Brand new research & jobseeker insight from reed.co.uk shares what UK workers feel around inclusion & diversity actions, as well as how REED aim to cultivate belonging across the organisation.
7. > Not being given equal opportunities
> Not receiving fair pay
> Not able to express ideas and opinions openly
> Exclusion from certain meetings / projects
*reed.co.ukSurveyof1,300UKworkersAugust2019
RESPONDENTS SAID THEY EXPERIENCED THE
FOLLOWING TYPES OF DISCRMINATION:
14. 1/3 of UK workers
areconfidenttheiremployer
providesdiversitytraining
Only
15. RESPONDANTS RECOMMENDED THE FOLLOWING
INITIATIVES TO EMPLOYERS LOOKING TO PROMOTE
INCLUSION IN THE WORKPLACE:
1. Diversity training for all
16. RESPONDANTS RECOMMENDED THE FOLLOWING
INITIATIVES TO EMPLOYERS LOOKING TO PROMOTE
INCLUSION IN THE WORKPLACE:
2. Involvement in inclusive activities
(i.e. pride)
17. RESPONDANTS RECOMMENDED THE FOLLOWING
INITIATIVES TO EMPLOYERS LOOKING TO PROMOTE
INCLUSION IN THE WORKPLACE:
3. Active diversity monitoring
18. RESPONDANTS RECOMMENDED THE FOLLOWING
INITIATIVES TO EMPLOYERS LOOKING TO PROMOTE
INCLUSION IN THE WORKPLACE:
4. Support for employees with disabilities
19. RESPONDANTS RECOMMENDED THE FOLLOWING
INITIATIVES TO EMPLOYERS LOOKING TO PROMOTE
INCLUSION IN THE WORKPLACE:
5. Equal Opportunities & Unconscious
Bias training for hiring managers
20. SIX WAYS TO PROMOTE INCLUSIVITY
IN YOUR HIRING PRACTICES
36. SUMMARY
Raise awareness of why Inclusion is important
Senior Level Buy-In will drive your Inclusion Strategy
Show our commitment by communicating often
Help people feel they belong
n.b. 1,300 UK workers
Welcome and hello…
Introduction to you
Who you are, your role at REED
Our presentation covers three key areas:
Insight from a survey of UK workers on the importance/impact of diversity @ work
REED’s journey creating a diverse and inclusive workplace where colleagues feel they belong
My (your) personal experience in helping implement ideas, strategies and tactics from board level to businesswise
We all know and feel how important this area is. We sought out insight to help highlight the role D&I can play in helping attract and retain the best talent.
We surveyed over 1,300 UK workers, here’s what we found…
Our first set of results highlight the challenges organisation are facing today which I’m going to go into more detail about!
We’ve presented and shared insight at industry events where previously Inclusion & Diversity have been seen as ‘box ticking exercise’
Personally we were shocked by this statistic, because people spend most of their time at work.
So do people need to feel they ‘belong’ to be successful in their role?
Our hypothesis = engaged staff are productive staff, create a successful business culture and happy people inside and outside of the workplace.
Other things to consider here, People are your most expensive asset generally, so we want to retain them!
Research tailored specifically to inclusion, diversity & belonging
We can rule out lack of motivation, challenges around responsibilities and wage
? In their… current employment
Only half of UK workers feel able to feely express themselves at work!
If businesses want to be more innovative, having employees who feel they cant express their creativity will hinder your businesses success and workplace culture
Its good to review inclusively perks & benefits, as these will allow employees to freely be themselves, such as flexible working and dress code which are free!
Workplace culture
My manager
Perks & benefits that reflect diversity/inclusion
Areas we’d not previously thought: Dress code?
To our surprise 40% of UK workers have felt discriminated against in their workplace
Considerations we have taken following this research is to ensure we are reviewing our Managers ability to handle discrimination topics and ensure that employees are aware of how to voice their concerns.
Do we need to train employees and managers more on Discrimination?
Or could we consider how employees are able to voice their concerns or feedback, as this can be very sensitive to discuss?
These types of discrimination shouldn’t be taking place within the workplace. Are businesses aware of these taking place?
A key takeaway from these results, could be that companies ensure they have transparent policies inplace to support equal opportunities and fair pay reviews
By being open and honest with communications around these topics, businesses can reduce perceived discrimination and protect themselves from a potential claim.
