Isabel Fuenzalida, our RD&I Consultant, has only been at her desk for a few months, but she already has a lot of work to do, such as analyzing the results of the Respect, Diversity and Inclusion Survey we conducted in June.

In the midst of all the data and indicators she notes down, one sentence stands out in her notebook: “Work is not only a means to earn a living, but a social transformation”. This is how she sees her role since she arrived in August of this year: “To make a social transformation in ALMA together,” says Isabel.

How have these first few months been for you?

It has been incredible, I have been treated very well and I have had a lot of support from my Human Resources team and my colleagues. At first it was hard for me to understand the structure because I had never worked in organizations with such multiculturalism and so much internationality, so it is very entertaining to understand that.

How have you seen ALMA’s culture in terms of Respect, Diversity and Inclusion?

The culture at ALMA embodies the values of respect, diversity and inclusion, you can see that everyone is very respectful, polite and values the differences in others. However, there is a need to work on diversity and inclusion training and unconscious bias. This is very common in an organization that has not previously worked on these issues, in order to strengthen an inclusive culture.

And what’s next? At least for the rest of the year?

Well, now we are going to deliver the results of the survey, but in terms of legal compliance, the first thing is to accredit the people with disabilities who already work at ALMA, by the end of the year. And the second thing is to create policies for all aspects of diversity, not only for people with disabilities, which is what the law requires us to do, but also for the issues that we saw were most important for employees, such as gender, disability, neurodiversity and multiculturalism.

And this is a work that you are going to do together with the CMT, that is to say, a robust policy that will be fixed…

Of course, that gives us the basis for all the work that is going to be done from now on, which is to go a little further in legal requirements. It’s not just saying “Ah, this is our value”, but “this is the heart of the organization, the DNA of ALMA”. And that it covers everything, such as generations, sexual diversity, that we will not tolerate any type of discrimination against these priority groups. This has to be in place by 2024 at the latest.