Sojern Employees Honor Differences During Celebrate Diversity Month

Sojern employees around the world celebrated our core value “Embrace Inclusion” during April for Celebrate Diversity Month. Celebrate Diversity Month was initiated in 2004 with the goal of recognizing and praising the differences of people in the world around us. We are all different, whether it’s by gender, race, ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation, and more. We came together to honor our common humanity.

To celebrate Diversity Month, Sojern employees participated in roundtable discussions with our Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) Council on what diversity means to each of us. At the end of the discussion, we watched a video featuring Sojern employees from around the world explaining a unique word in their native language that cannot be translated. Thirty-five employees shared their unique word in 24 languages across nine different locations.

“Watching the video, you could hear the happiness in people’s voices, sharing the unique words that remind them of home,” says Angie Saxton, business development representative team lead at Sojern.

Our team found many other ways to celebrate diversity remotely, including:

• Setting their webcam background to an image of their heritage as an icebreaker to start a discussion, getting to know one another outside of a usual meeting agenda
• Celebrating through gatherings like potluck events where employees cook home meals or share their favorite recipes
• Collating a Sojern Cookbook where all employees were invited to submit a recipe 

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Our teams in London, Dublin, and Dubai highlighted the month of Ramadan and the celebration of Eid. They invited their team members to educational talks and celebrate with local iftars.

"It was such a fantastic opportunity to be able to hear from some of our own colleagues on what Ramadan is, and how they observe the month,” says Suzy Ley, senior marketing manager at Sojern. “It was fascinating to learn how the experience varies from person to person, such as different meals to break the fast, and to also learn more about the reasons why Muslims observe Ramadan. We all had a lot of fun and are really thankful to have opportunities like this as an organization where we can celebrate each other."

“The opportunity to celebrate Eid made me feel accommodated and so it made it easier to share more and go into more details about Islam as a religion and dressing for the occasion,” says Sana Kibria, campaign specialist at Sojern. “Also, as there were questions asked afterwards, it made it seem like others were interested and so made us all feel so comfortable.”

At Sojern, we focus on our core value “Embrace Inclusion” by learning, understanding, and celebrating our differences. Celebrating Diversity Month around the world is a great way to bring our Sojern employees together.

To learn more about Sojern’s culture and core values, check out our careers page. Who knows, you just might find your next role!