SP: How do you try to be inclusive in your job interviews?
“Well, first of all, there’s a big difference between diversity and inclusion. To me, diversity is something that you can actually decide by yourself, e.g.: I want this and this percentage of men, women, religion,... in my company. Inclusiveness is really more about a feeling and it’s about people who feel inclusive. Diversity you can decide on, inclusiveness you have to create. It’s much more difficult and fragile.
So, when it comes to diversity, I have zero bias when I read resumes and interview people. As someone who is gay, this openness towards anyone is very important to me. And the results are there: we are a diverse agency in terms of nationalities and gender, sexual orientation and so on. I’m definitely proud of that.”
“When talking about inclusivity, as I said, it’s more of a nuance. I have to look for people who have an open mind. This means I have to balance between what I’m legally allowed to ask and what I feel is necessary to understand the viewpoints of the person in front of me. So it’s really trying to understand how open-minded and welcoming someone can be and if they will continue to do so with their colleagues. “
SP: What do you do to make people feel at ease, let them know they can be honest?
“Firstly, with all candidates, I spend a lot of time talking about Serviceplan. I talk about what we do, who our clients are, who we are and what our values are, and how we prefer to treat people. I usually pinpoint three principles:
We asked some of our lgbtqi+ colleagues about their experience at the workplace and put the results in a chart. See below!