‘Organizations should take tangible measures to implement D&I'

Vasudha Agarwal, the Regional Inclusion & Diversity Recruiting Lead, Asia-Pacific, McKinsey & Company, in an interaction with People Matters, shares her take on how diversity and inclusion can enhance financial performance for businesses, while talking about the larger D&I landscape, inclusive leadership, and more

- Mastufa Ahmed

Vasudha heads McKinsey & Company's Inclusion and Diversity Recruiting for the Asia Pacific region. She is passionate about D&I and has spent a decade in the HR, talent and diversity fields, being a strong advocate of the same across organizations and industries such as Consulting, Telecom, Mining, Oil & Gas. She has done research in the UK and Asia and is actively involved in topics on inclusion and parity such as parental leave policies in India, barriers of LGBTQ+ inclusion in workplaces, unconscious bias training and achieving gender parity in hiring and retention.

Vasudha is passionate about creating equal opportunities for diverse candidates who are entering the workforce and has actively mentored many women who return to the workforce post sabbatical pro-bono. She was recently recognized as being a “Top global Diversity and Inclusion leader” by the World HRD Congress, 2020.

Here are the excerpts of the interview.

Q It’s widely acknowledged that organizations pursue diversity and inclusion not just for ethical reasons, but also to realize enhanced business results and better financial performance. What's your take on the business case of diversity and inclusion?

A It is imperative to understand that diversity and inclusion are more relevant as critical business items than as purely social and ethical ones. Whilst there is a strong moral and ethical ground for diversity, management investment in talent pools for companies and the positive, long-term influence of diversity and inclusion are well acknowledged through research, studies and time corporate leaders allocate toward fostering them.