Equality, Diversity & Inclusion with Laura Todd

Diversity and Inclusion is an organisational challenge that must be addressed. It’s one that grabs my intellect, but not my heart.

D&I initiatives are necessary to win the war for talent, to find and hire a diverse workforce and to ensure fair practices, but they aren’t sufficient.

What I really want is to create those moments for people where they feel they belong to a team, they matter and are able to bring their authentic self to work.

I am passionate about helping to create a platform – giving a voice to those who do not have one.

What is Equality, Diversity and Inclusion – and how does it help businesses to perform well?

Diversity & Inclusion + Belonging = Engagement

Diversity is your mix of different people; inclusion is how well you enable your people to mix and belonging is enabling your people to bring their unique and authentic selves into that mix.

While diversity and inclusion are important metrics in their own right, there is evidence to suggest that a focus on belonging can most helpfully frame inclusion initiatives in the workplace.

We can create a diverse workforce, but if it’s not inclusive, people will leave and therefore you are not maximising the benefits of diversity of thought.

A two-pronged approach, which runs in parallel, is vital:

• Building a diverse workforce
• Building a culture of inclusion

Focusing on belonging and wellbeing brings everyone into the conversation – which enables an organisational change and mindset shift.

It becomes a pertinent topic for everyone – creating ownership and becoming invested.

By framing conversations on D&I around diversity of thought and belonging it reinforces that the conversation isn’t about blame. The goal with conversations around privilege, barriers to participation is to raise awareness and achieve equality.

No matter how different we are, we can all find things in common; purpose, behavioural science, something bigger than ourselves.

Diversity is the barometer of an inclusive environment. We want diversity of thought, but we know there are barriers for certain diversity strands, diverse representation equates to diversity of thought.

Therefore, creating a diverse workforce, using targets, measuring and interventions through the employee lifecycle is an important dimension.

BetterUp conducted online simulations of exclusion in team settings and found that excluded people were 25% less productive in working toward their team’s goals.

Two-dimensional diversity, which focuses on life experience and the diversity of thought that creates.

“Each employee must understand that their ability to work with others regardless of their own beliefs helps meet the bottom-line and promote a culture of inclusion.”

What should be the goal for any business in regards to Equality Diversity and Inclusion?

It’s a very interesting question and one that should be determined based on:

• Where the organisation is on the maturity curve for Equality, Diversity & Inclusion
• Strategic alignment to the overall business strategy
• Why is this important for the business?
• Fundamentally important is what type of culture does the business want?

Any strategy should look to impact culture, employees’ behaviour, business success and the bottom-line. It is about framing the business case for diversity and being clear about benefits for the organisation.

85% of CEOs whose organisations have a diversity and inclusiveness strategy say it has enhanced business performance:

• Retention
• Collaboration
• New market opportunities
• Engagement
• Productivity
• Innovation
• Adaptability
• Cultural appreciation
• Better and faster decisions
• Attracting top talent
• Brand image

And look at some of the facts:

A McKinsey report highlighted that eliminating the gender pay gap could add £150bn to the annual GDP by 2025.

The McGregor Review stated the UK economy could be boosted by £24bn – 1.3% GDP if BME employees advanced at the same rate as their white counterparts at work.

Yet only 2% of director positions are held by people from ethnic minorities who are UK citizens (Parker review – 2017) and women make up just 5% of Fortune 500 CEOs.

For me, it is fundamentally about all individuals feeling included, valued, respected and able to bring their best and whole selves to work in their full uniqueness and complexity.

What do businesses do well in order to get this right?

Appreciate that this is a culture and behavioural change programme.

To be true, D&I needs to be part of the culture and structures in business. It should be threaded throughout the employee lifecycle, culture, mindset and behavioural changes.

The behavioural approach to diversity and inclusion becomes the responsibility of each employee within the organisation – it is everyone’s responsibility – and doesn’t just sit within HR.

The question becomes how we can sustain a culture of inclusion and incorporate the organisational core values in every step of our work and within the organisation; the success of this part is the responsibility of managers, HR  and leaders.

