Belonging at Work: How to Turn Strategy into Results
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The business case for diverse and inclusive teams has been proven, yet many companies still struggle to attract, grow, and retain diverse talent. DE&I and HR leaders know that a culture of belonging is key to unlocking the bottom-line impact that only diverse and inclusive companies can achieve. While belonging is not a new concept, it’s often misunderstood and conflated with inclusion, and many organizations struggle to drive sustained impact that delivers the business outcomes a culture of belonging promises. As a result, HR and DE&I leaders are left unsure of how to define, measure and advance a culture where employees feel they belong and leaders are held accountable.
In this session, Sherika Ekpo, Interim Chief People Officer at Anaplan, and Jasmine Sanders, Center for Equality, Gender and Leadership (EGAL), Haas School of Business at University of California, Berkeley will share evidence-based frameworks and practices from the Belonging Playbook, a free resource created in partnership by their organizations that bridges research with the business world to provide actionable insights for HR and DE&I leaders to foster belonging.
Learning Objectives:
- Implement strategies to combat organizational challenges HR leaders can face when implementing belonging practices.
- Better define belonging and more effectively align it with business goals.
- Create a measurement strategy that goes beyond the standard employee survey or inclusion index to continuously measure belonging.
- Leverage a simple assessment tool to identify where on the spectrum of belonging their organization currently sits.
- Identify specific root causes within their current employee experience to prioritize which strategic plays to focus on to advance belonging within their organization today.
Sherika Ekpo
Sherika Ekpo brings 20 years of strategic leadership, human capital, talent management and professional development experience to the interim Chief People Officer role at Anaplan, where she leads the company’s global culture, people, and communications teams. She is focused on building an innovative employee experience and culture of belonging that empowers people to contribute their best selves at work. Sherika joined Anaplan as the company’s first Chief Diversity & Inclusion Officer. Previously, she was the Global Diversity & Inclusion Lead for the Research and Artificial Intelligence teams at Google. She received her MBA from the University of Maryland and her bachelor’s degree from Howard University.
Jasmine Sanders
Jasmine Sanders is a Sociology PhD student at the University of California, Berkeley where she researches organizational inequality, culture, and workplace policies and practices. Jasmine is currently contributing to research exploring organizational belonging in the workplace, gendered conceptions of work/life balance in tech companies, and various projects on equity and accessibility. She has a master's degree in Sociology and Education from Columbia University, and a BA in English from Spelman College.
Jasmine is a graduate research fellow at the Center for Equity, Gender and Leadership (EGAL) at Berkeley Haas where, in partnership with Anaplan, she drove research efforts contributing to the Advancing Belonging in Organizations playbook. This included a systematic review of academic and practitioner literature, conducting participant interviews and focus groups, and translating research findings into actionable strategies for corporate leaders.