Why Is Emotional Inclusion So Important In the Workplace?

Welcome to the Vantage HR Influencers Podcast. This podcast is sponsored by Vantage Circle, the simple and AI-powered rewards and recognition platform for employee engagement. Even after the pandemic, most companies are still forgetting that our employees' emotional wellness is the core cornerstone of their success in today's competitive business world. It's high time for us to consider what we're doing to reintegrate our employees back into the workforce while they're still going through a difficult time. Now, many questions arise here. First, why aren't we taking better care of our employees, even though we know they are our most valuable asset? Secondly, and most importantly, how can we move towards a business ecology that is more emotionally welcoming and more emotionally inclusive?

Susmita Sarma: Hi, everyone. I'm Susmita, and for this episode of the Vantage HR Influencers Podcast, please join me in sharing this conversation on emotional inclusion in the workplace with my guest today, Sunita Wazir, who is working as Senior Global Wellbeing Manager with Unilever. Welcome to our show, Sunita.

Sunita Wazir: Thank you. Lovely to be here. Thanks for having me.

Susmita Sarma: Thanks for joining me in this conversation, Sunita. Before we start with the topic, it would be great if you could tell us about your background and your professional journey to date.

Sunita Wazir: Very happy to. So, I'm Sunita, and I've been working a little over 26 years now across some really good businesses. I've been fortunate to work for some of the best companies in the world, and it's something I have completely enjoyed. I started my career back in the early 90s with a US-based airline, where I was working in in-flight operations, managing a team of a few hundred people across India. Then, after a really lovely international career, I moved on to work with another organization, which was a wonderful place to work, one that really touched me at a deep core and matched my values, and I was there for nearly two years. Since then, I've been with Hindustan Unilever Limited, where I've now completed 10 years working across different expertise roles. It's been a very fulfilling career, and I feel like it's taken me a while, but I feel like I'm living my purpose in my current role. It's a phenomenal experience.

Susmita Sarma: So you are the Senior Global Wellbeing Manager with Unilever, right?

Sunita Wazir: That's right, that's currently the role I have.

Susmita Sarma: And today, going by your profile and your expertise, we've taken the topic of emotional inclusion in the workplace. So let's start, Sunita.

Sunita Wazir: Yes.

Susmita Sarma: Would you like to start by telling us what emotional inclusion exactly is?

Sunita Wazir: Yes, absolutely. Emotional inclusion, or inclusion for that matter, is a really important part of how workplace culture shows up. It's about how people feel. Ultimately, it's not just about building emotional trust, it's also about the work environment on a day-to-day basis. Simply put, it's about accepting, within the corporate workplace, the opportunity for people to be themselves, to bring their whole personality, to be normal and natural. The pandemic has done that in a way, right? We didn't have a choice. Our workplace became a home for many of us and continues to be that, and so those barriers, layers, or the posturing we might have done at some point are gone now, because we see everyone in their entirety. So that's really what emotional inclusion is: how accepting the workplace is towards individuals and their varied, diverse needs.

Susmita Sarma: So it's a part of our diversity and inclusion activities, isn't it?

Sunita Wazir: It's a part of everything. Yes, it's part of equity, diversity, inclusion. It's also part of wellbeing, part of mental health. You can't have good mental or emotional health, or holistic health and wellbeing, unless you feel like you can be yourself. Let me use an example. Being emotionally included means you're not worried about how you're being perceived, that there's no anxiety in your mind about sharing something. For instance, we've all recently had an unfortunately long stint with the pandemic and COVID. Just being able to share how you feel, right? I had COVID earlier in January, and it was really not nice, a very bad experience for me, and I've continued to have headaches and fatigue even now, almost five weeks later. But I'm fortunate, I'm at a workplace where I can tell people, "You know what, I've been at work a few hours and my head really hurts." Just being able to be open, to share what's going on with you, I think that's what emotional inclusion really is: being able to embrace what you're experiencing and share it, without being judged and without fear of consequences. That, to me, is an example of an emotionally inclusive work environment.

