Some years ago, businesses struggled with gender equality in the workplace (a lot of companies aren’t there yet, but things have definitely changed ).
Today, we’re fighting for diversity & inclusion in the workplace. In a conversation with Spain’s top HR expert Javier Arribas Perlines, he shared his opinion which was published in the La Expansion Newspaper (in Spanish) with me.
He says, “Hoy las empresas tienen que enriquecerse con aportaciones interculturales, el no hacerlo sería cometer el mismo error que se produjo cuando las empresas no valoraron correctamente lo enriquecedor que era la plena igualdad entre hombre y mujeres y la total integración en el mundo laboral de éstas. Hoy una empresa internacional no puede ser sostenible si en sus órganos de gobierno no existe la plena integración tanto de género como intercultural.”
Translated as:
Today companies have to enrich themselves with intercultural contributions. Failing to do so would be to make the same mistake that occurred when companies did not correctly assess how enriching the full equality between men and women was and the total integration into their working world. Today an international company cannot be sustainable if in its governing bodies there is no full integration of both gender and intercultural balance.
“companies have to enrich themselves with intercultural contributions”
Javier Arribas Perlines
And, Mr Arribas is right in his assessment. It’s simple, any organisation that considers itself an international organisation or that aspires to be must foster a multicultural/intercultural working environment. If we don’t become intentional about opening our doors to people who do not look like us, people whose culture is different from ours, we’ll only be shortchanging our success.
Upside Africa is a non-profit organization and as such our activities are privately funded. We rely on donations from sponsors who have a desire to promote entrepreneurial venture across the African continent.