Last night APPG FoRB stakeholder, the Religious Freedom & Business Foundation hosted a parliamentary event with civil society highlighting the importance of meaningful freedom of religion or belief in the workplace. The Foundation took the occasion of National Grief Awareness week to host this event because it is often in times of mourning that faith becomes most prominent in our lives as we work to process loss, and it is as critical for employers and coworkers to understand this dynamic as anyone else.

Speakers at the event included Jim Shannon MP, Chair of the APPG FoRB; Dr. Brian Grim, President of the Religious Freedom & Business Foundation; Reverend Alanna Harris, Lead Chaplain at the Canary Wharf Multifaith Chaplaincy; Shaykh Ibrahim Mogra and Shaykha Saleha Islam Bukhari, Muslim chaplains at the Canary Wharf Multifaith Chaplaincy; Jack Guest, HSBC Senior Group Inclusion Advisor; Tanya Malik, Deputy Programme Manager at NHS England and Co-Chair of the NHS England Christian Staff Network; Naveed Sharif, NHS Associate Director of Culture and Inclusion and Co-Chair of the National NHS Muslim Staff Network; and Julie Jones, Director of the APPG FoRB.

Comments highlighted the importance of making adequate accommodation in workplace spaces for adherents of any faith or none – sometimes entailing something as simple as making sure that prayer spaces in a multi-faith prayer room are facing the correct way for adherents of religions in which the direction one faces while praying carries great significance, such as Islam. They also highlighted the power of open-ended multi-faith discussions, allowing the conversation to go where it will while maintaining an attitude of mutual respect, inquisitiveness, and tolerance.

Comments also highlighted how promoting FoRB in the workplace enables employees to truly bring their whole selves to work, ultimately strengthening the bottom line of revenue for any business because happy and fulfilled employees will be more productive. Thus it is both right and self-interested for any business to embrace FoRB in the workplace, such as by working to become compliant with the Religious Freedom & Business Foundation’s Corporate Religious Equity, Diversity & Inclusion (REDI) Index. Several of the business represented at the event spoke about how FoRB in the workplace has helped them to address potential workplace conflicts and improve workplace culture and belonging, especially at a time when conflict in the world seems to be intensifying.

Faith is sometimes seen as an “F-word” of its own in business contexts, representatives of one business emphasized, with strong associated taboos, but it is crucial for business professionals to learn to work around this difficulty, and the Religious Freedom & Business Foundation is making remarkable strides in creating and disseminating resources that train businesses on how to do just this.