Guided Tour | Diversity & Inclusion

Collaboration

Diversity & inclusion

Our ambition is to be a great workplace for all our employees. Being a diverse and inclusive company takes consistent effort, and there is always room to improve. That is why we have a dedicated diversity and inclusion team. One of our partners provides the team with guidance. Seven employees form the core task force, while six sub teams focus on improvements in specific areas, such as awareness and gender diversity in leadership positions.

Personality differences

An ability to understand differences in behavior and personality traits is key to great teamwork. So, as part of their onboarding program, we train new co-workers to use the DISC tool, which provides useful insights into people’s different behavioral styles and the ways in which these affect collaboration. During the training, we also provide them with practical tips and tricks they can apply on a daily basis.

Raising awareness

Our mission is to raise awareness of diversity and inspire people by bringing in new perspectives. Every few months, we organize a company-wide session on diversity and inclusion. We invite external speakers to inspire us and create room for discussion among co-workers. Examples of themes we addressed in these sessions are contemporary leadership, gender stereotypes, and biases and implicit associations.

Inclusive decision-making

Recently, we founded The Voice, an employee council IG&H style. Its members work in different departments — including consulting, digital services, and platform services — and at various hierarchical levels and have different nationalities. So, they represent everyone’s interests. The Voice is our way to involve employees in decision-making in a flexible, fast manner that suits the 21st century and IG&H’s culture. The council and the leadership team discuss proposed changes that affect everyone’s way of working, such as major strategic decisions or adjusted working conditions. We are currently organizing preliminaries. Everyone can sign up — from analyst to (non-shareholding) partner. At the end of October, employees can vote for candidates. The results will be announced during our very own live ‘show.’

Gender diversity

In our reverse mentoring program, groups of five female co-workers mentor one of the partners. The program facilitates an impactful dialogue on diversity and inclusion. To create more diversity at the top of the organization, partners coach female managers and directors on developing leadership skills.

At IG&H, everyone should feel valued and at home. To me, this is what diversity and inclusion are all about.

Linda de Jong - Consultant, Health

Linda de Jong

Consultant, Health

You are part of the Diversity & Inclusion Team. What’s your take on the subject matter?

At IG&H, everyone should feel valued and at home. To me, this is what diversity and inclusion are all about. We need to create a culture in which we, as an organization, realize we can benefit tremendously from diversity. In the past, IG&H felt like a family. Although this type of culture has its benefits, it also means you live in a bubble. In the past few years, we have expanded and injected more diversity into the company. This means we need to have diverse leadership qualities, too. Of course, adding Portugal-based co-workers to our Netherlands-based team was a major change.

How did the Diversity & Inclusion Team start?
At the end of last year, I decided I wanted to increase diversity at IG&H. What triggered me was IG&H’s expansion of its all-male partner team. I called some co-workers and talked to one of the partners. We decided to meet up with Susan Goldsworthy to share our thoughts and ideas on how to improve diversity at IG&H. When we brought up the topic with co-workers, it turned out so many of them wanted to contribute. That was really amazing. It only took a few days to form a group of approximately 40 co-workers who wanted to join the movement. They were so driven and prepared to bring about change. It was great to witness, and it confirmed to me that we were on the right track.
What was the first issue you tackled?
Diversity and inclusion are complicated topics, and there are no clear-cut solutions. First, we identified key issues and quick wins. We knew it would be a marathon rather than a sprint. Right now, we focus on gender diversity and masculine and feminine leadership. In the future, we also want to address other dimensions of diversity and inclusion, such as people with disabilities, LGBTQ, and diversity in ethnic and religious backgrounds. There is quite some work to be done, and we will need everyone’s input and energy. But I think the team has made a lot of progress this year.

Isabelle Patist

Consultant, Digital Transformation

Could you tell something about the latest awareness event on diversity & inclusion?

During our latest session — a virtual event — we took the discussion on inclusivity to the next level. With nearly 100 co-workers joining in from Portugal and the Netherlands, we organized a panel discussion with breakouts to learn about our biases.

What did the program look like?
Joining the panel were several clients and two of our partners. We discussed what IG&H can do to fully embrace diversity and inclusivity. In breakout sessions, we tested our unconscious biases with Harvard’s Implicit Association. The results raised awareness and provided room for discussion.
Why are these sessions valuable to IG&H?
We firmly believe these sessions help us create a more inclusive culture, so we can’t wait for the next one. This session in particular led to very actionable insights.

Bart Cornel

Consultant, Organization Transformation

How do you deal with personality differences?

You know how they say everyone is different? Well, it’s true. And that’s a good thing! But I think I can speak for everyone when I say it’s not always easy to understand someone who behaves differently than you would in a certain situation. Whenever this is the case, it is helpful to fathom your own behavior as well as that of the person you’re working with – whether it’s a client, an employee at the customer’s organization, or a co-worker at IG&H. That is why at IG&H, we use DISC.

Can you tell us about DISC?
DISC is a powerful tool that provides a common language we can use to better understand ourselves and change our behavior towards each other. As certified DISC trainers, me and several of my co-workers help new co-workers understand the meaning of their DISC profile. Wonder why we do this? It improves teamwork, increases self-knowledge as well as knowledge of others, and makes every day a little more fun!

How we collaborate

Open communication Smart collaboration

How did the Diversity & Inclusion Team start?

What was the first issue you tackled?

What did the program look like?

Joining the panel were several clients and two of our partners. We discussed what IG&H can do to fully embrace diversity and inclusivity. In breakout sessions, we tested our unconscious biases with Harvard’s Implicit Association. The results raised awareness and provided room for discussion.

Why are these sessions valuable to IG&H?

We firmly believe these sessions help us create a more inclusive culture, so we can’t wait for the next one. This session in particular led to very actionable insights.

Can you tell us about DISC?