At a time when employers need to think outside the box to move the needle on mental health and inclusion (constructs understood to be overlapping), how do you know what’s worth trying? At Mars, principles dictate that they look to our Associates (employees) as partners in responding. In response to self-reported lower energy and sub-optimal inclusion insights from women leaders, Mars initiated an iterative, participatory, applied research agenda with this group. Their goal was to look for any potential root causes stemming from the culture or ways of working and identify how Mars could better support women leaders, ensuring they thrive. This bottom-up research partnership enabled them to center on the lived experiences of women leaders. Mars embarked on this journey without any preconceived notions or predetermined "solutions," allowing the project team to follow the data wherever it led -- an approach that presented both a risk and a possibility.
Speakers will discuss the participatory methodology used, which was adapted from the Community-Based Participatory Action framework commonly employed in public health research. This session will explore how this methodology influenced findings, the root causes it unveiled, and how these findings have shaped leaders’ understanding of the challenges at hand. Since this collaboration was a pilot between the Associate Health and Wellbeing and the Inclusion and Diversity Centers of Excellence at Mars, speakers will emphasize the lessons learned.
Learning Objectives
After completing this session, participants will be able:
1. Describe the basic principles of community-based participatory action research and how it is applicable in the workplace.
2. Explore the potential impact of root-cases research in addressing employee health and inclusion at their company.
3. Identify the challenges with both embarking on an open-ended research agenda and actioning the findings. 1 ADV CECH Available