And yet many of us know from personal experience, anecdotal evidence, and empirical research that – particularly in our current state of distributed work – feeling welcomed, wanted, included, and valued can have a tremendous impact on your thriving, success, and overall tenure on a team.

In this talk, Kristen Foster-Marks will offer a simple, evidence-based way to increase individuals’ sense of belonging and mattering: microinclusions. She’ll demonstrate how both the presence and absence of microinclusions can impact an engineer’s thriving, success, and tenure. She’ll wrap up by sharing some simple microinclusions that engineering leaders can practice to make sure folks know that they belong and that their skills, knowledge, and contributions matter.

Key takeaways:

• What are the consequences when we don’t make our new hires feel welcomed, valued, and included?
• What are microinclusions, and how can we thoughtfully deploy them to make our new teammates feel welcomed, valued, and included?