The Equity, Diversity & Inclusion forum convened to focus on inclusion strategies and to track the trends in the Equity, Diversity and Inclusion space.
Question 1 What areas of Equity, Diversity & Inclusion (EDI) are on the agenda in 2024
The most popular areas our forum have seen are mental health with a growing interest in neurodiversity. We are quite interested to see where that leads, because a lot of businesses are looking at neurodiversity in a much more positive light.
When it comes to mental health, a particular concern is the mental health of the younger generation in the workplace with a feeling they are not quite as resilient as other generations. According to Resolution Foundation “One in three 18- to 24-year-olds now report symptoms indicating they have experienced a common mental health problem, such as depression or anxiety disorder, compared with one in four in 2000.”
In addition, the ACCA Talent Trends Report 2024 research has found that “57% say their work impacts their mental health”
We are also hoping that disability starts to receive more attention as it is the “forgotten cousin of mental health and neurodiversity.”
The consensus was that aspects of disability are things that employers don’t always want to talk about or address.
One final area which is starting to emerge is menopause awareness. Given the amount of women in the workplace this was considered a positive move.
Intersectionality was also mentioned. This is where someone could fall into more than one protected characteristic such as being neurodivergent and being from an ethnical minority. Consideration of this aspect is also becoming more apparent.
What we collectively noticed is that organisations have “projects” around different groups which makes things a little bit better, but what is really needed is a strategic top down approach. It’s the attitude of the majority that is the thing that needs to shift, not just the rules around what they’re allowed to do. It’s about the whole organisation having an awareness.
“Yes, you need to have the right safeguards in place, and the right listening mechanisms in place and a bit of education for managers or whatever in place. But actually, the things that strike me that really need to change is culture.”
We have also noticed that companies sometimes feel “forced” into looking at a particular topic due to media focus.
“Opening up people’s minds to being inclusive in general, would be more powerful than project work.”
Question 2 What does inclusion in Equity, Diversity & Inclusion mean to you? And what are your thoughts on inclusion, how it’s perceived in the wider community?
“We’re looking at our diversity inclusion action plan. We really had to drill down with the team as to what does inclusion mean to us to get relevant terminology. There was this common thread , ‘We want to feel like we belong, we want to feel like we can bring our best selves or ourselves to work, and not just exist, but thrive’. So, it’s that sense of being able to belong, being able to thrive and feeling psychologically safe.”
“We’ve found that inclusion is so subjective, and there is genuinely no catch all, or there’s no single thing we can do to make every single person in our business feel included. That presents us with a bit of a conundrum, if everyone perceives inclusion differently. We’ve tried to take a proactive approach to inclusion. Also actively going out and engaging people in conversation to try and start conversations around it. Seeking clarity in another part of this.”
Question 3 Policies have a legal framework to them. But when it comes to the nitty gritty of policies, how many organisations do you think actually get people outside of HR involved in the writing of that policy?
We discussed that policies were often seen as legal protection or appear as a reaction. Often written with a positive intention in mind, they are rarely created by anyone outside of HR.
Another issue is having a ‘policy on the shelf’ but not living it.
“We have noticed places where you all have to be quiet in the office. But if you’ve got ADHD, then you’re not necessarily going to be quiet when you’re working. If you really welcome neurodivergent employees and they have to be quiet is that going to feel inclusive ? If you interview someone who has Tourette’s and has a vocal tic, is that going to be something that you can manage in your small office.”
“Newer organisations often have opportunities to set things up in a way that can be fresh and co-produced. But an older, existing organisation can find it difficult sometimes to turn the boat around, and to implement new things. What can happen is, 50% of your workforce might turn around and say, “I’m off.” Well, that might be fine if you’re not the people that we want in the future. But you potentially leave a big gap. Be aware that changing the culture a lot, people who have worked here for a long time may turn around and say, “This isn’t my face anymore.”
As a white male, what does inclusion mean to you?
“I’ll actually go back a generation further than me, I’ll go to my parents. Because if I looked at my parents, and if you’d asked me to describe my parents, they weren’t racist, they just used language, which to them was normal. I joined the armed forces and the armed forces was intensely racist at one point, particularly the army, but that’s because the army is racist within itself. If you didn’t come from the regiment, you were considered an outsider, that’s not racism, but it is prejudice. We have come a long way since these times and there is more awareness and consideration of the impact on others. So yes, for me, inclusion is everybody being treated equally irrespective of who you are, where you come from, what gender you are, it’s everything.”
“You know, inclusion is everything. Having worked with neurodiversity, race areas, gender and generational areas, it’s everybody treating everybody as an individual. And the other area is understanding. The greatest area of inclusion to me is understanding the other person and where they come from, and that’s about education. For example, what does ADHD really mean? What does neurodiversity actually mean? The armed forces, at one point tried to try to actively recruit more people from the Asian community but the people in that grouping didn’t easily join the armed forces, because that wasn’t expected of them, they were expected to do different things as a career. And that is okay, so we need to understand everybody, irrespective of where they come from or what gender they are to attract the right people and to get the best out of each person.”
“It’s interesting, because I think that the work that I’ve done looking at neurodiversity over the last seven or eight years, has changed my perception of what inclusion is. So, I was very much in an equal opportunities kind of mindset eight or ten years ago, trying to make everybody equal when they aren’t. Looking at neurodiversity it is actually about recognising the value of difference. This is where the diversity and inclusion is, in my mind. Now, it’s not just recognising difference, it is actually valuing the contribution of difference. And that’s where I think businesses should be looking at the benefit of having a diverse workforce. It is a huge benefit to have different trains of thought, different ideas, different cultures. The value of that should be where we’re at where businesses are looking at the positives of inclusion and not doing a policy because they’re worried about it.”
“There’s lots and lots of times I’ve heard, “Oh, Isn’t it fantastic? That sounds so successful, despite being dyslexic?” Actually, there’s a lot of reasons why being dyslexic is probably how that person is successful. It’s about changing that language we use around difference, and recognising that actually everybody has an individual contribution to make and sometimes their differences are the best bit that they can add to our business rather than something that comes along with a secondary need.”
“One area to consider as an HR person is around holiday time and its positioning in the employment contract. How many people have employment contracts or a simple contract that says your holiday time is 20 days plus Bank Holidays? Bank Holidays in the UK are Christian holidays – how do you approach this with your Muslim and Hindu colleagues etc?
Thinking forward into the future, the demographics of the UK population has changed considerably in the past 20 years. And so, we need to recognise that, actually, we’ve got people of different socio-economic class, different race, different religions. And it’s not just the way things used to be before, and organisations will get left behind if they don’t think of these things in an inclusive way.”
“I think it’s really important to understand that everyone experiences protected characteristics differently. My parents are Indian, and I have had a really privileged upbringing. And I don’t necessarily have the same lived experience or shared experience as somebody who is economically deprived.
And the other thing I would say is there’s something around ownership of narrative. When you are part of the narrative, you can start to shape a company’s culture or workplace. If you allow other people to do it for you, or allow them to make assumptions, and those assumptions are wrong, you have a responsibility to educate people on this. For me, personally, I think there is a role there for us to play. And there is something around ownership.”
“I think that’s a very interesting point, because we make assumptions based on how we look. People could make an assumption about me, which would be it’s okay to park all the way over there, because I don’t have a blue badge. But not everybody is equally able. And as somebody who’s had chronic fatigue for a very long time, parking over there is not all right. Just because I don’t have an official disability, it doesn’t make me equally able, when it comes to carrying things, lifting things or walking long distances.”
Recruitment
“We were talking a little bit in one session yesterday about in recruitment, when you’re filling in forms about what tick boxes are on there, and what data is collected about you. And you know, people were talking about different gender boxes, and it was male, female, and other – which can be interpreted in a very negative way. It’s almost like an exclusion kind of terminology. Also ticking the box about whether you have a disability or not is the same. What classifies as a disability? If you asked me if I’m a disabled person, I’d say no, but I have a disability. As you say, it’s your own narrative. It’s how you explain yourself. And the challenge employers have is that there’s so much diversity and range of experience, how on earth do you collect the right data? How do you use the right terminology? Because you could have 57 genders, you know, how do you do that efficiently? That’s manageable within a business but also respect people’s individuality and diversity. Tick boxes aren’t really helpful, just have a box that says, ‘How do you identify’. That can make inclusion a reality from day one, so consider the experience of a new employee. When a new employee is joining and you fill a form is the first impression you want to give, ‘put yourself in that box first’.”
“I sometimes have to support businesses with disability confidence. And we look all the way from the first impression we make as business and through the process. That goes beyond just disability. If I go on a website, and I don’t see anybody that reflects me, I’m not going to really want to work for that business. So, the front end of how businesses are presenting themselves is important because if you only display one demographic, that’s probably the only demographic that’s going to apply. So, be aware of unconscious bias”
Question 4 How can we foster a sense of belonging in the workplace?
We also asked, “Are there any groups you see in your workplaces or communities, which show signs of exclusion or where exclusion is a risk.”
One company is running a pilot study with seminars around different generational needs and perceptions of age and the different generations within a workplace. It looks at perceived strengths and weaknesses of different generations, and how you might run employee engagement initiatives, which really resonate with certain demographics.
“…we did a benefits campaign last year, where we went around all of our six offices, and we were there to try promote the range of employee benefits to all our employees. Some people found it so beneficial. And some found it completely useless, because we had missed out on the topics that were most important to them. A lot of our older generation really wanted more insight into pensions and investments, so much more relevant to their stage of life. Also, your use of private health care and medical insurance and things like that appeal to different people for different reasons.”
“It does take the whole team. And that’s the whole thing about culture. It’s not just about HR holding it together, and making sure they rally people. Having an inclusion policy on the shelf and having an inclusion specialist in the HR team is great, but it’s not enough because day to day, you don’t want it to get to the point where it has to come to HR where the policy is being enforced. If this happen’s we haven’t reached them. We have to meet people at their bus stop.”