Susmita Sarma: So it's more about the other side too, you can tell someone how you're feeling, but the other person also has to be very accepting, isn't it?

Sunita Wazir: Absolutely, it's our shared vulnerability. Very well put, Susmita, exactly, you've got to the point. It's about being able to share your own vulnerability, having the appetite to hear other people's vulnerability, and not judging them or using it against them. That, to me, is a place where you feel like an equal. Now, of course, there are cultural differences. People in different markets or countries react differently. I work in a global workplace, I lead the global wellbeing agenda, and I work with people across many, many countries. Culturally, there are nuances, in Europe people are far more open, perhaps than in the US, and in Latin America and Asia, not so much, we're quite similar there. So the levels of introversion and openness vary a lot. But when you're in a global workplace, like we all are right now, it's important that even when someone may be an introvert, or may not be very open, we truly listen. Ultimately, what do people want? They want to be heard, they want the opportunity to speak, and to have non-judgmental listening. That then leads to them sharing more about themselves, and that inevitably boosts their performance too, because they can be honest and say, "This isn't my good time of day, I'm feeling low energy," and what that does is let them manage their work around when their energy is actually high, which facilitates far better performance. So in a way, it's not just a nice-to-have, it's also about organizations getting the best out of their people by building a culture, building leadership, and building line managers and supervisors with the readiness to be more open, because that improves the work culture. You become a great employer, people stay with you, and we've all heard about the great resignation and the war for talent, but equally, there's the other dimension: work gets delivered far better when people feel enabled, when they feel they have the opportunity to work in the way that works for them.

Susmita Sarma: That's a lot to take in, but is this about one-to-one communication in the workplace between a manager and an employee, or is it more of a group dynamic?

Sunita Wazir: Yes, absolutely, one-to-one, but also one-to-many. One-to-one is very important, our relationship with our line managers or supervisors actually becomes the crux of how we feel about the organization. When we rate a company, we're talking about the people we interact with, our line manager, our teams, our extended teams, our stakeholders, it matters how they make us feel and how we make them feel. The opportunity to be heard, the whole concept of psychological safety, that's something you can't buy for the love of money, it's an environmental necessity, and even more so now, to feel emotionally included. There has to be a dimension of psychological safety in the workplace.

Susmita Sarma: But there are still some employees we can find who don't feel comfortable coming forward and speaking up. They always stay a bit behind other employees who share everything they feel in the workplace. So how can we build confidence among those employees?

