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Diversity, Equity & Inclusion

Let’s Celebrate Global Diversity Awareness Month

Paul Brown
31.10.2022

This October, we celebrated Global Diversity Awareness Month – a whole thirty-one days dedicated to celebrating the multicultural society we live in today. Although, we don’t need a special occasion to appreciate diversity at FDM. Celebrating different cultures, traditions and customs is part of our ethos, and is engrained in everything we do – all year round.

We run engagement initiatives and host a number of events to recognise various causes and celebrate cultural festivals throughout the year. We continuously strive to learn more and be an all-inclusive company where each member of staff feels both safe in their work environment and appreciated for their differences.

Here’s a breakdown of some of the celebrations we’ve had so far this year:

Chinese Lunar New Year

In February, we celebrated the Chinese Lunar New Year with company-wide celebrations across FDM offices and a virtual masterclass with a Michelin-star chef. Here, we celebrated Chinese culture through food, and our FDM-ers learnt how to cook a classic dish from the Sichuan province!

FDM Consultants of the Year winners

International Women’s Day

FDM has always championed gender equality and diversity in the workplace, and we are committed to encouraging more and more women to work in STEM fields. Currently, almost 36% of management and 31% of all employees at FDM identify as female. So, as an equal opportunities company, International Women’s Day is an event close to our hearts. This year, we used this day as an opportunity to acknowledge 4 talented female consultants from our global FDM centres for making the most outstanding contributions to our clients.

Women in Tech Week

Every year, FDM is the headline sponsor for Women in Tech Week, an annual event that shines a spotlight on top-performing women across the tech space and inspires young women looking to build a career in the industry.

Over the past decade, we have also partnered with Everywoman to support diversity in the tech sector and showcase the most remarkable emerging talent and tech leadership.

Autism Awareness Day

To raise awareness for autism in the workplace, we created an informative video that we shared across our social media. We used this as an opportunity to remind everyone that there is so much more we can do to help create a more inclusive work environment for the autistic community, where everyone feels empowered, supported and valued. Find out more about autism in the workplace.

Australian Harmony Day

Food is a great way to bring people together and share culture. To celebrate cultural diversity for Australian Harmony Day, everyone in our Sydney centre brought a dish from their home country and shared a meal together, along with speaking a little bit about their different nationalities.

World Day for Cultural Diversity

Our employees work across 17 countries, have nearly 100 different nationalities and speak over 50 languages overall. We embrace the power of diverse minds working together because a culture based on diversity makes us stronger. For World Day for Cultural Diversity, we decided to celebrate this with a video featuring FDM-ers who recorded their messages about cultural harmony in their own languages. We did this to raise awareness and create an inclusive environment where everyone’s differences are recognised and appreciated.

Global Accessibility Awareness Day

More than one billion people live with some form of disability, which is why it is crucial that organisations work on boosting accessibility for all. According to the FDM UK consultant intake 2021, 5% of our consultants identify with having a disability, which makes accessibility an even higher priority for us.

For Global Accessibility Awareness Day, we created a video to spread awareness about the types of disabilities that people may have and how to use digital technologies to improve accessibility.

World Wellbeing Week

At FDM, we offer a range of wellbeing support programmes, which are available to our consultants at all times, including Wellbeing Ambassadors and Consultant Peer Support programmes. For World Wellbeing Week, we shared the 6 dimensions of wellness, where our consultant experience specialist, Aleena Fernamndez, shared her top tips for wellness. This covered all types of wellness, such as spiritual, emotional, physical, social, intellectual and environmental.

Pride Month

This year for Pride month we decided to be bold and did a social campaign featuring some of our FDM-ers holding up messages against discrimination. We spoke directly to bigots and our message was to leave behind the following behaviours if you want to move forward – it included homophobia, biphobia, transphobia, misogyny, toxic masculinity, intolerance, discrimination, harassment, violence.

At FDM our mission is to create an open and inclusive environment through education and representation. Our employee-led networks like Pride provide a platform for discussion and dialogue, support and connection with others in the community. 

Mid-Autumn festival

The Chinese Mid-Autumn Festival, also known as the Moon Festival or Mooncake Festival, is a traditional festival celebrated in Chinese culture, as well as in a few other Asian countries. Over a quarter of our consultants identify as Asian, making this an important festival for many in our offices. Enjoying a popularity similar to that of the Chinese New Year, the festival is one of the most important holidays in Chinese culture with a history that dates back over 3,000 years.

To celebrate this occasion this year, we all took the time to learn about the history of the festival and take part in some of the festival’s traditions, such as lantern-making and eating mooncakes. Find out more about our Mid-Autumn Festival celebrations.

World Mental Health Day

FDM strives to create a safe environment, so for World Mental Health Day, we encouraged our consultants to anonymously share their feelings with the wider community and express what they are grateful for. This was a great exercise to get people talking and reduce the stigma around mental health.

There are a number of ways you can help reduce the mental health stigma, both as an employer and employee, such as taking part in training or reviewing internal processes. At FDM, we support consultants with both visible and non-visible disabilities, including mental health conditions.

UK Black History Month

FDM is on a mission to break down the barriers that prevent minority groups from achieving great things. Our recruitment processes are strength-based and unbiased, and we look at a candidate’s skills and potential, no matter their background. For Black History Month, we featured some of our incredible consultants from the black community to showcase their accomplishments and give them the recognition they deserve.

Diwali

On October 24, we celebrated Diwali, the Indian festival of lights. Staff at our London office came together for an afternoon of delectable Indian food and music. We decorated ‘diyas’ (lamps), symbolising the festival and everyone got to take a diya home as a memento. We also worked together to create a beautiful rangoli. These traditional decorations are usually done outside homes using intricate designs filled in with coloured powder from natural dyes. It is believed to attract good fortune.

In our offices we used the less traditional but nonetheless bright glitter and had a lovely time!

All these celebrations are a great learning experience for us and our employees. They give us the opportunity for valuable cultural exchanges and education about all cultures and important causes. Education is the key to removing bias and creating an inclusive work environment where both employees and businesses can thrive.

This is all just scratching the surface of the work we do to recognise and appreciate the backgrounds of our employees and consultants. Find out more about our diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives.