The Works Council recently attended our bias training. Council members Charlotte Vial and Pieter Doevendans were happy to share their thoughts and what they learnt from the session. 

Slight preference

Charlotte: I was positively surprised by the way our bias was tested and also by the outcome. I had hoped that I would be neutral, but the test showed that I did have a slight bias. I didn't expect that and that certainly got me thinking.

Pieter: I especially liked the content of the digital lectures that you had to do in preparation plus the two tests. These mainly made you aware of the fact that you make assumptions and have biases.

Diversity and internationalisation

Pieter: Attention to diversity and inclusion is crucial. Everyone should be able to be part of UMC Utrecht and feel at home here. There is room for improvement and we must all do better.

It is not new for Pieter to be involved in diversity and internationalisation. During his time as a manager, he consciously hired people from other countries and cultures. In practice it turned out to be difficult to make them feel at home.

Pieter: They did not survive at UMC Utrecht. I find that very disappointing. In order to change, we must focus on bringing in more people of non-Dutch descent. That is also in line with our ambition of internationalisation and hopefully our own culture will change as well.

And what can employees do themselves?

Pieter: I think above all, being aware of the limitations of our culture and being open to change.

Result training

The reactions to the training within the Works Council were mixed. In some instances, it raised both positive and negative emotions of the participants.  Charlotte and Pieter were very much in agreement on one thing: both the preparation for the training and the mutual discussion about the subject have certainly paid off.

Charlotte: It was good to have a discussion about this together within the Works Council team. People also expressed frustration about their own experiences of discrimination and I think it was good that these things came out.

Pieter: We had not had this conversation in this way before. In any case, the training enabled us to discuss this with each other and to learn from each other's experiences.