Sunita Wazir: I really believe building trust is a two-way process. When you start a new work relationship, it takes three to six months to really build trust, and for a lot of people who changed roles during the pandemic, where there was no social interaction and you couldn't see physical cues, it became really hard to build trust. So then, how do you build an environment where people open up and feel okay? For many people, culturally, they just may not be in a place where they want to share, so they may be guarded, but there are signs, symptoms, and cues, and a caring leader or line manager should be able to understand and start looking at those signs, the energy level, the emotions the person is bringing. What we do a lot is use video, as far as possible, if people are comfortable, we ask them to come on video calls, because that way you can build rapport, see how the person is doing, and get a sense of what's going on. Now, remember, the other thing that's happened is that for nearly two years, people have worked alone, isolated, or lonely, or some are in very crowded homes or locations, which makes it hard sometimes to use video. But you have to use it to see the energy of the other person, and if you want to make them feel comfortable, if you want to really make them speak, it becomes important to do voice matching, mirroring their energy, breathing the way the other person is breathing. You slow down, you don't try to fill silence, you're comfortable with silences, and you hold space for the other person to speak. I think that's really important. There's a very interesting Harvard Business study on this, which says that when you're asked "How are you?", people say "I'm fine" almost ridiculously often. If I ask you right now how you are, you'd say "I'm fine," but if I want to really know how you are, I'll probe a little deeper, I won't stop at the "fine." If I sense something isn't quite right, I'll go a little further, pull at that thread, make space. Leaving it at "I'm fine," the study says people only mean it 14 to 19 percent of the time. That means one out of five times you're really fine, and the rest of the time you're feeling a little low, a little vulnerable, a little emotional, but you won't say it, because you want to posture, that's a part of us. We want to showcase ourselves as invincible, strong, available, an achiever. There's so much social narrative at work about being more resilient, but resilience isn't just about being stronger, it's not that Avengers-style narrative where you've got to be strong enough to do everything yourself. Resilience is also about being able to get the right resources and the right support. So if you put all of this together, how do you get people to speak up? You hold the space, you ask a little deeper, you share your own emotional state and your own vulnerability as a leader, and even in conversations between peers. We do a lot of work with peer support, we offer Mental Health Champions, a lovely program we've started at Unilever, and across the world we've already got around 3,800 people out of our large workforce who've volunteered to come forward and be a listening ear to others. This isn't part of their job, they just came forward and offered because this is something that drives them, they want to do something about the problem. So over the last year and a bit, we've trained 3,800 people to have the right kind of conversation, where they can listen and hold space. At the workplace, it doesn't always have to be the reporting relationship where you open up, you have to build networks, find other people, and if not your manager, find a trained colleague who wants to listen to you. Of course, we all also offer employee assistance programs and helplines with counseling for people who need a deeper conversation. So different ways, different cues, it's about building these support systems and resources into the way we work, rather than making them hard to reach.

Susmita Sarma: So making support, anytime, anywhere support, accessible to everyone is critical, in the language that they speak, right? And all of this makes a workplace a very psychologically safe one, and it helps a lot with employee motivation too, for higher productivity, right?

Sunita Wazir: Yes, exactly. As I was saying earlier, performance improves in a psychologically safe space, people feel like their voice matters and their ideas count. What do we want today? We need tremendous innovation, we can't keep doing work the way we always have, we have to find new ways to work and deliver, and we've got to keep changing, agility is the way to go. So in this environment, psychological safety is the belief that it's a safe space to take a personal risk, that you won't be punished or humiliated, and that you can speak up about your ideas, questions, concerns, or mistakes. There are traps around psychological safety, the fear we all carry, though it looks different at different levels. The fear in the workplace is sometimes about coming across as ignorant or incompetent, not wanting to sound overly negative or disruptive, and those are the fears that hold people back from opening up and speaking up. But we need innovation, we need new ideas, so what we need to build is a workplace where everyone is open-minded, with a lot of mutual respect, trust, and curiosity. That's one of the things we lost when the pandemic happened, we lost our curiosity, we weren't exploring or reading, we were doomscrolling, following and chasing the issues going on, and curiosity went away. But a psychologically safe workplace is one where people know they'll be heard, and even if they made mistakes, it's okay, we learn from the failure, that's where the magic happens, and the companies that offer that space for people to speak up are the ones actually doing all right in the workplace right now.

Susmita Sarma: Talking about the pandemic, Sunita, what trends do you see workplaces making towards destigmatizing the mental health of employees?

