What It Means to Be Beautifully Diverse, Equally Important: Diversity and Inclusion in the Workplace

Written by Bea Lim, President and CEO

At TeamAsia, we believe that having a diverse workforce with amazing talents, unique personalities and an array of perspectives create magic like no other. While passion drives us, having different points of view and strengths allow TeamAsia’s purpose of making great things happen so others may succeed into a reality. We strive to create an environment that is a creative space where each TeamAsian can feel productive, validated and safe to belong. An environment that embodies true diversity and inclusion in the workplace — beautifully diverse and equally important.

While we don’t just celebrate this once a year, it’s good to establish a specific time where we can really dig in and appreciate what being beautifully diverse, equally important means. We’re always on the lookout for new and better ways we can nourish this environment, and hopefully inspire a ripple effect on partners and projects we work on.

This year, we looked into expanding our exploration into being accessible to our people with disabilities community. I vividly recall the excited phone call I received from Pam, our director for events, while she was attending the MICECon in July 2024. She was so inspired by a keynote speech by Genevieve Diokno, co-founder of Hand and Heart, a social enterprise that uplifts the lives of communities and people who are left behind. Her topic focused on how to advance diversity and inclusion in the workplace by making events more accessible to persons with disabilities. That phone call started a wonderful series of conversations both internally and with our new partners at Hand and Heart.

Our goal was simple – start expanding our DEI program and discussions to include accessibility to various communities. The first step was to make our TeamAsians aware about the importance of accessibility and empower them with tools and ways we can make our events, projects and campaigns more encompassing for our different communities. This tied beautifully with our thrust of highlighting the importance of sustainability and our commitment to ESG practices for 2025. So in April of this year, we were able to launch our DEI 101 Training Series, with particular focus on disability awareness, with the amazing ladies at Hand and Heart, Genevieve Diokno and Elyse Go.

Over a span of two half-day sessions, TeamAsians learned about the following key themes:

• Understanding Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion: This session delved into the differences between equality, equity, and justice, using examples like providing shoes that fit individuals’ needs (equity) versus giving everyone the same pair of shoes (equality). We also learned how diversity encompasses various aspects like age, disability, gender, race, sexual orientation, religion, social class, pregnancy, marriage, and solo parenthood.
  
  
• Disability Awareness and Inclusion: This portion raised awareness about the different types of disabilities (physical, sensory, intellectual, mental health, learning, developmental, chronic health, and acquired/temporary disabilities). It highlighted the importance of creating an inclusive environment that has equal opportunities for people with disabilities in workplaces and public spaces. Elyse shared a “wish list” of what should be included in our public infrastructure to be more inclusive and accessible to our communities. She also shared tools that can make communications more accessible to persons with disabilities such as interpreters, visuals aids and assistive devices. It also looked into what we should be doing as communicators to enhance diversity and inclusion in the workplace.
  
  
• Fostering a Safe and Inclusive Environment: This session touched on something very close to our hearts – the importance of a psychologically safe environment where individuals feel comfortable in voicing out concerns and asking for help without fear. This environment is crucial in encouraging people to declare their differences or disabilities.
  
  
• Challenges Faced by Deaf Individuals: We delved into the challenges and struggles of deaf people in the workplace, especially limited work opportunities and miscommunication. It was incredible to hear about Genevieve’s own experiences in the workplace and the motivation behind her amazing advocacy to empower the deaf community.

To top it all off, we all learned basic sign language and communication. This was the highlight of our sessions where TeamAsians got to learn, practice and apply our learnings through simple exercises. This training did not just give us a new skill to learn and hone; but it also truly cemented the understanding that we have so much more to cover and learn when it comes to diversity, inclusion and equity. As communicators, we are granted the beautiful mission to bring people together through our ideas, messages and platforms.

To our friends at Hand and Heart, thank you for opening your doors to TeamAsia and being our partners in exploring ways to create and sustain more accessible programs and events.

Expanding the DEI conversation from empowerment to equality to equity and now accessibility has allowed us to discover various ways to make our purpose of making great things happen for others to succeed stronger. There’s a long way to go with so much more ground to cover, but I am so happy that we have created our own community of passionate and empowered TeamAsians and partners who are so inspired to create a positive impact wherever we go.