Have you ever felt unsure of how to execute a diversity and inclusion program at work? Not sure of how to help employees who are feel excluded at office gatherings? and what to do about workplace stereotypes? If you’re answer is ‘yes’, chances are you are looking for ways to make your workplace inclusive. 

The National Human Resource Development Network (NHRDN) has partnered with Shraddhanjali Rao (VP & Head HR, SAP in India) and Bhrigu Joshi (Director-HR, SAP in India) to set up first-of-its-kind Inclusion Lab in the country. The mission of the lab is to make corporate India an  inclusive place to work.

The lab is built on the foundation of Next Gen Diversity & Inclusion (D&I) Maturity Model. As the name suggests, the model is used to profile the ‘As-Is’ and ‘To-Be’ maturity states of the organizations on D&I.  Even though lot of organizations in India have the right intent of making themselves inclusive, but unfortunately many still lack the right guidance to manifest this intention.   

Speaking to People Matters, Shraddhanjali Rao, Co-Founder of the Inclusion Lab, said, “The model will be used to help various organizations, across sectors and across life stages, to come up the maturity curve on diversity & inclusion. It will act as a catalyst to make corporate India a more inclusive place to work”. The model has been published for patent under Indian Patents Act, 1970. 

 The lab will provide assessment and advisory services to organizations that aspire to become more inclusive places to work.  The lab will focus on building state of the art thoughtware in the areas of ‘Diversity, Inclusion, Equity & Belongingness’,  by  curating the list of best practices, doing cutting edge research, publishing whitepapers in leading global journals, etc. 

The lab is scheduled  to  launch its first book titled – ‘Why Blend in when you can Stand Out? – Practitioners Guide to Diversity & Inclusion’ in Jan-21 with more than 500 unique best practices to promote diversity & inclusion in the organizations. Additionally, there are plans to conduct series of workshops & online campaigns to spread awareness on the inclusion lab. Both the Co-Founders of Inclusion Lab, Shraddhanjali and Bhrigu are full-time employees at SAP.