Their mission is to make co-workers accountable for their behaviour, so they continue the groundwork and the culture of inclusion becomes weaved into every facet of the organisation.

Top management support is one of the first requirements in creating a shared vision for a systemic change. Change agents must define how new behaviours will become a strategic advantage for the success of the organisation.

For too many years, diversity and inclusion have been regarded as separate concerns. The reality is that it takes the top leadership to bridge the diversity gap.

Be respectful of cultural nuisances and understand that one size does not fit all. Cultural and economic context differences in geographies/regions need to be considered.

It is important to listen and engage, understand the landscape first and foremost. Reframe the conversation to focus on fair treatment and away from protected classes.

Businesses that do these things and use data-driven insights, set clear SMART targets and invest are among those getting it right.

What are the common mistakes that businesses make?

They dive into a raft of actions.

When companies decide to focus on diversity and inclusion, they often form a task force of cross-functional people and, with the best of intentions, brainstorm a giant list of events and partnerships they could throw.

They measure success on how quickly they execute on ideas.

Employees experience a burst of events and focus, and a newfound dialogue that the company lacks the structures and resourcing to fully support.

Instead, be thoughtful and intentional. Assess where the company is, identify goals and ensure executive sponsors and stakeholders are ready to put real investment and time behind these efforts. This ensures that the dialogue triggered by events is resourced by professionals who can support evolved employee needs.

Tokenism is a sign of all style no substance; like a comms campaign not driving the systematic process and behavioural changes which are required. In not addressing the systemic and institutional barriers to participation throughout the employee lifecycle – for example, differences in opportunities, power dynamics and relationships – it becomes nothing more than a tick box exercise.  

CEOs typically focus on six-month cycle – but embedding D&I effectively is a change programme and typically change programmes take two to three years to achieve real change.

They don’t have a strategic plan to reflect any commitment to diversity. There is no funding allocated to a diversity, nor an evaluation process to determine how diversity is implemented or measured.

There are no accountability standards in place to measure failures or successes. A diversity plan is thought of, but diversity is not yet part of the strategic planning of the organisation – it needs to be strategically aligned to business strategy and seen as critical to business success.

It takes real investment from senior leadership over a sustained period of time to look at the root causes of the issues and develop the cultural shift that will bring success. Slowly, but surely, we will get there.

Where should businesses start if they want to drive, improve their Equality, Diversity and Inclusion performance/capability?

Ask some key questions:

• What motivates the need for change? This can also be expressed as the problems of opportunities that the system is addressing
• What is the environment in which change will take place? How will new policies and programs be aligned with existing ones?
• How will you measure success? E.g. Performance appraisals look at diversity standards that include recruitment and retention for all the employees.

The organisation goes beyond hiring a person to lead the diversity effort, but also allocates a line item in the budget to pay and sustain this position; the person hired is part of the upper management team and has great power and influence within the organisation.

Data, data, data – it must be qualitative and quantitative.

It is about accountability, assessment and evaluation:

• Employee attrition rates
• Workforce satisfaction/engagement
• Market share within new customer basis
• External awards and recognition for diversity efforts

It is important to make it tangible for people, to get business leaders thinking:

• Why do we mean when we say diversity, wellbeing, belonging and inclusion?
• How will we measure this and know when we have got there?
• What do we want our people to feel?
• What cultural traits do we want to define, embed and champion?

ABOUT LAURA

Laura is an Advisory Board member for Salary Finance, which partners with employers to offer financial wellbeing benefits to improve financial health, inclusion and wellbeing.

Alongside her work with Salary Finance, Laura is a founding member of the Workplace Wellbeing Alliance, a social movement that takes a holistic approach to wellbeing, with data-driven insights where businesses see the value of employee wellbeing as an investment, not a cost.

You can connect with me on LinkedIn or find out more about the Workplace Wellbeing Alliance by clicking here.

CRAIG ELVIN

Ex-military engineer, Craig Elvin has more than 15 years’ experience working with clients and placing leaders in a range of sectors across the UK, Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

Craig works with growing and ambitious businesses to attract, assess and nurture the best talent for critical leadership and senior managerial positions.

Click here to connect with Craig on LinkedIn.