Benchmark event Netherlands Inclusivity Monitor

During the yearly benchmark conference of the Netherlands Inclusivity Monitor (NIM) on March 7th, I presented the most recent outcomes of the research that we conducted at currently 65 organizations and Marlous Strout from Lister shared how she applies the NIM research in practice. And all this inspiringly led by Sander Haas, board member of InclusieNL.

The factsheet and summary of our findings and recommendations can be found here.

We examined to what extent the D&I policy of organizations are coherent, systematic and evidence-based, ánd how inclusive employees experience the organizational climate to be. What stands out at policy level, is the large focus on the inflow of diverse talent and creating an inclusive culture. Throughflow and outflow are domains that currently gett less attention. In addition, we notice that only a few organizations evaluate the outcomes of their policy and actions properly, and that goals could be formulated more SMART. Amongst employees, what stands out is that people who feel different from the majority, experience the organizational climate to be less inclusive than the majority group. Particularly people who feel different based on education or ethnicity experience a less positive inclusive climate.

Read more here.

The factsheet and the event were made possible by the Goldschmeding Foundation.

Stakeholder event on "Evidence-based practices to reduce bias at work".

On March 5th, the Interuniversity Network on Diversity, Equity & Inclusion organized a stakeholder event on “evidence-based practices to reduce bias at work”.

We started with poster presentations by Chenhao Zhou, Onur Şahin, Sarah Grootjans, and Johanna S. W. Kruger who, respectively, shared their ongoing research on the impact of lgbt+ identity disclosure on social perception and cooperation intentions (Zhou), the impact of explicit coordination on gendered domestic division in expecting couples (Sahin), the influence of work messages on the care gap (Grootjans), and young, female doctors’ lack of fit with the profession's agentic stereotype (Kruger).

Then, in a plenary talk, Lieselotte Blommaert and Marcel Coenders shared the findings from their work on the effects of anonymized hiring procedures and support among managers, job applicants and the general public. Their findings showed that anonymous application procedures, particularly when combined with the use of standardized forms, significantly reduce ethnic discrimination in the screening process. Alarmingly, however, many managers still believe discrimination is not a problem, in stark contrast with results from a field experiment showing clear evidence of bias in hiring. You can read more here.

Dr. Huyen T. T. Nguyen, furthermore, shared first findings from a vignette experiment on differences in beliefs and self-presentation strategies across genders and ethnicities n the US and UK labor market. Findings revealed that job seekers somewhat distrust AI-based recruitment tools and would rather be assessed by human recruiters, who they perceive as more nuanced in their assessment and better able to see the person behind the CV.

We rounded off the event with a discussion on how to solve the tension between, on the one hand, the positive impact of standardization and formalized hiring procedures and, on the other hand, employees' needs to feel authentic at the workplace and valued for who they are.

Thank you to all participants for a very interesting discussion!

We are grateful to Future of Work Hub, Universiteit Utrecht, European Research Council (ERC), Workplace Pride, InclusieNL for supporting the event, and look forward to the next activities!

Diversity in the picture

Today, the Ministry of General Affairs’ Public Information and Communications Service (DPC) presented the bundle Diversiteit in beeld. Een verkenning van inzichten [Diversity in the picture. An exploration of insights]. In this bundle, different experts on the cutting edge of visual communication and inclusion share their insights on the complexity, challenges and opportunities of diverse imagery for inclusive communications by the government.

My reflections on the topic were also recorded in the bundle. I focused on the power of stereotypes and how they can both help and hinder a message that aims to communicate diversity and inclusion. I also warned against blindly taking over so-called best practices from others, and advised to apply best methods instead. This means there is no concrete checklist for inclusive communication, rather a list of questions that communication specialists should ask themselves before picking their visuals. These questions regard reflections as to how a visual message may be perceived, for instance by members of different groups, which images already speak to the target audience, and what existing stereotypes are.

Understanding employees' support for D&I policies

I am proud to share our recently published paper on employees’ support for the diversity and inclusion (D&I) policies implemented by their organization!

Together with Wiebren Jansen, Yonn Bokern, and Naomi Ellemers, we introduced a taxonomy of D&I policy support and validated this empirically in a large-scale survey study (n=2913). In doing so, we advance existing scholarly work by providing both a theoretical account of and empirical evidence for the different ways in which D&I policies may find support or resistance from employees. In addition, our work offer practitioners a practical tool to examine employees' support and therefore enables them to design and implement more effective D&I interventions.

