DEI program ideas
Program ideas and ready-to-use templates to connect people across cultures, backgrounds and life situations, and make your workplace more inclusive.
A diverse workforce does not automatically become an inclusive one. Inclusion grows when people actually meet colleagues who are different from them, listen to their perspectives and find what they have in common. Here are program ideas to make that happen, most of them available as ready-to-use templates.
Programs with a ready-to-use template
These templates are in the “Use Cases Library” of your RandomCoffee platform, in the “Programs” menu. Click “Preview” on a template, then “Setup this program”. Every setting stays customizable. See Create a program.
Cross-cultural conversations
Connect employees from different cultural backgrounds to share and learn about each other’s traditions, daily routines, hobbies and more.
- Template: “Cross-cultural conversations”
- Default setup: groups of 4, one session. Groups mix people from different backgrounds, so you need a category such as country or native language.
- Tip: launch it every year on May 21, the UNESCO World Day for Cultural Diversity for Dialogue and Development. Use the conversation starters below in your match email.
Let’s share a lunch
Bring people together around a meal: each participant brings a local dish from their region to share with the group.
- Template: “Let’s share a lunch”
- Default setup: groups of 8, every 4 weeks.
- See the template on our website
Team Connect
Build genuine connections between people of the same team or organization, to strengthen team bonding.
- Template: “Team Connect”
- Default setup: groups of 3, every 2 weeks.
- See the template on our website
Women@Work
Connect women in small groups to share experiences, support each other’s career growth and build a supportive community.
- Template: “Women@Work”
- Default setup: groups of 4, every 4 weeks.
Parent Connect
Connect parents to talk about parenting advice, work-life balance, childcare tips and more.
- Template: “Parent Connect”
- Default setup: groups of 3, every 4 weeks.
- See the template on our website
“Great place to work” conversations
Each week, an HR representative meets employees for a casual conversation about their work environment, their challenges and their ideas to improve the employee experience.
- Template: the “Great place to work” conversations template
- Default setup: every week, with the “Lottery” algorithm: RandomCoffee picks employees among the participants, and you add your HR representative in “Looped participants” so they are in every group.
- See the template on our website
Well-being connections
Connect employees to talk about work-life balance, stress management and well-being at work, and build a supportive culture together.
- Template: “Well-Being Connections”
- Default setup: groups of 3, every 2 weeks.
- See the template on our website
More ideas to build yourself
These ideas have no template yet. Create them from scratch (see Create a program) and write the opt-in and match messages to explain the format.
DEI dialogues
Put employees in groups of 3 to discuss a specific DEI topic at each session, such as unconscious bias, privilege or allyship. Give the topic of the session and a few questions in the match email.
Boost your emotional intelligence
Put employees from different backgrounds and experiences in groups of 3 for a role-play. Each person comes with two strong opinions that others may not share, and plays three roles in turn: the speaker, the challenger and the reflector.
Sign language coffee chats
Pair deaf employees with hearing employees who have different levels of sign language, to have conversations in sign language. With the “Group composer” algorithm, put each group of people in its own seat. See Group composer.
For programs based on personal characteristics, such as parenthood, gender or disability, let people join by themselves rather than selecting them from HR data. Invite a broad audience with “Ask for participation”: only the people who accept are matched.
Conversation starters for cross-cultural conversations
Add a few of these questions to the match email of your “Cross-cultural conversations” program. For more ideas, share conversation starters with your members.
Classic questions
- What do you find interesting about your culture?
- What is reverse (or re-entry) culture shock? Have you ever experienced it?
- How much do you know about your own culture?
- On what occasions do people exchange flowers in your country?
- Have you ever been confused by the actions of someone from another culture? Tell us about it.
- How do young people in your culture behave differently from older generations?
- What do you think is important when visiting another culture?
- Who in your culture do you admire the most?
- What is a common misconception about your culture that you would like to correct?
- If you could introduce one aspect of your culture to the team, what would it be and why?
- Can you share a time when understanding a different culture helped you, at work or in your personal life?
- When people from other countries think about your culture, what do they usually think of?
- In your culture, is it polite to be straightforward when you talk to someone? With whom is it OK, and with whom is it not?
- What does it mean to be polite in your culture?
- What is considered rude in your culture?
- What is the best thing your culture has given to the world?
- How do people express their feelings in your culture?
Fun questions
- Pineapple on pizza: yes or no?
- Do you take your shoes off when you get home?
- Black coffee or coffee with milk?
- Pain au chocolat or chocolatine?
- If aliens visited your country, what might surprise them?
- Do people eat in silence in your culture, or is slurping OK?
- Soccer or football?