World Harmony Day

Happy World Harmony Day. World Harmony Day was first established in the year 1999 to celebrate unity and diversity among friends, neighbours, and colleagues. This year for World Harmony Day, the theme is “everyone belongs” to celebrate the inclusiveness, respect, and belonging for everyone in Australia, regardless of their cultural, or linguistic background. 

Currently, Australia is one of the most culturally diverse countries in the world, with around 45 percent of Australia’s population being born overseas, and with 7.5 million people migrating to Australia since 1945. When celebrating World Harmony Day, it is a timely opportunity to acknowledge the importance of cultural diversity in the workplace, and how inclusiveness with your colleagues may bring a wider range of ideas, industry expertise, and life experience to the working table. Here are three ways you can promote inclusiveness, respect, and belonging in the workplace.

Create A Cultural Calendar

Taking the time to understand your colleague’s culture or religion may become the first important step to celebrating diversity and demonstrating inclusiveness in the workplace. At the beginning of the year, communicate with your colleagues on their own cultural and religious days of the year that are important to them. Grab a few team members and create a workplace calendar that features these culturally significant days from your colleagues to celebrate throughout the year. This cultural calendar may support your colleagues to feel recognised, appreciated, and respected at work. A workplace cultural calendar is not only accommodating to your colleague’s cultural and religious days but also celebrates their customs and traditions.

Encourage Workplace Participation

A workplace with positive relationships amongst colleagues is a happy workplace. Encouraging friendships within the workplace by organising social events to attend to may improve the diversity, respect, and inclusiveness at work. There’s more to life than one standalone event, which is the office Christmas party. Organising social events that encourage your colleagues to participate and get to know their each other may boost the wellbeing of the workplace and inspire a little fun during the workday. There are many ideas to think of for workplace social events, such as a team breakfast, a monthly karaoke night, a trivia quiz, a go-karting weekend, or a pyjama day, to name a few. The event doesn’t have to be costly, as long as the event itself is about promoting healthy, and positive workplace relationships. 

Create Your Own Workplace Traditions

At the end of the day, although the workplace is about the work, it is equally as about showing respect, and interest with the people we work with. The workplace can be an opportunity to bring people closer together and recognise the significance of developing workplace traditions. By creating workplace traditions, you are celebrating that your colleagues are important, which may make the workplace a productive and efficient place. While often the best workplace traditions develop on their own, a few examples could be establishing a weekly tradition, such as casual Friday, celebrating each birthday with a special cake, or having an annual luncheon. Developing workplace traditions demonstrates a workplace culture that supports belonging amongst colleagues.   

Having diversity, respect, and inclusiveness is an absolute necessity for any workplace. By achieving workplace diversity and demonstrating inclusiveness amongst your colleagues, you may bring out the very best in your colleagues and allow them to reach their full potential through feeling respected and recognised.

At Ascent Rehabilitation, we greatly value workplace diversity by working with a talented team of people from different backgrounds, cultures, and beliefs. This World Harmony Day, celebrate the diversity and inclusiveness at your workplace through organising an event, wearing an orange shirt, or by joining a World Harmony Day event near you.