From Tuesday 18th July - Thursday 17th August, our EmbRace EDI Network will be celebrating South Asian Heritage Month (SAHM).
To mark the month, and to raise awareness with colleagues, network Member, Joyce Due - Skills Development Tutor, has pulled together this useful information to help with name pronunciation.
Pronouncing your colleagues names is important for diversity and inclusion because it demonstrates respect for individuals' identities and cultures and helps us to maintain and promote Dignity at Work at GC.
My experience as tutor and assessor of learners (whose names and surnames are not common within the English language) has been that, even though this doesn’t happen very often, when mispronunciation does happen, it can be a source of frustration for the learners.
When someone's name is consistently mispronounced or misspelled, it can make them feel unseen, marginalised, or even disrespected. This can lead to feelings of exclusion and alienation, ultimately hindering their ability to fully participate and contribute.
By taking the time and effort to learn and properly pronounce someone's name, it shows that you value and acknowledge their individuality. It also helps to create a more inclusive and welcoming working environment where all individuals feel accepted and appreciated for who they are. In a diverse and inclusive workplace, everyone should feel comfortable and respected, and getting people's names right is a simple yet powerful way to promote this sense of belonging.
Some helpful resources
This guide has been created by Race Equality Matters for organisations and includes examples, and a phonetics appendix on the last page, which may help you on deciding how to display your name phonetically.
This website also allows you to search names and hear the pronunciation, which has been used for the email signature example below by our EmbRace EDI Network Co-chair, Mysha Williams:
Mysha Williams (she/her)
Pronounced: My-eee-sha
Equality, Diversity & Inclusion Manager
Co-Chair of the Embrace EDI Network embracenetwork@growthco.uk
or
Mysha Williams (she/her)
Listen to my name: https://www.howtopronounce.com/myesha/4715776
Equality, Diversity & Inclusion Manager
Co-Chair of the Embrace EDI Network embracenetwork@growthco.uk