Category: Diversity Blog

“Why Don’t We Just Google Diversity Calendar?”

We recently had a follow-up meeting with a major company in the healthcare industry. Our contact, who is eager to subscribe, told us management questioned the need for our subscription Diversity Calendar. “Why don’t we just Google it?, they asked.

Great question. Google is a fantastic product, but here’s why relying on Google for your inclusive scheduling is a bad idea.

1) What will you Google? First, you need to know what to Google. How will your team know – for example – that Eid al-Fitr is important, and when to Google it? We’re the world’s leading Diversity Calendar experts: we collate nearly 2,000 different events, and then create a custom calendar for you.

2) Fact Errors, Wrong Dates and more – Let’s say you Google “Diversity Calendar.” Google is a great product, but free blog posts are not, and you get what you pay for. Recently I Googled the event below. The date is wrong (it’s September 22, not August). Bloggers tend to plagiarize each other, so when one free blog post has the wrong date, so do others. If your senior management doesn’t mind embarrassing themselves with your female employees, this free blog post will do fine. This free website also had all the dates for the Easter cycle wrong; Easter happens to be the most important event in the world’s #1 religion.

3) What Do You Say? Let’s say you find out the correct date for say, Yom Kippur. Now what? What is Yom Kippur? And what will you say to your Jewish colleagues or customers? Here’s a hint: don’t say happy Yom Kippur, unless you wish to embarrass yourself and your associates.

4. And More Fact Errors – Another website is very popular and ranks well, sometimes #1 in Google. Yet it’s full of mistakes. Below you’ll see the same event, listed two different ways, on two different dates, and both dates are wrong.

Apparently this expert blogger – and #1 Google hit – does not realize that Muslim and Islamic are the same thing, and has no clue that Hijri is the Muslim lunar calendar system. Islam is the world’s 2nd largest religion. If your senior leadership doesn’t mind wishing Muslims a Happy New Year roughly 11 or 21 days late (or both!), there’s no need for our product.

Conclusion

Amazon recently subscribed to our Diversity Calendar for all 1.5 million employees. Their subscription cost is high, much higher than yours. They could easily afford to hire an entire department to do this work. But they rely on us, because we are the world’s #1 experts on this topic.

If your leadership team has an abundance of time, they know what to Google, can afford spending all day Googling various diversity events, and don’t mind getting dates/facts/greetings wrong, great. You’ll save some money, perhaps equal to the cost of typical business lunch for your leadership. #Winning.

But if  your leadership team has higher priority work, and is interested in accuracy and saying the right thing at the right time, to people of different religion and cultures, we’re here to help. Enjoy a free trial of our Diversity Calendar suite.

Below you’ll find a small sampling of our March diversity calendar events – to see all 100+ events this year, see our interactive online DEI Calendar.

This is the month that spring rolls in, and as you (hopefully) welcome warmer weather, you can welcome more inclusion into your workplace. A great way to do this is by adding a few new diversity days to your workplace calendar. March celebrates everything from women to religious traditions to the elimination of racial discrimination. Here’s how you can celebrate.

Women’s History Month

Happy Women’s History Month! This month honors the role that women like Dorothea Dix, Susan B. Anthony, Jane Cooke Wright, Mary Tape and so many others have played in American history. Consider hosting an event at your workplace to celebrate women. You could invite female business leaders or nonprofit founder to speak as well.

March 8: International Women’s Day

This is another stellar opportunity to celebrate the women in your workplace. This day specifically highlights the political, cultural and economic achievements of women. To celebrate, you can do something as simple such as reaching out to a woman who has inspired you at work. A nice note letting a mentor, teacher or family member know about their impact can be so powerful.

March 8: Holi

Known as the “Festival of Colors,” this Hindu holiday celebrates the winter harvest and the onset of spring. Weather permitting, consider hosting your friends and family in your backyard or driveway with brightly colored decorations. Hindu families will often get colored powders to throw and smear on their faces during the festivities.

