When it comes to diversity and inclusion, employers often choose to create stylish initiatives to show their support for employees from different minority groups.
While these grand plans often have a positive impact on an employee's daily life, sometimes it can be just as helpful to simply provide facilitation.
As the holy month of Ramadan started on 23 March, companies should encourage managers to have open discussions with their Muslim employees on an individual basis and ask if any specific arrangements can be made.
This could include flexibility to work start/finish times, given they will not be having lunches, rescheduling any meetings that may clash with prayer time or Ifthar (the fast-breaking evening meal), or providing a separate room for prayers.
As Ramadan is an opportunity for Muslims to have a deeper spiritual connection and time to reflect, making a lot of distracting noise about initiatives in relation to significant events, festivals and awareness days could put Muslim employees on the spot, or may even cause them to feel that they need to justify why those initiatives have been created in the first place.
Focusing on facilitating specific actions can be of much more value to Muslim employees during this time than other – often well-intentioned, yet ostentatious – initiatives.
To begin with, why not simply start by saying ‘Ramadan Kareem'?
Nabil Verdickt is head of performance media and analytics at Penna
Nabil.verdickt@penna.com
This article is sponsored content for The MJ