Sunita Wazir: Susmita, stigma is the biggest hindrance, or an inherent flaw, in all the work we do around mental health at work, it's the fear of judgment, how I'll be perceived. In our country, it tends to be bigger, it's just so socially unacceptable in a lot of markets. There's been a lot of progress on addressing stigma, but we're still on that journey, and interestingly, stigma, while it holds people back, also causes a lot of harm, because the number of people who seek support is very few. Even the big words around mental health, like depression, these conditions are very much manageable with the right support and the right medication, and that unfortunately doesn't happen enough. So one of the things I've also worked on over the years is inclusion of people with disabilities and inclusion of the Pride community, and the reality is that stigma holds back so much. The pandemic was actually a gift, in a sense, it accelerated the opportunity for people to speak up, it accelerated the workplace's need to make mental health support more visible. So what trends have we seen? Mental health has taken a hit, a lot of people have suffered, they may not talk about it, but whether it was isolation, overwork, fear of the disease, loss of freedom, or grief, just the inherent ambient grief of losing your freedom to go out for a walk, drive to work, or have a coffee with a colleague without planning it, just not having time, more to do at home, so many different dimensions to it. The trend we're seeing in workplaces is that people are working longer hours, feeling more vulnerable, feeling a social disconnect, many have lost their purpose, but there's also been a mental health tsunami, so many people affected. Earlier, mental health was seen as something far away, something that happens to someone else, and we've all had to acknowledge that we all have mental health, there are days we feel low and days we feel high energy, and just accepting and acknowledging that, knowing we're all vulnerable and human, being in this lockdown space has made us face those fears. What it's also done is help companies understand that a lot of solutions have had to come in, whether it's more leave, access to support, mental health first aiders, mental health champions, peer support, or just opening up and breaking down barriers and walls in the workplace. I think what's happened is it's made conversations more real, made workplace support real. I know a lot of our employee assistance program providers are flooded with new companies signing up and offering counseling, and it's going to make reaching out for support more mainstream. I think the younger generation, kids and students who stayed home for way too long, are now, in our country, opening up and speaking up for support, and that's having a domino effect that's leading elders to seek support too, leading to far more open conversations. So wherever you are on the spectrum of mental health, the good news is there are now people ready to listen and help at hand, and far more open conversations are happening, which is phenomenal for the cause. It's also not just about COVID, in the coming years there might be some other disease, some other virus, so just like physical health, for mental health too, prevention is better than cure. It's a day-to-day, every day thing that we should take care of.

Susmita Sarma: Absolutely, I love the analogy of going to the gym to work on your muscles. I'm a runner myself, so I can't help but talk about running, I run regularly, I'm a half marathoner and have been for 11 years, and I feel my mental health is balanced because of that. Every time I feel a lot of pressure, I want to wake up at 5 a.m. and go for a run, because that helps, that's the reality. Equally, emotional health, emotional inclusion, or mental health is something you need to work out, like a set of emotional muscles, you need to get it out, rather than bottling up and holding back what's on your mind. Just like we ask ourselves what we do for physical health, running or yoga, asking ourselves what we do for our mental health today can be a great question for everyone to ask.

Sunita Wazir: Absolutely, and doing something like a practice, one of the things I learned during the pandemic, outside of being a mental health champion, was also to learn mindfulness and mindful breathing, and that's been so amazing, just pausing, giving your brain the space, going away from fight or flight, and not letting that adrenaline and cortisol rush have its debilitating, high-stress effect. We can't remain in stress for long periods of time, it affects our physical body and our emotional health. So just knowing to pause, take three deep breaths, and continue, it's had a transformative effect for me, and I run a regular mindfulness practice within our workplace, which I think always helps. Now, when I'm in a stressful situation, or even before I came on this podcast to chat with you, I paused for a few minutes and did some box breathing, which is counting as you breathe: breathe in to three or four, pause for three or four, breathe out to three or four, pause for three or four. If you do four or five cycles of this, around the world, armed forces and military veterans all use box breathing as a way to calm themselves. So just having a go-to practice, whether that's deep breathing, pranayam, or yoga, whatever it is, ensuring you have a habit that works for you and helps you deal with what's going on, and learning to calendarize it, put it in your calendar that you want to do a mindfulness or breathing practice, that's how habit change happens. That's how we, as employers, need to build the right environment for people to learn these skills so they can help themselves. Ultimately, it's about helping ourselves, because when you're in a crisis, you naturally want to help others, but like the airline safety analogy, and my own airline roots stay with me from my first job, you've got to put your own oxygen mask on first before helping others.