This article is the first scientific publication of our project "Het Moet Wel Werken. Het bevorderen van inclusiviteit op de arbeidsmarkt door synergie tussen wetenschap en praktijk", made possible by the Goldschmeding Foundation, and is the result of a collaboration between Utrecht University, InclusieNL and Diversity at work.

Read the paper here

The danger of a single story

“Stories matter, many stories matter”

To ward off the feelings of gloom which arose from the election results, I let the following wise words of Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie from her Ted Talk “The danger of a single story” inspire me:

"Power is the ability to not just tell the story of another person, but to make it the definitive story of that person. [...] The single story creates stereotypes and the problem with stereotypes is not that they are untrue but that they are incomplete. [...] They make one story become the only story."


The ‘rhetoric of the single story’, which stands out in the PVV’s party program and seems to appeal to a large part of the Netherlands, needs to be counterbalanced. Not just to argue against the single story, but also to understand the appeal of this rhetoric. After all, there is a story behind every vote.

Chimamanda shares her views through storytelling and writing, but I, as a researcher who aims to identify and understand patterns in cognition, experience and behavior, will take her advice to keep sight of the complex, multifaceted stories of people to heart.

Watch the Ted Talk here

© James Duncan Davidson 

Coming Out Day at UWV

This morning, the rainbow flag was hoisted at UWV for Coming Out Day, a day on which we focus (once more) on the importance of an LGBTQI+ inclusive workplace. Afterward, I shared our findings and insights with UWV employees about the power of the norm and the challenges it poses for LGBTQI+ employees. I also had the opportunity to speak with Liesbeth van de Garde, Christine Holtkamp, Djindra Akloe, en Peter Haarms. It is always a great pleasure to sit down with experts and learn from them about the challenges and bright spots in practice.

Interuniversity Network on Diversity, Equity & Inclusion event

On October 6, we came together in Paushuize with scholars and practitioners to reflect on the latest research insights on creating diversity policy support in organizations. The event was an initiative of the Interuniversity Network on Diversity, Equity & Inclusion led by Dr. Valentina Di Stasio and myself and assisted by Yonn Bokern and Gerdien Sonneveld. It was so thrilling to have all these great minds together in one place, and I was left hopeful for a more inclusive organizational future despite the (many) challenges.

Thanks to our excellent speakers (Lieselotte Blommaert, Marcel Coenders, Katharina Stückradt, Edwina Wong, Yonn Bokern, and Dr. Gisela Schuller-v.d. Velden) and fantastic panel members (Zoltán Lippényi, Sharmila Angoelal, Gloria Keukens-Khan, Marlous Stout and Peter Franx) for providing the content, our audience for engaging with us, and our collaborators for their support (Future of Work Hub at Universiteit Utrecht, the European Research Council (ERC), InclusieNL and Workplace Pride).

For summaries of the research shared, follow our network's LinkedIn page

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LGBTIQ+ Worplace Inclusion Symposium at Leiden University

Reflecting on last week’s LGBTIQ+ Workplace Inclusion Symposium at Universiteit Leiden, I'm thrilled by the insights shared and the connections forged.

It was a great morning with keynotes by Teri Kirby and myself, a panel on allyship with Kshitij Mor (Utrecht University), Jason Jie (Deloitte / Tilburg University), Liesbeth van de Garde (UWV), and Marijn Pijnenburg (IBM), and the official kick-off of the Academia@Workplace Pride year by Michiel Kolman. A big thank you to all speakers, panel members, organizers and attendees for making it a success!

As we move forward, let's keep the dialogue alive, continue our pursuit of evidence-based insights, and work together to make a positive impact. Stay tuned for more exciting Academia@WorkplacePride events on the horizon!

Did you miss the event? A recording can be found here

Bi+ Netherlands network event

Another inspiring Bi+ Netherlands network event at ProRail on August 3rd! Iris Buizer and I had the honor of presenting the preliminary findings of our research on the workplace inclusion of bi+ people in the Netherlands, and I answered questions about the Netherlands InclusivityMonitor. I am already looking forward to next year’s event.

Photo credit: Lera Manz

Photo credit: Lera Manz