As Pride Month comes to an end, it’s an opportunity for us to reflect on the significance of this time and reaffirm our dedication to true #diversity, #equity, #inclusion and #belonging #DEIB. Pride Month is more than just a series of celebrations; it's a powerful reminder of the progress we have made and the work that remains. While the festivities are essential for raising awareness and fostering community, we strongly believe that the essence of Pride extends beyond June, and has long been an integral part of our daily lives and in our organisational #culture.
The Importance of Pride Month
This month is a time to honour the courage and resilience of those who have fought for equity, to celebrate the diversity within the LGBTQIA+ community, and to continue advocating for a more inclusive world. The colourful parades, events, and flag-bearing days are crucial for visibility and awareness, but it extends far beyond this.?
Across GiG Platform & Sportsbook our teams include over 33 nationalities, and we are all different. We know that by attracting a more diverse workforce, our company, its products and services, all benefit from diversity of perspective and thinking. From our hiring practices to our retention initiatives, we are constantly looking to better what we did before. We strive to ensure DEIB is a daily reality, not just a seasonal celebration, as real progress comes from making tangible and measurable improvements. This involves ongoing efforts to review and improve our practices, policies and procedures to promote inclusivity across all dimensions—gender, sexual orientation, age, nationality, ethnicity, religion, and disability. Over the past year, our people team has been meticulously reviewing every aspect of our operations to ensure they align with our DEIB goals.
Policy and procedure review: We constantly review our hiring practices, promotion criteria, and workplace policies to continue our commitment to eliminating biases and fostering equity.
Training and Education: Through education and working closely with organisations like All-in-Diversity as a founding member, and previous work with the world renowned Stress Management Society, we focus on our people’s awareness, mindset, resilience and five pillars of well-being.
Support systems: We have enhanced support systems by our People team, to offer support for people as much as possible.?
Communication: We always ensure our communication is inclusive, diverse in perspective and respectful.?
Feedback and accountability: We have channels for feedback, including a whistleblowing platform, and send monthly surveys for people to send us anonymous feedback, and we use such feedback to drive continuous improvement.
The spirit of Pride should be celebrated every day. This means demonstrating our commitment to DEIB in our daily interactions, decisions, and actions. By embedding these values into our organisational culture, we ensure that every individual feels valued and included, regardless of their background. We recognise that there is always room for improvement, and we are committed to ongoing efforts to enhance our DEIB practices. This commitment involves continuously seeking feedback, learning from our experiences, and adapting our strategies to create a more inclusive environment.
Our two DEI Goals: A path to greater inclusion
- Increase diversity of thinking and perspective by recruiting from an increasingly diverse talent pool and retaining the best talent
- Break down more barriers and bias by increasing development and education opportunities in our workforce and in our communities, utilising current programmes and creating progression initiatives.
Here are a few initiatives we've introduced that could serve as valuable examples of our commitment to DEI practices:
- DEI developments in Talent Acquisition: The team have reviewed all job descriptions, templates and external communications, trained hiring manager on unconscious biases, joined the Diversity and Inclusion network in Malta, initiated discussion on collaboration with the Right of The Person with Disabilities, sourced certifications / external training for Talent Acquisition Partners and HR and explored various platforms and websites to network and increase diversity in our organisation, and looked into organisations / platforms supporting women in leadership/ tech communities.
- Our numbers: Since the operational spin off, GiG Platform & Sportsbook gender diversity statistics have changed as the company has a heavy reliance on tech and is 29% females to 71% males. This gives our teams a great opportunity to dig deeper into supporting women into tech and our industry, through grassroots education programmes and other similar initiatives to attract them to our industry. We will update these numbers in our quarterly and annual reports.
- Benchmarked our practices. As a founding member of All-in Diversity Project, which is an international not for profit focusing on DEI in the workplace and how to translate strategy into action, we proudly open our doors and take part in this benchmarking process annually. Kelly Kehn, Co-Founder of All-in Diversity said: Gaming Innovation Group has been a pivotal part of the conversation since 2018, not only recognising the importance of Diversity, Equality, Inclusion and Belonging as part of their business strategy but also serving as a beacon of change for others, through initiatives such as their 'GiG Allies' programme - an internal network supporting the personal and professional development of women in the organisation, including leadership training and succession planning. GiG is also a visible participant in cross-sector initiatives such as the All-Index, an annual report which seeks to benchmark diversity and inclusion across the industry, as well as International Women's Day, Pride and International Men’s Day. At a time when social governance forms a critical component of any serious sustainability strategy, GiG has taken the lead in placing the role of women within the workplace front and centre, highlighting the challenges and then going on to identify and implement solutions that support and sustain gender parity in the workplace, continuing to be a role model for best practice across all industries and all sectors.''
- Collected over 31,800 pieces of feedback from monthly engagement surveys. Every month, we send out a 12 question engagement survey, so we can inform decisions and monitor overall engagement and areas for improvement.
- Well-being #Together. Everyone’s journey to achieving balanced well-being is different and personal. Our approach to wellbeing is holistic and company-wide and supported through industry leading policies like The Right To Disconnect, Flexiworking, GiG Health and Well-being, and our Well-being allowance and more, with focus on personal resilience. Our goal is to give our people the tools to evaluate their well-being, and enable them to travel on their personal journey to achieve their ultimate balance
- Protecting Human Rights through policy. The people and operational teams consistently review and update all policies, ensuring GiG protects and respects the human rights of its employees and partners. From Diversity Equity and Inclusion, Health and Well-being, Right to disconnect, Flexi-working, Harassment and Bullying, Grievance, and Code of Conduct, to Whistleblowing, AML, Insider Trading and Infosec plus many more - we review and update constantly.?
- Training and education. We believe in developing our people through investment in education and performance management support. Over 2500 courses were completed in 2023, with 52 new courses published on our internal GiGsters Academy. Leadership training has been at the centre of our focus for some time, with two leadership courses running concurrently called Leaders of Tomorrow and Senior Leadership Programme, educating our leaders on things like Critical Challenger Thinking, Unconscious Bias, Leading with Empathy and many more topics integral to great leadership.
As we conclude Pride Month, let us carry forward its spirit and continue working towards true diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging. Our commitment to these values must be evident every day, in every policy, procedure, and interaction. By making tangible and measurable improvements and striving for continuous growth, we honor the legacy of those who have fought for equity and pave the way for a more inclusive future.
#PrideMonth #DEI #Diversity #Equity #Inclusion #Belonging
