We’ve had a strong start with our diversity initiatives in 2024. It’s been a pleasure to host various workshops and cultural showcases throughout January and February. We’ve highlighted the key moments and workshops below.
Thank you to our fantastic team and external partners for helping to make the start of this year’s Diversity and Inclusion programme so successful.
Cultural Showcases:
Our multicultural team is one we’re exceptionally proud of. Hosting cultural showcases is an excellent way for our colleagues to teach us all about their cultures, traditions and of course, food! It has been a delight (to the tastebuds) to try so many exceptional dishes from all over the world.
Our first stop on our world tour was Latin America
We were transported to Brazil and had a brilliant opportunity to try the delicious food of our Brazilian colleagues. From feijoada to coxinha and vatapa, the plates were all clean. We also got to embrace Brazilian culture and hear some typical traditional music! The team went above and beyond to give us an insight into their culture and a massive thank you to everyone for putting so much effort in.
Next up, Mexico!
Our Mexican colleagues put an incredible amount of time and effort into their showcase and prepared burritos, tacos, quesadillas and nachos which were all devoured. It was fantastic to learn more about Mexican traditions – like music and craft traditions which were shared on the day.
The last stop for this wave of activity was Africa
Our Nigerian team members spoiled us with a meal of jollof rice, small chops, Nigerian fried rice and dodo. We got to sample a wide variety of small chops and the range of flavours was incredible. Again the time and effort put into this showcase was a testament to our colleagues, and it has been an incredibly enriching experience for all of the team to learn about various countries.
We are excited to continue our showcases and already looking forward to the next stop on our world tour!
Diversity and Inclusion Training
We are proud to embrace our Diversity and Inclusion training, our Investors in Diversity Bronze from the Irish Centre for Diversity further highlighting this.
As part of our training throughout February we hosted a range of talks and workshops including:
Mental Health & Wellbeing
An informative look at overall mental health coping strategies, the importance of self-care, and useful tools and resources for anyone who might be experiencing mental health struggles.
At GSLS we understand the need for open, honest dialogue around mental health and we ensure our team always has access to the resources they need.
Inclusive Language
Language matters and we had a fantastic opportunity to attend a talk about the power of words and ensuring that everyone feels included, valued and respected through inclusive language. This was an incredibly informative, useful talk. Our team members across all areas of the business really engaged well to really understand the impact of terminology in a lot more detail.
LGBT+ Awareness Programme
This February we also launched our LGBT+ awareness programme with Zoltan Csillag. This programme covered a range of topics from the value of LGBT+ representation to understanding the discrimination many of our LGBT+ friends and family members may still experience, and the need to be a loud and proud ally.
Summary
Our talks and workshops all weave together nicely and help to create a fuller picture of what diversity and inclusion mean in a workplace. We are proud of the team, management and everyone involved in being so open and receptive to training and the wheels are already in motion for the next phase of our EDI planning.
A massive thank you again to the wider GSLS team for making this first quarter of EDI initiatives a huge success
