The Diversity & Inclusion Conference, 2nd Edition: Romania’s Most Motivated Employees Feel Included at Work

One in three Romanians active in the labour market belongs to the Inclusion Vanguards group, a category of people who support workplace inclusion. They represent 34% of all employees who feel included at work and 47% of those who feel motivated at their jobs. On the other hand, over 3 million Romanians do not feel included at work, with most of them reporting feeling tired (60%) and discouraged (65%). Investments in inclusion programs can improve team morale and help organizations retain their employees.

The data are extracted from the Responsible Romania Barometer – Diversity and Inclusion Edition (BARES.DI), conducted by Cult Research and GRF+ at the initiative of the OPEN MINDS Association. The research, presented at the Diversity and Inclusion (D&I) Conference, identifies four categories of employees based on their attitudes towards physical health, mental health, emotional health, spirituality, ecology, diversity, social consciousness, and workplace social inclusion. According to the study, employees in the Spectators and Socially Disconnected categories intend to change jobs in the next six months at a rate of 28%.

“The D&I Conference is the largest festival promoting workplace inclusion in Romania. To the over 600 allies who participated, we offered, through BARES.DI, a tool to concretely measure how employees feel at work in 2024 and how we can build together a productive and motivated Romania. We need leaders who set ambitious inclusion goals that are adapted to what their employees experience every day in organizations. The OPEN MINDS Association supports this endeavour through public-private partnerships that will, over time, increase awareness and the number of Romanians practicing workplace inclusion,” says Mirela Tănase, vice president of the OPEN MINDS Association and organizer of the Diversity & Inclusion Conference.

The “four Romanias” at work and the feeling of inclusion

• Inclusion Vanguards (30% of employees in Romania) are the most active allies for inclusion and often feel included at work.
• Self-Centered (26% of the active population in Romania) are more concerned with their own well-being and choose not to support diversity and inclusion at work.
• Social Spectators (30% of Romanian employees) do not engage in inclusion issues and do not react when witnessing discrimination.
• Socially Disconnected (14% of respondents) feel most often excluded at work and are dissatisfied with their lifestyle.

Employees who do not feel included are more vulnerable to workplace discrimination

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For Romanians in the Spectators and Socially Disconnected groups, discrimination creates a vicious circle: employees feel excluded, which affects their motivation and well-being at work, and resignation becomes the chosen solution for change.

• Only 12% of the Socially Disconnected feel included at work, almost three times less than the Inclusion Vanguards (34%).
• At the same time, 32% of Social Spectators sometimes feel excluded at work.
• Among all active employees in Romania, the Socially Disconnected group reports the lowest level of motivation (11%), and only 10% declare they feel good at work.
• Retention suffers: these employees have the highest intention to change jobs in the next six months – 29% among the Socially Disconnected and 27% among Social Spectators.

“The four Romanias have no choice but to work together. Therefore, the most natural place to educate employees for inclusion is the workplace, and the theme we propose to employers for 2024 is to identify ways to support the uninvolved employees – a group of approximately 3 million Romanian Spectators and Disconnected – to feel better at work and become Vanguards of Inclusion,” says Paul Acatrini, Research Director & Managing Partner at Cult Research.

Approaches proposed by experts at the Diversity & Inclusion Conference

The second edition of the Diversity and Inclusion Conference organized by the OPEN MINDS Association brought together 58 experts and opinion leaders who presented best practices for professionals who want to create inclusive environments for every employee.

Among the approaches proposed by experts to increase the feeling of inclusion at work, a priority is improving recruitment and onboarding policies and creating more opportunities for employees to get to know and work together. Other solutions include creating continuous learning programs, introducing counsellingservices for discriminated individuals, and promoting inclusion in education.

• ”There is a very thin line between being valid and being invalid. We need to realize that even if we are different we can work together,” says Adela Hanafi, President of the CONIL Association.
• “In Romania, only 1% of adults with autism have a job, although up to 50% of them can be part of a work environment,” says Anca Dumitrescu, President of the Autism Voice Association.
• “In universities, we have a duty to increase students’ contact with all the people around us,” says Laura Grunberg, Professor and Gender Equality Plan Coordinator at the University of Bucharest.

Over 600 professionals from the business environment, NGOs, activists, representatives from public institutions, as well as from pre-university and university education institutions, and representatives from civil society followed the debates at Casa Universitarilor and online on the event’s page. The amount of 10,000 euros, obtained from ticket sales, is donated entirely to the CONIL Association, which fights for the integration of people with disabilities.

The Diversity and Inclusion Conference was organized with the support of partners: Exploratist, BCR, Brinks, Coca-Cola HBC Romania, Orange Foundation, Heineken, Imsat, Lidl Romania, McDonald’s, Mirro, Provident, Wordplay, AHA Media, Bivolul, BT Video, Cult Research, GRF+, Fit4You, Philip Morris Romania, Romprest Servicii Integrate, Squad, and the University of Bucharest.