Guest Blog - Hend Halim - A Sense of Belonging
Hello Colleagues,
My name is Hend Halim and I am delighted to be taking over Bev’s CEO blog this week to talk about belonging and what that means to me and some of the key people in our D&I Council. For those who don’t know me I work in the People Team, responsible for D&I, Engagement and Wellbeing, three hugely important topics which all enable Harvey Nash Group to create a sense of belonging for you, I hope.
When I think of home, I feel Love, Warmth and Safety. Four months ago, when I started my role at Harvey Nash Group I felt at home and connected to everyone in the business regardless of our distant geographical locations. I was fascinated by belonging to a beehive organism, an organisation where everyone works collaboratively on a mission to make the sweetest honey ever in a harmonious way orchestrated by our Senior leaders.
At Harvey Nash Group we want to continue to learn from our colleagues and which is why we formed a global Diversity and Inclusion Council to help us shape our global and local strategies for talent acquisition, inclusive leadership and laying a foundation for an anti-discriminatory culture. We welcome your stories; your perspectives and feelings are wanted here, and we know we can learn together with you.
We will walk the talk and we are launching next week our full D&I Strategy, which will not just be paper that gathers dust! The freedom to be yourself is liberating and enables creativity in every possible way, but why not also hear from Akeesh our D&I Co-Chair and leads EthNASHity our Race and Ethnicity Network and Elli who leads our Women@Nash Network.
Akeesh Khokhar: As the Co-Chair of the D&I council, it is one of the most rewarding parts of my job at Harvey Nash. The council provides a great platform to promote change, inclusivity and also adopt new processes internally for a better place to work. Although, HN can’t get much better. The council is a group whereby we can really enable a sense of belonging to the company and the organisation as one body. The council provides a safe platform to bring in best practices, enabling us to learn from the lived experiences of our colleagues and really invest into our future and the future of the organisation. The council has been together for just over a year and we are all on the same page with our trajectory. It is the best time to join us as we have the full backing of the Ex-Co, the Board and SMT in our regions across the Globe.
Elisabeth Fruehwirth: For me, the feeling of being able to be myself at work (with all my quirkiness and non work-related skills & knowledge) while still feeling accepted and included by my colleagues makes all the difference to me. It’s what separates just doing a job for a company from bringing my best to the table and enjoying the co-creation with my colleagues and clients.
The Employee Resource Groups are completely new to Harvey Nash Group. It’s our chance to help shape our workforce and contribute actively. We are encouraging anyone who can spare a one to two hours a month to help everyone feel like they belong, we have our main pillars in the council and these Employee Networks are a branch of the work the council is doing.
If you are reading this! And have a smile on your face! Please click the link and we would love to get you involved 😊
https://forms.office.com/r/qZ6v6GruNU
For any Employee Network questions or inquiries please contact:
akeesh.khokhar@HarveyNash.com or hend.halim@harveynash.com
Thank you,
Hend, Akeesh & Elli