What design and technology firms need to know about workplace inclusion

At Art Processors, we're always exploring and navigating ways to make each of our 103 team members feel included and valued. We understand the creative process doesn't necessarily follow a set 9 to 5 timetable. For International Women’s Day on 8 March, our Group Director of people and Culture, Shauna Gerrand , offers three ideas about creating and maintaining an inclusive, supportive, design-led workplace.

Enabling energy and time flexibility

Art Processors is a distributed workforce, with people working mainly from home across Australia and the United States. Because of this, Shauna says, 'Energy management is a big factor for us, especially across time zones. Time flexibility is significant for our people.'?

Shauna maintains that contemporary P&C processes have moved away from the traditional 'work-life balance' paradigm, where only some see balance as closing your laptop for the day at 5 pm. Instead, she suggests having the option to, as much as possible, work the hours that best suit an individual’s peaks and flows and external priorities. 'Our designers and technologists can work on multiple concurrent projects requiring heavy context switching. They can also sometimes be working with quite challenging content and material. It's about time management, energy management and time flexibility.’ For some, if inspiration tends to strike you later at night, having the option to work at that time but log on after the traditional start time the next day (perhaps after spending time with the kids at school drop-off) can be a much more realistic interpretation of balance.????

In addition to trying to prioritise time flexibility, Art Processors offers a broad range of leave entitlements and support services that suit different needs. These services lift the stress of explaining why specific leave is required, a particular issue for women trying to juggle home and work in a society that unfortunately places a high expectation of the unpaid workload associated with home life on women.?

Shauna observes that paying careful attention to specific points of difference can lessen inequality. For example, rather than giving all team members the same amount of personal leave, offering women additional support, including menstrual and menopause days off and child-care and out-of-school hour care stipends, can level the playing field. Shauna says, 'If you give people the flexibility to manage their time and also reduce the barriers that we know disproportionately impact women, they feel less torn between work and personal life, can immerse themselves in challenging and intellectually stimulating work projects, and that is a real success factor for inclusion.'

Questioning cultural relics

A big issue for women in the workplace is the likeability penalty, where they can be called ‘bossy’ or ‘aggressive’ for behaviour that slips by unchallenged for men. Shauna says, 'Women of course shouldn't be penalised for behaviours where men aren’t. But aiming for a status quo where everyone gets to be bossy or aggressive without challenge isn’t the answer either.' Instead, Shauna maintains that enabling expectations for everyone, regardless of gender, to express empathy and be curious is critical.?

‘For real inclusion to occur the norm has to be redefined and we have to be confident that the bar that appropriate behaviour is measured against isn’t an unchallenged relic of the past. We're defining a new norm that says we want everyone to co-design and build together actively. So, for our women, we're not just making it acceptable for you to be here,' says Shauna, 'we're creating our normal together.'?

Removing the burden of problem-solving

At Art Processors, listening and learning are fundamental to supporting people. From internal training in psychological safety, feedback, compassionate candour, and empathy to listening sessions with our female team members (preferably face-to-face), we monitor the pulse of what's working in the organisation and what's not. 'We ask those team members "What hasn't worked for you?" and learn from our team about what we're getting wrong.' Shauna says. ‘We’re certainly not naive enough to think we’ve solved it.’

But here's where Art Processors is adamant that while asking women what barriers they face is crucial, those problems can’t just be left to women to solve. ‘It's a leadership and business problem to solve’, Shauna says. 'If women are trying to solve broader workplace problems around cultural issues and barriers that impact them, they're not focussing on their career. So, we strive to maintain an environment that doesn’t just want women to be here, but empowers them once they are.'

A level playing field

Shaun concludes, 'Fundamentally, our inclusion practices are for each Art Processors individual, and we strive to make everyone across the company feel seen and heard. We're aspiring to the type of dynamic where a level playing field is expected, celebrated and nurtured for every individual—and it might look different to every individual!'