We believe that individual perspectives provided by a wide range of lived experience enriches not just our business, but also us as individuals. We’re committed to broadening the diversity of our team and ensuring that we maintain an inclusive environment that supports and respects our employees and customers.
Diversity represents differences between people. Committing to a diverse company means we value and seek out these differences, both within our team and our customers. Most often, diversity is identified through various social categories like race, age, gender identity, sexual orientation, socioeconomic background, physical disabilities, and more.
Inclusion means providing a safe and welcoming environment for the people we interact with. This is represented through our values, policies, and most importantly, our actions. Having a diverse team means nothing if we can’t all thrive here equally.
In Kim Crayton’s 2018 article titled , “Diversity” and “inclusion” aren’t interchangeable. Here’s how to use them correctly, she defines diversity as variety and inclusion as experience. (The article is well-worth a read as she defines and elaborates several terms used here.) For a discussion of diversity and inclusion in the workplace, you can also watch this 17-minute video, Practical diversity: taking inclusion from theory to practice presented by Dawn Bennett-Alexander.
While our team does have some diversity, we recognize that building a diverse and inclusive workplace requires continued effort and is never ‘done’. We are committed to specifically seeking out diverse candidates and continually learning how to improve the environment we provide.
Ways we encourage inclusion at Osio Labs:
- We have a flexible work day and work week so everyone can have a schedule that fits into the reality of their lives.
- We ask for and list people’s pronouns in our handbook.
- We openly support team members suffering from mental health issues the same way that we support physical illness.
- We recognize that having a family (in whatever form that takes) has its own time and energy commitments, and we work to be flexible and supportive of those needs.
We also recognize that we can say a lot of nice things, but we also need to be accountable for our actions, both as a company and as individuals. We recognize the difference between intent and impact. By that, we mean that we believe words can have an impact on someone, whether or not the intent was good. We also know people make mistakes and can learn through listening and sincere apology.
To better understand the difference between intent and impact, and why it matters, you can watch this 2.5-minute video Intention vs. Impact presented by Dr. Cheryl Ingram and/or read the article Intent vs. impact: Why does it matter in an inclusive workplace? by DiversityEdu. To learn what a sincere apology means, read It’s Time We All Learned the 5 Rules for Apologizing Like an Adult by Kells McPhillips.
If anyone has suggestions for ways to improve our diversity and inclusivity, you can always reach out to the team, the CEO, and/or the board. If there is something that is specifically wrong or crossing into harassment, you should lodge a complaint.
To learn more on a variety of diversity and inclusion topics, we’ve found the Drupal Diversity resources to be very helpful. They provide a searchable list of resources that focus on communities and technology in particular.