With diversity, equity, and inclusion (DE&I) being a crucial part of an organisation, it’s important to remember and acknowledge the awareness days throughout the year. 

To help with this, we’ve put together this list including the key DE&I Awareness Days in 2022, to ensure you’re able to celebrate these within your organisation, helping you continue to champion inclusivity. 

January 2022

17th January – Blue Monday

The first of these days is Blue Monday, which is said to be ‘the most depressing day of the year.’

After the spirit of Christmas has faded, and people return to the reality of their everyday lives, more and more people can become depressed. It’s important to support this as an organisation, and there are many different ways to do this. You could champion and remind employees of your existing Employee Assistance Programmes, or schedule a health and well-being lunchtime yoga session.

February 2022

February is LGBT History Month. Last year, we saw organizations post regular educational LGBT History content, and hold lunchtime LGBTQ+ Lunch & Learns. Whatever you’re doing to support this month, post it on social media and get conversations started!

March 2022

8th March – International Women’s Day

Each year International Women’s Day has a different theme. For 2022 it’s #BreakTheBias. Has your organisation been breaking the gender bias? If so, share your success stories online and champion your female employees.

21st March – International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination

The Black Lives Matter protest showed us all that racial discrimination still exists. This day should not be taken lightly or used just for a social media campaign. If your organisation is actively committed to providing an inclusive environment and eliminating racial discrimination – talk about it. But ensure that it is not done just for the engagement, or you could face major backlash as many organisations including PrettyLittleThing did.

31st March – Transgender Day of Visibility

Transgender Day of Visibility is recognised to celebrate all transgender individuals and the challenges they have faced. Similarly to LGBT History Month, you could do educational content, lunch and learns, or ask colleagues to dress in the LGBTQ+ flag to raise money for a relevant charity. For more information, you can visit our blog on Building a Trans-inclusive Company.

April 2022

2nd April – World Autism Awareness Day

The benefits of hiring neurodiverse talent are being more prevalent to organisations. Companies including SAP have made large campaigns to attract neurodiverse talent to their organisations, and other businesses are following suit. On this day you could share the ways that your organisation is creating an inclusive working environment for neurodiverse people, or ways that you have adapted your recruitment process so that it doesn’t discriminate.

For more information, you can visit our blog on Neurodiversity in the Workplace.

August 2022

26th August – Women’s Equality Day

Women’s Equality Day is celebrated in the USA to commemorate the women’s right to vote, and how far we have come.

September 2022

18th September – International Equal Pay Day

Are you actively tackling the gender pay gap? If you are, it’s important to talk about it and even share your statistics.

October 2022

10th October – World Mental Health Day

According to mentalhealth.org.uk, 1 in 7 people experience mental health problems at work and 12.7% of all sickness days in the UK are due to this. World Mental Health Day exists to raise awareness of mental health issues and the support that exists to help those struggling. For more information, you can visit our blog on Mental Health in the Workplace. 

November 2022

19th November – International Men’s Day

Men’s health, both physical and mental, should be talked about. If you have male role models within your organization, they could share their stories internally or as content to keep starting those all-important conversations.

December 2022

3rd December – International Day of Persons with Disabilities

The worldwide population of people living with disabilities is over one billion! As a truly diverse organisation, you will have employed people with disabilities, so champion them! If they’re comfortable with it, share content on social media… if not, you could always share ways your organization is inclusive to all people through blogs to help break down the stigmas around disabilities.

So that’s our list of DE&I Awareness Days for 2022. If you’ve noticed we’ve missed any, do let us know – info@equallyplaced.com.