It was a packed house at our ED&I Leaders’ Summit where we were proud to be joined by three leading ED&I directors from our membership; Fiona Vines, Chief Inclusion Officer, BT Group, Darren Towers, Group Head of Inclusion, Equity and Wellbeing, Spirax Group and Rachel Osikoya, Director, Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, Lloyds Banking Group, for our second panel session, which was moderated by our CEO, Richard DeNetto.
This session delved into - delivering on our ambitions, uncovering how businesses have responded to emerging events, maintained momentum and continued to develop a more holistic approach to ED&I. Here are some of the highlights from the discussion
How to keep ED&I on the agenda and maintain leadership buy in
A deliberate effort should be made to ensure ED&I is so critical to a company strategy that it cannot be deprioritised and there would have to be a conscious effort for it to be overlooked or unpicked.
Having an engaged executive and leadership team helps to achieve this, providing credibility and having ED&I as a standing executive committee agenda. Darren highlighted Spirax’s new group strategy for the next five years, naming Capability and Belonging as one of the four underlying drivers for the whole business strategy for the group. This makes inclusion really key for their business as a whole.
Your ED&I strategy should support the organisations strategy, in the case of Lloyds Banking Group, Rachel expressed how their purpose is to ‘Help Britain Prosper’, this mission makes it difficult to move away from diversity and inclusion, it’s integrated into everything they do.
Lloyds Banking Group understand the impact they can have in reducing inequalities in accessing finance that minority groups face. Through their Black In Business initiative, they found 67% of black entrepreneurs have faced some kind of discrimination when trying to get funding, clearly identifying the challenges that still take place and providing the business case to secure leadership buy in.
Measuring the impact of the ED&I strategy and overcoming barriers
Employee Opinion surveys (EOS) are one of the most common measures used to assess the impact of the EDI strategy across the business, the cadence of surveys difference across companies, where some found conducting the survey annually gave time to understand the findings and act accordingly. Whereas others found running their EOS surveys every three months was more effective, recognising that sentiment can change quickly for a variety of factors.
When looking at data, it’s important to disaggregate the data to pin down where the business is at with on its ED&I journey, and where there may be bigger gaps in representation or large disparities in progression rates or tenure.
Overlaying demographic data with other metrics can support businesses to identify risks and put in place more tailored interventions. For example, the panel discussed that ethnic minority staff in customer facing roles were found to disproportionately experience abusive behaviour, and it was important for leadership teams to act to help manage their employee’s safety, security and wellbeing.
Reflections – How to manage fatigue in this profession
It goes without saying that recent times have been tough, with the pandemic, the murder of George Floyd, and the riots and unrest last summer. ED&I professionals are often at the front line, driving culture change and facing into the headwinds of ‘culture wars’. It’s a rewarding role but it can be very challenging at times
Here are some recommendations our panellists provided to ensure you don’t get burnt out:
- Always be kind to yourself and use allyship. Allow yourself space and lean on the supportive teams and colleagues who are ED&I champions and advocates
- In hard times, think about the ‘why’. Always try and link back to the business strategy and elevate the conversation
- Be inquisitive. If someone is challenging the value of ED&I don’t jump on the defensive, ask them ‘what makes you say that’. Listen to their experience
- Lead with data. As with any department set out the problem that you are trying to solve. Use data and evidence to bring this to life and share how you are measuring progress
- Set personal boundaries. Let people around you know what your non negotiables are
- Utilise your internal resources. Lastly, make the use wellbeing resources that are in place, whether that be speaking to a counsellor, using your family friendly policies and connecting with the great networks that exist in the business.
