Inclusion At ApnaKlub


OBJECTIVES

ApnaKlub is dedicated to creating and nurturing a diverse and inclusive work environment. ApnaKlub recognizes that every individual brings with themselves a wealth of knowledge and experience from their diverse backgrounds and experiences. ApnaKlub endeavors to promote the capabilities and growth of its diverse workforce. 


Diversity and inclusion in the workplace accrue many benefits for the company as well as our partners and consumers, and we fully intend to leverage the same.


We aim to not only encourage and celebrate these diverse experiences, but also make the work environment more conducive, flexible, and amenable to the unique experiences and needs of our diverse workforce. ApnaKlub intends to achieve these goals through concerted efforts to make our organization policies, procedures and workplace behavior inclusive and sensitive to the variety of contexts (such as gender, sexual orientation, religion, caste) that our employees bring to work.  Our aim is to ensure that the ApnaKlub community is representative of all sections of society, where each member is treated with fairness and equality, enabling them to bring their best to the workplace.


SCOPE

This policy applies to all employees in India working at ApnaKlub


COMMITMENTS

  1. Create a work environment that promotes dignity and respect for all individuals, irrespective of their backgrounds

  2. Create a zero tolerance environment towards bullying, harassment, humiliation and targeting or otherwise disrespectful behavior

  3. Create an inclusive environment such that no individual feels compelled to hide aspects of their identities like sexual orientation, religion, caste, gender identity. 

  4. Attract, retain and train persons from a diverse pool of talent and cultural backgrounds

  5. Create and promote fair, flexible and equitable workplace policies to support the unique needs of our employees


Diversity Practices

  1. Fair recruitment practices: Every reasonable effort will be made to attract talent from as wide a range of backgrounds as possible. Our selection process will be based on objective metrics as well as context-sensitive interviewing to ensure that the candidates with most suitable knowledge, experience, and skill, regardless of their backgrounds, are welcomed into the company. 

  2. Career Development and Training: All employees at Apnaklub can avail our Special Budget for skill development and learning to further their career aspirations. 

  3. Employee Resource Groups: ApnaKlub is committed to support and facilitate safe and nurturing spaces for employees. We encourage and support the functioning of support groups for women employees , LGBTQI+ and gender non-binary employees, as well as employees from religious and caste minorities

  4. Equal Opportunity Training: Sensitization and unconscious bias training for all employees of the organization will be conducted to ensure that all employees irrespective of their backgrounds feel valued and included

  1. This policy will be reviewed annually and updated as and when required

  2. All employees are required to uphold our values of diversity, equity and inclusion, and comply with the conduct policy


CONDUCT POLICY

At ApnaKlub, we strive to provide a safe and inclusive work environment. All employees are required to support and uphold this effort through their own conduct, and adhere to the following standards of conduct:

  1. Treat others with dignity and respect at all times

  2. Make efforts to understand, appreciate and gather insights from coworkers’ diverse backgrounds- be it their socioeconomic status, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity, caste or community


Feedback

  1. Be constructive at all times in giving feedback. Ensure that your feedback is based on objective foundations, and not on subjective biases pertaining to one’s background

  2. Be open-minded and listen empathetically when feedback is given, especially about how others perceive your conduct. Ask yourself if you are operating from any unconscious biases

Zero tolerance for bullying and discrimination

  1. Bullying: Demeaning and humiliating someone through words or actions, in public or privately is bullying. Eg. of bullying include (and are not limited to) using offensive, derogatory, insulting language to someone based on their identity, using casteist, sexist, homophobic slurs, name calling, physical attacks, cyber stalking, doxxing, threatening etc. 

  2. Discrimination: Treating people unfairly based on their identity- such as religion, community, gender, sexual orientation, among others. This could include refusal to interact or work with someone based on their identity, denying opportunities for career advancement on the basis of their identity, excluding employees from recreational activities/offsites on the basis of their identity etc.


Guidelines for Communication

The needs and experiences of our co-workers from diverse backgrounds are unique. You might not relate to these experiences, or not be aware of them. In order to avoid making some errors in judgment and communication, here are some specific points to keep in mind while conducting interactions with members of these communities:


LGBTQI+ Coworkers: 

  1. Educate yourself on the various sexual identities people hold and learn the difference between the same. For eg, transsexual individual is not the same as a transgender individual

  2. Ensure that you use gender neutral language and respect the pronouns of your coworkers

  3. Understand that the experience of a person from the LGBTQI+ community is their lived reality and is valid. Negotiating one’s identity is a complex journey, and they might identify with a gender, name, pronoun that is different from the one given to them. Respect this journey and their identity.