The younger generation may also have a different perception of the need and application of inclusion activities in the workplace
“My 18 year old daughter says, “But Mum isn’t this just about being a decent human being.”
“It’s the same with my son, He is 17 and he is mixed race. He has ADHD. And yet, he does not perceive himself as mixed race or having a disability or any of those things. And we often get into quite heated debates around EDI, because he’s probably in that cohort of seeing himself as a white male, who doesn’t understand and why are you so concerned and preoccupied with this. I think he identifies more being white than Indian interestingly. That’s fine, but we have these debates. Until you go into the workforce and go into the world, and you experience some form of prejudice or discrimination. In whatever form that comes, it’s unlikely that you will feel the need to explore this further”
“Diversity, Equity, Diversity and Inclusion, everybody is diverse, everybody needs to be included.”
Question 5 If diversity is being asked to the party and inclusion is being asked to dance, what good practice have you seen to bring teams together, or to support individual progression?
Our consensus was that it starts with hearing and validating our teams and it can extend beyond that. If I can get my message heard within my team, and also hear the messages that they are relaying to me, then that’s really going to promote a positive environment and a positive culture.
There was also a consensus about hearing people individually, hearing those voices and not being led by what’s being spoken about above. Having an advocate, that has the confidence to say when it’s not going to work for all. Having the space to say ‘no’ and to know that this will not cause an issue.
“Fostering a sense of belonging is about listening”
Collaboration days
“We do quite a lot of social stuff and we do a lot of collaboration days, where the whole team comes together once a month and one of our favourites is ensuring we encourage different members of the team to lead something about wellbeing or mental health. Alternatively, it might be a crafting session that will be something that they’re really good at. They really enjoy that they can showcase and sort of co-opt everybody into. I think there’s something around really understanding what makes them tick, and giving them a safe space to do that at work. And we’re trying to do that bit more.”
Leadership
We agreed that it’s so important for leadership and management to really understand their staff more and recognise individuality. This can also be done through buddy systems and getting colleagues involved. Buddy systems are great, if you don’t want to talk to your manager, you can go talk to someone else. Mentoring was also mentioned as a positive throughout the organisation.
“I also think that there’s something there about leadership that’s a bit of a shocker. You will be judged by your worst decision, not your best ones. You’ll be judged by the things you just let slide day to day. Where you know the team ought not to be calling that person this or allowing that person to do that, but you let it slide. Because it’s those things, those micro aggressions, it’s those things that you as a leader will be judged by – not the fact that you brought in pizza on Wednesday.”
We had a consensus around leadership appreciating that everyone is equal in law and should be treated as an individual. Just because someone doesn’t have a disability badge doesn’t mean that your team are all equally physically able. Also, the perception that a neurodiversity is an issue and not a skill is also common place. It should be about putting people with the right skills in the right place and neurodivergent people come with great skills!
Team led initiatives
“We have a team of EDI champions within our business, I think these people are very passionate about individual subjects. And when they drive projects, you can see their passion come through. Those are the things that get such better engagement and really get people talking as opposed to us as a business talking conceptually about an issue under the EDI banner. People talking from their personal experience really works, as their colleagues empathise with them, they relate to them, because they know them as a person. This makes it intrinsically more understandable and to get into the mindset of where they’re coming from”
“In NATO units, you would have a conference where each different country would have a stand. They talk about and demonstrate their culture. You get to understand and experience their culture. This brings about understanding and is part of the closeness.”
“We’ve got neurodiversity days, we’ve found people who are prepared to come forward and say, “This is what life is like for me.” and this has been really impactful.”
“We’ve certainly seen the positive impact of senior leaders who come up to us and say, “I’d like to stand up at the beginning, and explain to everybody about depression, because I’ve suffered from it all my life. And as part of accepting who I am and how I do things, I wanted to just share with everybody here that you can come forward with this sort of thing, HR were really great with me, it didn’t stand in the way of me getting promoted. And I just want to make that point.” This approach sets the scene for HR to then say, “We’ve got these policies, we’ve got a helpline, we’ve got people who are willing to listen and help as well. So, if you’ve got depression, or anxiety or any anything like that, and you want to come and talk to us about it, then our door is open.” After one of these sessions, I spoke to HR after the lunch break, and two very exhausted HR team members just said, thank you for giving everyone permission and an opportunity to come forward, we have been able to support and understand so many more people today.”
“EDI, it takes time, it takes energy, and it takes intention, and effort. And as an organisation, if you’re not prepared to really do that, you’re not going to see the outcomes you want.”
I would like to thank all of the contributors to the forum
Geetha Dean – Active Gloucestershire
Kathryn Wood – Medigold Health
Andrew Carter – Risk Reward Management Ltd
Joseph Hill – Ultimate Finance
Our previous forum commentaries are:
Focus on digital inclusion – EDI Forum Bath & North East Somerset Business Show 27th June 2023
Focus on SME approach to diversity – EDI forum Gloucester Business Show April 2023
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