Canon is embracing multiculturalism and diversity by gearing up to celebrate Diwali, the Indian festival of lights, in its offices across Australia. Diwali is a significant five day religious festival for Hindus, Sikhs and Jains, celebrating the victory of good over evil. While in India the event is celebrated for five days, Canon staff will celebrate Diwali this Friday, November 6.

People gather to celebrate Diwali

The celebrations will include the traditional sand painting (Rangoli) at Canon’s national headquarters in Macquarie Park. Multi-cultural Canon also celebrated the Chinese New Year with its employees earlier in the year. Canon says it is committed to create a ‘diverse and inclusive’ workplace, and Diwali is a great opportunity to celebrate with all employees. Nitya Padman, manager, business communications at Canon Australia, says: “Our research indicates employers have a lot of work to do on diversity and inclusion to reflect Australian society – but they are willing to improve. “At Canon, we have involved our senior leaders in creating an inclusive culture that recognises, and values difference, and have formalised the process through a diversity council.

Traditional sand painting (Rangoli)

“We recognise the positive impact of diversity and inclusion on business performance, and we are pursuing best practice in this area. This entails celebrating the diversity of employees and the broader community, and creating a workplace where people thrive, customers are engaged and business grows sustainably.” She says the Canon diversity council is headed by members of the senior leadership team and includes representation from a range of employees from different business functions, backgrounds and locations. Padman says, “The council’s work is supported by human resources policies and activities throughout the organisation. “These activities aim to educate our employees about the benefits of diversity and inclusion, and minimise the impact of unconscious bias and other barriers to diversity. “Our programs have included diversity and inclusion workshops to address unconscious bias, and an inspiration series where female thought leaders speak on inspiring change. In addition, we have amended our job advertisements to make them gender, ethnicity and age neutral. “Our commitment to celebrating cultural events grows every year and this year we are delivering Diwali events across the nation.”

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