Susmita Sarma: That's so nicely explained, thank you. Moving forward, would you say companies should invest in an in-house therapist for their employees, or what other options do they have?

Sunita Wazir: Absolutely, I think companies should definitely offer counseling and in-house therapists. Just like we offer, as part of employee engagement in past years, experiences like yoga, zumba, meditation rooms, and healthy nutrition, in a lot of modern workplaces, we're doing everything for different parts of our bodies, so we should absolutely offer those solutions for the mind too. Whether it's in-house therapists or employee assistance programs, my sense is that people often like to talk to someone from the privacy of their own home, quietly, that's what I've observed, that people like anytime, anywhere access. The sort of monkey mind that's usually very active in the middle of the night, when people feel that sense of loneliness, so sometimes making support available 24/7/365, in the way people want it, millennials and younger people may want to chat with someone rather than talk on a call, so making all those avenues available. Technology is such a gift, the digital opportunities we have for making health and help available are phenomenal, so make sure to offer many different things, no assumptions, ask people what they want, depending on your workforce and their preferences. I believe this should be done through crowdsourcing, finding out what helps most, what works best, and tailoring and customizing for each individual. You can't have a one-size-fits-all approach to health and support.

Susmita Sarma: Every person has their own health, their own demands, and their own mental requirements, isn't it?

Sunita Wazir: Exactly, yes.

Susmita Sarma: Finally, Sunita, what would be your suggestions for our listeners today?

Sunita Wazir: Well, I think it's very simply put. First, be self-compassionate. We've all gone through a very tough 23 months, these last two years have been hard on all of us, so my biggest plea to everyone would be to be self-compassionate, treat yourself kindly, like you would a dear friend, child, or someone who is suffering, because not being compassionate to ourselves is something we've become very hard and demanding about, telling ourselves we must do this or should be able to do many different things. So the first message is, be self-compassionate. The second is to do something you love, whether it's fitness, breathing, or the outdoors, whatever your passion is, give yourself that time. We often say we don't have the time, but it's not about time, it's about prioritization, putting yourself as a priority is really critical. The third is to look out for signs of deteriorating mental and emotional health in yourself: if you aren't sleeping six to eight hours, or your quality of sleep isn't good, or you feel a loss of appetite or low energy that continues for a number of days, or your mind is constantly working and slipping into a negativity thinking trap, speak to someone, help is always available. Reach out to someone, talk to an expert, there are many free helplines. If you don't want to speak to someone at the workplace, I know a lot of people believe the workplace isn't the right place to talk about their issues, but that's not true, it's absolutely confidential, those counselors are bound by very stringent standards, and they're people like you and me. It's a safe space, workplaces don't get to know, so trust it, believe in it if it helps you. Make time for it, and if you can, reduce your reliance on technology, I put my phone face down when I'm having a good conversation, giving people your full presence is important. So do all the things that make you happy, be kinder to yourself, and try to do one thing at a time, multitasking isn't as fantastic as it's believed to be, so focus on what you're doing and enjoy the company you're in. Those are some of the things I think work for emotional and mental health.

Susmita Sarma: So, Sunita, we're at the end of this podcast, we'd like to know how our listeners can reach out to you.

Sunita Wazir: Well, I'm very active on LinkedIn, I love LinkedIn, I think it's a great place to connect with people. So I'm Sunita, S-U-N-I-T-A, Wazir, W-A-Z-I-R, based out of Mumbai, India, and please reach out to me on LinkedIn, we can have a conversation. Don't just say hello or hi, write a message if you'd like the content or want to have a conversation about something, and I wish you all good emotional and mental health, stay strong, stay safe, and do what you love, make sure you reach out for your purpose, do what gives you energy.

Susmita Sarma: That was great talking to you, Sunita, thanks for all the insights, and thank you for joining me in this conversation. I hope you'll join me back soon.

Sunita Wazir: Thank you, thanks for having me. Stay well, take care.