Racial D&I Conversation with Nicole Li & Nifraz Rifaz (Iron Mountain) (26 January 2022)

Nicole Li handles merger and acquisition deals across Asia and Nifraz Rifaz is responsible for Iron Mountain’s internal communications, media relations and customer communications.

In this conversation, both mention that their company's approach to DEI started more as a regional one and has now moved on to a global strategy that is locally relevant. DEI at Iron Mountain covers gender, race, working parents, and other areas. As a key step, Iron Mountain has appointed a Global Chief Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Officer to develop impactful strategies and drive operational excellence.

Nicole mentions that they have a number of Employee Resource Groups (ERGs) relevant to each region and country. In Hong Kong, they have established three ERGs focusing on Women, Multi-ethnicity and Generations to drive the DEI agenda. These ERGs focus on women and allies, identify barriers that exist and challenge long-held biases and stereotypes.

Nifraz goes on to explain the benefits of having an ERG in a company:

1. Raising cultural awareness
2. Providing a platform to employees to make their voices heard
3. Creating allyship
4. Creating a way to maintain a sense of community in the virtual workplace

Towards the end, he shares with us how a company can make sure that DEI goes beyond activities and is embedded in the organisation’s daily operations. Some ways to do this are by retaining staff through development opportunities, engaging through networking and creating DEI advocates and role models, he suggests.

A final reminder shared by Nicole is that DEI will not happen overnight. It takes a lot of assessing, deprogramming, reprogramming and reorienting to shift the mindset.