PatientPop prides itself on being a workplace that not only accepts but encourages diversity on all fronts. We’ve been successful at this because we allow our employees to lead the conversation and change-making — it’s not just an initiative that’s top-down. Our employee-run groups — including the Women’s Resource Group (WRG), Tech Culture & Diversity Group, and Recruiting Diversity channel — are great examples of how we accomplish this.
On Dec. 12, we hosted a fantastic panel event that focused on diversity and inclusion in the workplace. The panel was moderated by Alexis Kavazanjian, vice president of people operations at PatientPop, and included PatientPop employees Gurdev Anand, Fimi Fafowora, Michael Masters, and Sarah Tsunehara. (Pictured left to right above.) Two of our employee groups, the WRG and our Tech Culture & Diversity Group, co-hosted this event and invited all employees to attend and join the discussion.
“In order to make change, we need to be proactive and take initiative as a group, and yesterday’s panel is a big step in the right direction for us in that journey,” Kavazanjian says. “Diversity and inclusion is something that will evolve and change over time, so I’m excited to see where this takes us. It’s the responsibility of all of our employees to help us create the pathway forward and to lead the change, and it was great to see such a large turnout at the event.”
The inspiration for this topic stemmed from our last panel event, Women in Leadership, hosted by our Women’s Resource Group. Employees had the opportunity to learn about our female leaders’ backgrounds and how they got to where they are today.
Although the Women in Leadership panel did a deep-dive into gender diversity, there were so many other aspects of diversity left undiscussed. Our most recent event was our opportunity to talk about what diversity looks like holistically, and how we can ensure an inclusive workplace. It was just the beginning of a series of discussions and initiatives to come in the future.
"Diversity needs to continue to be something that we actively seek out — it won’t just happen. I loved seeing everyone come together last night to do just that."
The questions posed to our panelists centered around topics including celebrating diversity, understanding unconscious bias, and improving inclusivity at work. The panelists shared personal stories to help the audience better understand their perspective and experiences. We broke down barriers around what might be considered taboo topics and learned to embrace curiosity and positive learning in a safe space.
“It was helpful to learn how to properly approach people with different backgrounds and identities with questions when I want to learn more about them,” says Ari Tabak, PatientPop director of support. “I also found it comforting to know how open people are about discussing these delicate topics.”
Thank you to Kavazanjian and our panelists for leading this event, and thank you to all the PatientPop employees who attended. Want to learn more about PatientPop values? Check out our Careers page!
[wdi_feed id=”1″]
