronger and better by having enhanced partnership and collaboration across all functions, divisions, and teams. The duty is not just HR but everyone within the group. We encourage employees to share perspectives andinsights where they feel safe and supported that createsopportunities for relationship-building and innovation- a culture that celebrates diversity, equity,and inclusion in the workplace.

For companies that are planning to implement DE&I into their culture.Firstly, strategic planning by having strong support from the senior leadership team is important, while ensuring the strategies are aligned to the global DE&I direction and objectives and then decentralizing to the local markets. Next, instilling DE&I culture and mindset for all employees in their daily work with a sense of purpose. Most importantly, driving DE&I awareness in all organization policies and people decisions, which inspire and lead opinions for all DE&I practices- DE&I is a strategic business enabler and the importance to walk the talk. And in return, you will be able to build strong partnerships with external and internal ecosystems to impact employees, partners, consumers, and the local community.

We can look at using this simple concept with 5 pillars- AICER

1. Awareness

2. Integration

3. Community

4. Engagement

5. Re- awareness

Awareness- Obstacles to diversity are lack of awareness, perception of this as a financial cost. This is the key pillar to strengthen the understanding and education of your employees. A simple method would be to conduct DE&I awareness workshop, training and facilitation for topics such as unconscious biases and micro aggression. And this could be conducted on a hybrid learning model, and it can start with the new comers on their induction day. Basically, don’t build fences; build bridges to ensure that typically marginalized people are given a voice and the opportunity to be their authentic selves.

“Obstacles to diversity are lack of awareness, perception of this as a financial cost.”

Integration- Ensuring DE&I topics to be included for all business presentation, brands activities and people decision. For example, incorporating DE&I into your various functional training and activations that connect with the employees, communities, and consumers. This could enrich networks and feedback loops by collaborating across boundaries whenever possible by coaching and sponsoring employees at all levels.

Community- Form a committee with diverse champions in each dimension such as women in leadership, men in leadership, lgbtqia+, disabilities and other dimensions that matter to your company to drive cultural changes. This is to ensure representation across all levels. And being an advocate for DE&I can help build strong support networksand create a sense of well-being for all employees. Advocating takestime and effort, so being fully committed to the process is important.

Engagement- With Covid restriction being lifted, hosting events no longer poses any issue. Instead, you can host events that relate to your company mission and vision, for example, celebrating Women International Day and Pride Month. Furthermore, you can also host a DE&I week with internal and external speakers to share about their best practices. And the topics could also be based on specific characteristics and shared life experiences, making them relatable to help improve company culture. This would enrich the employees to understand from both internal and external lenses, creating a more inclusive environment.

Re-awareness- With constructive feedback (Feedback culture), these would re-educate, re-design and also re-learn and re- train them on this important topic.

Basically, with this simple concept of AICER, you can start framing your DE&I objectives and this would help to instill an inclusive culture to your organizations. Lastly, to end off, I would like to share the simplified version of DE&I. Diversity is to invite people to the party, whereas equity is to ensure they are provided with the best fit shoes so that, inclusion is to invite them to dance.

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