Prione Business Services, a joint venture between Catamaran Ventures and Amazon, today hosted its annual Diversity, Inclusion and Leadership (DIAL) Summit at their head office in Bangalore. Aimed at celebrating diversity and inclusion at Prione, the theme for the summit this year was – ‘Dimensions of Diversity’. The summit was attended by Sandeep Varaganti – CEO and MD, Prione and other key leaders from Catamaran Ventures and Amazon India.
One of the key objectives of the summit was to drive conversations around various aspects of diversity which include gender, physical ability, age, sexuality and marital status among others. Given Prione’s emphasis on people practices, the aim was also to instil employees with a message on how diversity of perspectives can help them be customer centric and empower them with mechanisms to be more inclusive and authentic at the workplace.
Speaking about the summit, Sandeep Varaganti, CEO and MD, Prione, said “At Prione, we want to empower our employees with the mechanisms to be inclusive, and really focus on fostering a workplace that nurtures careers, amidst the challenges that shape the current corporate world. There are many biases that impact daily work, which is why we believe every individual needs to work towards breaking stereotypes and create a ‘WE’ culture. This conference is just one of our several efforts to create an unbiased workplace.”
The summit opened with a keynote address by Sumit Sahay, CEO, Cloudtail India Private Limited on ‘Dimensions of Diversity’, which was followed by a session titled ‘Road Less Travelled’ with external guests. Samyuktha Vijayan, Founder of TouteStudio, one of the external guests, said, “Forums such as these are the need of the hour. With more diverse workforces, it is crucial for employees to feel open, safe and respected. These initiatives by Prione will help change the way individuals think and promote equal opportunity, support and encouragement, to foster an inclusive work environment.”
As part of Prione’s commitment to diversity and inclusion, a page on their website dedicated to DIAL called #WE, along with a feedback program called D&I Pulse (a Voice of Employee Initiative) was also launched at the event. Moving forward on its stand as an Equal Opportunity Employer (EOE), the company is focused on creating an inclusive workplace which aims at hiring, engaging and assimilating differently abled persons. Further, Prione revealed that across all active hiring positions, 100 percent job descriptions were revamped in 2019 to make them gender neutral. They also revealed how a sensitization program for managers on Unconscious Bias was conducted, to inculcate diversity and inclusion from the top, down. Other programs like Face-Time with Leaders, Mentoring Circles and Childcare Benefit were the cornerstone of Prione’s initiatives in 2019.
The summit closed with a panel discussion on “How leaders shape an inclusive culture” which saw participation from corporate leaders including Abishek Laxminarayan – Chief Investment Officer at Catamaran , Gopal Pillai – Vice President, Amazon India, and Sandeep Varaganti, CEO and MD, Prione. The leaders shared their views on what hinders an inclusive work culture and how they are contributing to make things better.