One of the things I love about working at Raconteur is the fact that we’re constantly trying to improve, both in the work we produce and the way we run as a company. Cliché though it sounds, we don’t just stick to doing things the way we always have because it’s easy – we experiment, we learn from experience, and we genuinely push to be better. And this was the spirit we tried to take into this year’s National Inclusion Week.

Becoming a more diverse and inclusive company is one of our top commitments for 2019 and something our leadership team have been working hard to drive (our MD, Will, recently wrote this blog post explaining what started us on this path). It’s hit home for a lot of us and I think it’s fair to say we’re all painfully aware of what a privileged bunch we are. 

Enter our brilliant new Head of Talent and Inclusion, Sagina. Sagina was brought in to help us become the diverse and inclusive workplace we aspire to be, and in the few weeks she’s been with us she’s already made more of an impact than any of us could’ve imagined.

Getting Raconteur involved in National Inclusion Week in September was one of her very first acts. A week of celebrating diversity and encouraging inclusive communities – what could be more fitting? We’d love to say we’re conscious of this all year round, but it seemed important to take a few days to hammer the point home and look at what we can all do better.

As part of National Inclusion Week, Sagina organised an ‘inclusivi-tea’, which paired each of us up with another Raconteur to have a cuppa with. As a company we are big on encouraging people to take regular breaks from work, even if it’s just ten minutes to have a quick chat in the kitchen. As a publisher specialising in business issues, we create huge amounts of content around employee wellbeing, mental health, and diversity and inclusion, so it felt important to practice what we preach.

It can be easy to get caught up in what you’re doing and not realise you’ve gone three hours without looking up from your desk. Something that everyone at Raconteur has in common is the fact we’re all hardworking and ambitious – the downside of this is that we can forget how important it is to take the time to look after ourselves and each other. As a young, dynamic, sociable company we are lucky to be surrounded by people who value and take a real interest in each other’s company, but sometimes work can take over. 

Since we’re a fairly small company of 64, most of us would say we know each other pretty well, but for our inclusivi-teas Sagina and Will made sure everyone was partnered with someone outside our team or department who we might not normally take a break with. As with a lot of the activities we enjoyed for National Inclusion Week, the idea was simple and took little-to-no effort from us – all we needed to do was take a short break during the day and have a cup of tea and a chat with our inclusivi-tea partner.