All areas listed separated by a % point or two
Racial, ethic or gender-based remarks or jokes finished outside of the most selected by 10%
? Typo in august (missing a U)
Just under half of UK workers felt discriminatory situation were left unresolved at work
We need to ask ourselves, why is this? Are we avoiding those difficult conversation internally? Or are we not doing enough?
Our second set of results have highlight that candidates care about Inclusion and we were delighted to see this
I believe this will continue to be an upward trend, with the millennial generations coming through the workforce
This is a contrast from our previous insights however is interesting and I believe again is due to different generations working together within a workforce
Our Third set of results have highlight that employees know their employers are doing something around Inclusion, but feel they want more communication about the commitment
This could be due to a lack of visibility and I will come onto this, but it is really important to have senior level buyin
Salary
Responsibilities / student debt / ability to fund lifestyle at forefront
How does your employer promote Inclusivity
The best-known methods among UK Workers:
Disability adjustment
Promotional Activities (e.g. Pride)
Diversity Training
Hiring programs monitoring diversity
Training for hiring managers
Can I see a show of hands, if you have some form of Diversity training within your organisation?
As I thought, if we currently have training available it must be a communications issue. Are your internal comms loud enough?
James Reed blog example
I hope this allows you to reflect internally, as to which key Diversity Initiatives you have in place and which you maybe could communicate more, to enhance viability! These insights really helped us assess what our Co-Members know about, allowing us to prioritise other communications!
4. Hiring programs monitoring diversity
5. Training for hiring managers
I hope this allows you to reflect internally, as to which key Diversity Initiatives you have in place and which you maybe could communicate more, to enhance viability! These insights really helped us assess what our Co-Members know about, allowing us to prioritise other communications!
4. Hiring programs monitoring diversity
5. Training for hiring managers
I hope this allows you to reflect internally, as to which key Diversity Initiatives you have in place and which you maybe could communicate more, to enhance viability! These insights really helped us assess what our Co-Members know about, allowing us to prioritise other communications!
4. Hiring programs monitoring diversity
5. Training for hiring managers
I hope this allows you to reflect internally, as to which key Diversity Initiatives you have in place and which you maybe could communicate more, to enhance viability! These insights really helped us assess what our Co-Members know about, allowing us to prioritise other communications!
4. Hiring programs monitoring diversity
5. Training for hiring managers
I hope this allows you to reflect internally, as to which key Diversity Initiatives you have in place and which you maybe could communicate more, to enhance viability! These insights really helped us assess what our Co-Members know about, allowing us to prioritise other communications!
4. Hiring programs monitoring diversity
5. Training for hiring managers
We’ve presented and shared insight at industry events where previously Inclusion & Diversity have been seen as ‘box ticking exercise’
Our first set of results highlight the challenges
Senior buy in – Helped REED define what we mean by Inclusivity & Belonging
If you get your Inclusion Strategy right, diversity will follow. It is really important to us that every single person in our organisation feels belonging!
1. Think about how you define inclusivity
Being inclusive isn’t just about gender and race.
Diversity is a broad term, including elements such as educational background, social class, geography, disability, sexual preference, neuro-diversity, religion, gender identity, political views, age, and even family status.
As a result, companies must make a conscious effort to be inclusive of everyone – whether it’s in their recruitment, in their external comms, or even in the workplace.
Lenovo’s tagline ‘different is better’ demonstrates their vested interest in promoting diversity.
Their chief diversity officer states that:
“This takes more than out-of-the-box thinking, because it’s not just one box. It’s a hundred different boxes. A million different boxes. It takes every dimension of our diversity. All our diverse mindsets, skills, and cultural backgrounds, to deliver such a wide array of technology.”
Yolanda Conyers
Vice President, Worldwide Functions HR and Chief Diversity Officer, Lenovo
It’s also important to view diversity as an integral part of your business’ success, as with a more diverse team, you’ll be better able to serve a diverse customer base.
The multinational pharmaceutical company, Novartis, are passionate about this, and have even replaced the word ‘disability’ with ‘diverseability’, because they don’t view people with disabilities as having a lack of a ability, but instead having a diverse range of skills.
This may involve thinking about skills and abilities in a less traditional sense (i.e. through elite schooling or work experience in big companies), and more about how they can demonstrate them in a unique sense.
2. Build a culture that celebrates your differences
Hiring is often based on cultural fit. But how can you ensure everyone’s on the same page?
