Distinguished company
HR-ON’s Leadership Lounge was inspirational and informative. Around 45 executives and specifically invited people attended the event at HR-ON’s head office in the Odense Banegård Center on Thursday evening. One of the main aims was to inspire people by showing how diversity creates value and innovation for companies.
This Leadership Lounge event linked to the Odense Diversity Charter (website in Danish), was hosted by HR-ON in cooperation with Odense Municipality.
Odense Diversity Charter is a local version of the European Diversity Charter. The purpose of the Charter is to promote diversity in organizations and businesses. In Odense, approximately 140 organizations have signed and agreed that they want to work towards greater diversity in their organization. One of the first organizations to sign was tonight’s host, HR-ON.
Both businesswoman Stine Bosse and owner of ‘Thornico and Hummel’ Christian Stadil have previously visited the Leadership Lounge event in Odense. They give their support and knowledge about diversity in their organizations – and how it has created value.
At HR-ON’s Leadership Lounge, there was a focus on Grundfos’ work on diversity.
Watch a short video from the event below:
Winner of the CSR Prize
Mogens Lindhard, who is Head of Global Social Responsibility in Grundfos, was in full agreement with what was said at the Leader Lounge about the measures and actions taken by the pump giant to promote diversity. And the reason why they have succeeded so well is that Grundfos has made diversity and inclusion a key ingredient for their success.
The company has just won the CSR Award for their work on diversity and inclusion. The CSR is an award which recognizes companies which take social responsibility.
The primary school teacher, the shepherd and the football player
The evening’s host explained why diversity has been an important part of the company’s recruitment strategy. As well as how vital a diverse team is to the company’s success.
The software company has employed approximately 20 employees and also expects to hire new employees in the coming year.
“Diversity, with the variety of points of view and input it provides, is one of the cornerstones of HR-ON’s success,” said the company’s CEO, Ali E. Cevik.
Ali E. Cevik explained that he was a sheep shepherd before coming to Denmark. Despite now being the CEO of an IT company, Ali E. Cevik has a social education background in which he studied Social Studies and Russian.
PR and Communications Director, Rasmus Festersen, who has a background as a professional footballer, said that HR-ON’s staff comprises of female developers, eight different nationalities, professionals educated in humanities, interns and also a former primary school teacher. These different inputs helped to make the event an inspirational and informative Leadership Lounge.
Innovation and development are the most important
During the evening’s Leadership Lounge, a short survey was conducted with the help of HR-ON’s digital tool, the AppBuilder. This helped to show the participants’ views on diversity and why it is interesting.
Among other things, participants were asked what was the most important value for diversity in their particular organization. The answer was very clear and unambiguous; 62 percent responded that development, innovation and creativity are the primary reasons for why diversity is important in their organization. The participant survey also showed that the majority of participants perceived their organization as diverse.
How the different companies view diversity was deeply discussed during the Leadership Lounge. The results of the participant survey produced many different reflections on how diversity can be viewed and worked on in practice. Both the representatives of the Municipality of Odense and the participants in the Odense Diversity Charter Leader Lounge left the event feeling inspired.
Also read: How to create a diverse workplace