  4. Dealing with Disclosure/ Coming out: Listen empathetically and appreciate one’s honesty when they disclose their sexual orientation/ gender identity with you. Do not dismiss them by calling it a “choice” or  a “phase” or label it as an illness. Reassure them that they can trust you with this information.

  5. Confidentiality and Privacy: It takes a lot of courage and effort to come out as queer in the workplace. Acknowledge and respect this courage, and uphold their privacy by never disclosing this information without their permission. Doxxing involves publishing private information and “outing” without consent, and is a bullying behavior which will not be tolerated

  6. Do not ask invasive, insensitive questions: Their experiences might be very different from what you might be aware of, and curiosity is natural. However, be sure to do your research privately and not subject your queer coworkers to personal, intrusive questions about their medical and surgical history, sexual preferences, or questions that invalidate their identity like “how do you know for sure that you are gay?”

  7.  Acknowledge your mistakes and commit to learn 


Women employees

  1. Do not make assumptions: Question the biases you might have grown up hearing about women, such as women are poor leaders, women are not committed to work because they have to care for their families, women are good at administrative tasks etc. These biases can impact how you interact with the women in your team, and affect the work you assign to them

  2. Respect boundaries: Understand what behavior is professional and welcome, and what behavior is not. Invasion of space and privacy, incessant demands to spend time with you when they are unwilling constitute unwelcome behavior.

  3. Do not ask inappropriate, intrusive questions: E.g. questions about their bodily functions like menstruation, body image etc. are inappropriate

  4. Educate yourself on the sexual harassment policy of your workplace and attend all training sessions


Employees from Religious Minorities

  1. Check your biases: Are there any stereotypes you have grown up hearing about people from religious minorities? How do these biases impact how you see them, interact with them and talk about them? As with any other identity, avoid making assumptions about such coworkers based on these biases

  2. Respect their festivals, cultural experiences and food habits, and have the flexibility to accommodate them. For example, do not schedule a work lunch during fasting hours

  3. Do not use any pejorative, abusive terms for people belonging to these communities


DBA (Dalit, Bahujan, Adivasi) employees

  1. Identify your biases: have you internalized some negative messages about persons from the DBA community? How does that impact your view of and interactions with them? 

  2. Casteist slurs and comments are not tolerated by ApnaKlub and are illegal. These include derogatory terms for people from these communities, and comments about their historic caste-based occupations

  3. Avoid public discussions and comments about caste-based communities. These include comments on not just persons from the DBA community, but also sweeping statements on other caste based communities

  4. Do not ask intrusive and offensive questions about their reservation status and category

  5. Do not ask questions about someone’s surname with the intention of finding out their caste

  6. Dismissing affirmative action (reservation policies) in public has a negative impact on the people who avail these reservations, and has a negative impact on their confidence, feelings of safety, performance and sense of belonging. Affirmative action is a tool to correct for inter-generational injustices, and hence should not be commented upon as a ‘benefit’ to the DBA community, but be understood as a right. 


Complaint Process

ApnaKlub has a strict zero tolerance policy for bullying and discrimination. We encourage all employees undergoing any instance of bullying or discrimination to reach out to the complaints committee or HR. We also urge any employee witnessing these acts to complain about the same.

  • Any aggrieved employee who has experienced bullying or harassment and discrimination is highly encouraged to write to the complaints committee to address their grievance. 

  • The Complaints Committee will acknowledge the receipt of the complaint in 1 business day and initiate an inquiry within 7 business days. 

  • The inquiry will be conducted in a maximum of 90 days. 

  • Non-retaliation policy: Complainants will not be penalised or retaliated against for raising concerns regarding bullying, harassment and discrimination. Their team/ reporting structure may be changed in case of conflict of interest between the parties

  • Strict action will be taken against any employee found guilty of bullying and discrimination. Based on the severity of the offense, the complaints committee will recommend actions ranging from formal warning/ censure to mandating sensitization training, fines to even termination of employment


Details of the Complaints Committee

Shruti

Email shruti@apnaklub.com 


Manish Kumar

Email manish@apnaklub.com 


Prachi Paridhi 

Email prachi.paridhi@apnaklub.com