In June the murder of George Floyd shone a light on the institutionalised racism in our society and a number of our Venn Group colleagues felt incredible anger and hurt as this brought back some bitter memories of their own experiences. It also led Venn Group to look inwards and examine our responsibility to ensure all our staff have a safe, open and inclusive environment in which to work. Our CEO Deirdra Moynihan pledged publicly that Venn Group would respond with purpose and meaning.
This commitment to do our best within Venn Group to listen and learn in order to evaluate, inform and improve our corporate and individual behaviours has led us to establish our D&I forum (which has now met twice), share stories and knowledge to educate and last week retain the services of Avenir our D&I Partner who will support us through our journey.
Avenir will be crafting an inclusion programme designed specifically for us to ensure inclusive culture practices and behaviours are embedded and sustained.
Avenir have met with our directors and led the D&I forum to gain insight into our organisation and understand where our starting point is. From here they will work in partnership with us to begin designing our programme.
Nadia Nagamootoo the founder of Avenir and lead on our programme commented “We are honoured to be working in partnership with Venn Group, where we have immediately seen a genuine desire to learn, be curious and openminded about different experiences in the organisation. Most importantly, there is active participation at all levels to change and develop an inclusive culture. Our role is to guide, advise and facilitate Venn Group on this journey that will no doubt lead to a healthier, happier and more successful organisation”.
Avtar Singh who has been driving our Diversity & Inclusion strategy stated “I am really looking forward to working with our chosen strategic partner Avenir to help us on our journey ahead .They have an impressive client portfolio and have a track record in the field of D&I delivery, culture change and leadership development. I am sure Nadia and her team will make a big impact driving change and education within Venn Group”.
We are just at the start of our journey and are excited that the momentum gained in June and July will be sustained and supported by this authentic and passionate firm.