In honour of International Women’s Day 2023, Talenza hosted a webinar with Sugandha Bhargava Chapman from Inkling Group to explore the process of diversity and inclusion in the workplace, and the role of active allies in creating inclusive organisations that attract and nurture talent from diverse backgrounds. You can watch the webinar here. 

What does allyship look like in the workplace? 

Sugandha says that how we behave in the workplace is the key enabler that determines whether we see true progress with diversity across the organisation. That’s why allies play an important role in creating and building inclusive cultures. 

Allyship is when someone is aware of, and uses, their advantaged position to continuously and actively support people in less advantaged positions. It can look like: 

• using your seniority or positional power to speak up for others 
• understanding barriers and advocating change 
• mentoring or sponsoring employees from diverse backgrounds. 

But Sugandha cautions that what we tend to see with allyship is a gap between intent and action. Active allies believe inequality exists and take active actions daily to speak up, advocate and challenge systems, policies, and practices. On the other hand, passive allies believe that inequality exists but aren’t yet taking daily actions to do anything about it.  

What allyship isn’t 

Nurturing diversity, inclusion and belonging in the workplace isn’t a quick one-off fix. And it’s not something that can be done with just talking and positive intentions. People are tired of hearing diversity promises that lack action and impact.

Sugandha explains performative allyship as looking like: 

1. One and done events, speakers, and donations when convenient. 
2. Asking for feedback but silencing employees or being defensive when feedback is provided.  
3. Asking those with marginalised identities to do emotional labour without support. 
4. Having a public DEI mission statement but no internal policies and systems to create change. 
5. Saying yes to siloed DEI efforts but not baking these efforts into strategic goals and plans. 

How to turn allyship into action 

Anyone can be an ally. Our power and privilege are at the centre of our allyship. The three foundational factors that underpin the active allyship framework are: 

1. Awareness 

• Recognise where and how you have power and privilege. 
• How does your identity influence how you experience your workplace and the world? 
• Who are you intentionally/unintentionally leaving out of a meeting, email, or decision-making process? 
• Do you feel confident/comfortable addressing problematic behaviours or statements? 
• Embrace the discomfort this all brings and label your advantage. 

2. Alignment 

• Self-reflect and be willing to learn more about yourself and how allyship aligns with your personal values and the organisation’s values. 
• Assess what you are doing well and what can be done better. 

3. Action 

• Apply what you’ve learned about yourself into everyday actions. 
• Develop your own Action Plan that you or your organisation can do to become more action oriented. 

Taking action 

We only make impact when we commit to action every day. Here are three things we can all do in our everyday interactions to better support those from underrepresented groups: 

Speak up: 

1. Amplify the voices that haven’t been heard in meetings and project briefings (‘Sarah, would you like to share any thoughts?’). 
2. Circle back to valuable points raised by quieter voices that often get interrupted or lost in the noise (‘I’d like to return to Sarah’s idea and flesh that out more.’). 
3. When you see biases, barriers, or prejudice in action, explore with curiosity and call it out. For example, traditional expectations of women are that they are warm and nurturing. While these traits make them more likable, they’re considered less competent as leaders. On the flip, when women are assertive and take charge, they’re seen as more competent leaders, but tend to be disliked. 

Extend opportunities: 

Introduce sponsorship programs – Leaders with a position of power and influence can leverage it in a formal sponsorship program to help people from diverse backgrounds amplify their careers. 

Change systems: 

At the organisational level, align on a vision, challenge the systems (e.g., recruitment and hiring, recognition and advancement), and follow through with actions, measurable outcomes, and accountability. 

Not sure where to start your DEIB journey? 

Access Inkling’s free DEIB maturity tool to identify where your organisation is at – and where you need to start taking action. 

It’s our responsibility to be allies  

As we’ve learned in this webinar by Inkling, we all possess different levels of privilege. While in this position of privilege, it’s important that we all do our part to support those who aren’t in that same position. 

While there are a lot of frameworks around this, for us it’s really about treating people with kindness and respect. The idea of Talenza was born from the notion to ‘move people’s lives forward’ and we can only do that by supporting each other to grow together. 

For us, allyship and true belonging doesn’t just sit with leadership. It is something that’s expected of all employees to make sure we are supporting each other at every step of the employee journey. 

Who are you an ally to in your organisation?  

Watch the webinar replay 

You can catch the webinar replay here for a deeper dive on using allyship to foster diversity, inclusion and belonging in your workplace.