Keep up to date with other religious observances with our 2023 Interfaith calendar 

March 10: Harriet Tubman’s Birthday

Happy Birthday, Harriet! As an American abolitionist, she’s known for saving a reported 70 people through the Underground Railroad. The Underground Railroad was a network of African American and white people who offered shelter and aid to escaped slaves from the South. Download or borrow a library book to read more about her life.

March 17: St. Patrick’s Day

While St. Patrick’s Day is celebrated around the world, it’s primarily a celebration of the saint who brought Christianity to Ireland. Consider toasting a pint of Guinness or making a traditional Irish recipe to enjoy this holiday!

March 21: International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination

This day commemorates the date in 1960 that police opened fire on and killed 69 people at a peaceful demonstration against “pass laws” in Sharpeville, South Africa. The day aims to convey a simple message — using your voice can be a powerful vehicle against racism. Your employees can honor this day by reflecting on biases in your workplace, and considering where they may have originated.

Looking for Diversity Training in the Workplace? Discover more with our D&I training suite

March 22 to April 21: Ramadan

Ramadan — an annual observance for Muslims worldwide — falls in the ninth month of the Islamic calendar. During this time, Muslims abstain from eating or drinking from dawn until dusk. If you’re not Muslim, but you want to see what Ramadan is like, you can try abstaining from eating from dawn until dusk and break the fast with an evening meal called iftar.

Final Thoughts

That concludes the diversity events for the month of March. Becoming more aware of the cultural and religious dates that others are celebrating will create a more aware and inclusive workplace.

Get a head start on next month with our April Diversity Calendar. Or enjoy the rest of the year with our 2023 Diversity Calendar.

George Floyd was murdered on May 25, 2020, resulting in an immense response worldwide. In the U.S., citizens took to the streets and expressed anger through protests, giving birth to the Black Lives Matter movement.

During this period, many businesses made public statements against racism and injustice. Many companies voiced a desired to boost support for diversity, equity, and inclusion in response to the movement.

Today we’re nearly 2.5 years out from Floyd’s death, and we’ll highlight how DEI has and hasn’t changed.

Workplace DEI: Sustainable or Performative?

In the wake of Black Lives Matter, companies sought to illustrate their commitment to diversity and inclusion. They did this by, for example, promising the following:

• Making hiring practices more equitable
• Selecting vendors that support D&I
• Financial commitments ($50 billion overall)

Unfortunately, some of these promises were not sincere. Companies like Wells Fargo and the NFL have been accused of conducting sham interviews of candidates with diverse backgrounds, after positions were already filled. In other words, they never intended to hire these candidates; they simply held them to meet their stated diversity objectives.

Furthermore, although U.S. companies pledged $50 billion toward racial equity, only $250 million has been spent toward that specific initiative, according to the firm Creative Investment Research.

Make DEI Mission-Critical, Not Peripheral

DEI training in the workplace is often treated as a task to be done when there’s additional time. One way to ingrain DEI into your organization’s genetic code, is by hiring or expanding your DEI leadership. Job roles such as Chief Diversity Officer, with a dedicated team, will help ensure that DEI is core work, rather than elective.

Another way to do this is by including a DEI section in performance evaluations. When you tie DEI work to rewards (i.e., pay, promotion, bonuses), it becomes central to people’s daily jobs rather than an afterthought.

Make DEI Real

Performance activism is dangerous. It’s unhelpful at best, and at worst, it’s detrimental. It makes social justice trendy while simultaneously killing the movement of actual social progress. Companies must do more than send an email, schedule an extra interview for a candidate they won’t hire, or pledge funds they won’t spend.

This leads employees to believe that their employer is doing more than they actually are. For employees that choose to work for companies in part because of their alleged DEI initiatives, this can not only be incredibly disappointing but unfair.

Focus on Behavior-Based DEI Training

The DEI efforts in your workplace cannot simply be geared toward increasing awareness or changing attitudes. For it to be effective, training must be behavior-based so that employees (managers included) can see appropriate behaviors modeled and learn how to conduct themselves properly in the workplace.

Final Thoughts

Activism takes time and change requires effort. It doesn’t happen overnight, and it often requires an overhaul of what’s always been done. The racial justice movement ignited in 2020 shouldn’t be a passing trend; it’s worthy of being ingrained in our society and business forevermore.