As we were built from the ground up with Belonging as a central value in our culture, we aspire to be a company where all employees feel they belong. Our employees with different cultural backgrounds over the globe help us better understand the cultural difference and boost workplace diversity.

Our Employee Resource Groups (ERGs) play a critical role as they help to build awareness and empower the employees to be open to changes and value diversity. A great example is the Asia Pacific Association (APA) ERG’s work on focusing on flat hierarchy mindset and breaking the bamboo ceiling. Tiffany Woo, APA ERG Global Lead, explains this term:

"Bamboo Ceiling" refers to a combination of cultural, individual, and organizational factors and processes that interfere with an Asian professional's career development. In many Asian cultures, the strong hierarchy within an organization can be a barrier to having a sense of inclusion and belonging. The APA ERG works to identify these bottlenecks and works with employees to overcome them by educating the leadership. It's important to have allies who will sponsor role models and help break down structural inequities for Asians.

To a large degree, the hierarchy can be attributed to culture and traditions. Shattering the ceiling is not easy, but it's worth it. Yong Min explains:

For example, in Korea, hierarchy is embedded in society as we have a rigid culture and education, and this also reflects in the workplace as in some workplaces, employees are categorized according to their job titles, positions, and levels.

To handle the hierarchy at Organon in Korea, we got rid of the job title, and we are calling the employee’s name instead of the title. And we created the Organon Culture Creator for hearing their voices as a bottom-up approach.

Kaja Natland, Asia Pacific, and Japan Commercial lead, shares why diversity plays an important role to make everybody feels they belong.

I am committed to inclusion, and I believe we all have a responsibility to challenge our conscious or unconscious biases to ensure we aren’t contributing to the bamboo ceiling or a hierarchal approach. I value the perspectives of my team, regardless of their titles or experience, and we celebrate the different perspectives. The best ideas come from a team that feels empowered to speak up.

If you identify yourself with our culture, keep an eye on https://jobs.organon.com , and don’t forget to join our Talent Community and receive updates on career opportunities!

Header picture: Image by tirachard on Freepik