Manpower Group NL

What was the objective?

March 21st each year marks the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination. Manpower Group Netherlands sought to pay special attention to this topic and organized a dedicated webinar for all employees. The webinar was hosted by the CEO and included a presentation by colleagues from the Dutch Socio-Economic Council (SER).

The Civinc session was part of the webinar and had the objective to: 

Create a space for meaningful conversations where colleagues could give their honest views
Reveal how colleagues truly viewed / experienced the topic of discrimination

What did we do?

Together with Manpower Group NL’s DE&I lead we formulated 8 thought-provoking statements related to discrimination in the workplace, ranging from personal experiences to policy needs.   

Here’s a few examples of the statements:

Within our organization, people with different backgrounds have equal opportunities
I feel that my identity/background can make it more difficult to find new work
Anonymous hiring processes should be the norm in our organization

As part of the webinar, all attendees received a log-in code to participate in the Civinc session. Colleagues individually gave their opinion on the different statements, and based on their answers were matched with a peer that had a very different viewpoint. In anonymous one-on-one chats, for 25 minutes all attendees exchanged ideas, arguments and experiences related to discrimination.

What was the outcome?

In these anonymous ’speeddates’ there is no bias, group pressure or social desirability, which ensures that participants can open up and be completely honest. In this way countless colleagues safely exchange perspectives with someone with a different point of view. We call that ‘intimacy at scale’.

At the same time, the anonymous exchanges and responses to statements produce a wealth of valuable data. An automatic AI analysis helps reveal precisely what the ‘undercurrent’ sentiments are, and which ideas are proposed by the participants. This was captured in a comprehensive report, as a basis to further improve and align the DE&I efforts of Manpower Group NL.

That’s impact and insight in less than 30 minutes!

What did the customer say?

See a Linkedin post from Manpower Group Netherlands here.

“Don’t mince your words. How do you ensure that colleagues give their honest opinion about discrimination? Through a new Civinc tool, everyone could be candid and anonymous. And that is valuable feedback that we will apply together.”

What did users say?

Good approach. Good conversations. Very satisfied about this.
Very good way to engage in conversation with people that have different opinions
What a cool experience! Good statements, and super nice to chat with someone who looks at things differently
A lot of fun to exchange perspectives in this way… without judgment.