One of the first steps is creating a team of diverse people, who are passionate about inclusivity.
As a result, it’s absolutely vital to provide diversity training for senior members of staff, or anyone involved in the recruitment process. This should not only teach people how to avoid unconscious bias, but also include guidance on the best procedures to follow in certain circumstances. For example, when hiring someone with a disability, or dealing with documentation for a transgender person with sensitivity.
Global pharmaceutical manufacturer, Merck & Co. Inc., are a great example of this - citing their commitment to educating senior management. This ensures that managers aren’t unknowingly making judgments based on race, gender, or anything else. Amex is also rolling out a diversity training scheme for employees at vice president level and above.
But this training shouldn’t just be given to managers and recruiters. Delivering it in a broader sense to the business as a whole is a great way to make sure everyone’s views align.
Development goals workshops and mentoring programmes are also highly recommended, with Johnson & Johnson using these (and much more) as part of their 12 Employee Resource Groups – which are employee-led, and focus on how shared and underrepresented identities can create value for the entire business.
Embrace their differences and use these to grow a inclusive culture
Invest in Inclusion Initiatives internally, which additionally can be used to make your brand known (for the right reasons)
3. Make your brand known (for the right reasons)
It’s not just what you do internally that has an impact on the diversity of your organisation.
The way your brand is perceived by the public is equally important, and will greatly influence the range of candidates you can attract.
Luckily, there are a number of initiatives and programmes you can introduce that emphasise your commitment to building an inclusive workplace, which also have the potential to build a positive reputation for your brand – one that is fundamentally centred on inclusivity.
For example, the BBC’s Elev8 Programme and the BBC Writersroom initiative The Writers Access Group are designed to successfully mentor and develop disabled people working for the BBC, whilst the BFI has hardwired inclusion into their five year strategy, ensuring the projects they support and the programmes they create are representative of the UK as a whole.
Participating in events that celebrate diversity, such as Pride and Women’s Day, whether it’s through sponsoring them, encouraging your employees to attend, or both, is also a great way to promote diversity.
For example, PwC are major sponsors of Pride parades all over the world, sponsoring buses, floats, and banners, with leaders and employees marching amongst millions with pride. Additionally, Penguin Publishing celebrated International Women’s day by hosting the #LikeAWoman bookshop, a pop-up store which only featured books written by women.
REED conducted a Inclusive Recruitment review in which we decided to start using Bias Decoders for all Job Adverts, to attract a wider audience
4. Expand your audience (and your terminology)
Unconscious bias is a major cause of a lack of diversity within businesses.
Even if it isn’t immediately apparent to you yourself, it could be evident in everything from the language you use in your job ads through to how you shortlist your candidates.
For example, terms like ‘ninja’, ‘rockstar’, ‘guru’ and ‘hacker’ might have more masculine connotations. And, clichéd language like ‘work hard, play hard’ may imply a male-charged company culture that could involve frequent after-work drinking – consequently deterring women and parents.
The key to inclusive recruitment is using a mix of terms to ensure your job ad appeals to all groups equally, using gender neutral titles in job descriptions, and avoiding gender-charged words.
In addition to using plain English and gender-neutral terminology (e.g. they, their), you should also make your ads open to a range of skill levels and backgrounds. This could involve removing names, genders, and race from applications, and using data and fact tools (instead of an opinion-based approach) to evaluate candidates’ suitability.
EY achieved this through not only introducing a blind CV policy, but also removing academic and educational details from candidates’ applications. This was a great way to reduce unconscious bias in the shortlisting process, and ultimately broaden their talent pool.
Remember: the narrower you are with your person specification, the less likely you’ll receive a diverse range of candidates.
I don’t just mean for government regulation, I’m taking about your Interview Process. We can allow diverse candidates to shine through by considering our processes e.g.:
Interview panel
Questions
Scoring
Social Mobility and Interview panels have been our main focus at REED initially
Organisations are quite good at implementing reasonable adjustments once they are hired, however candidates can be really nervous to ask for adjustments. It is our job as employers to make candidates comfortable to ask and ensure they know whats available
5. Make reasonable adjustments
To ensure inclusivity shines through at every level of your hiring process, it’s vital to take into account a number of factors before you start interviewing.
These include everything from the questions you’ll ask and the roles of your panel members, to the location of the interview, and how you’ll score your candidates.
Firstly, having more than one person involved in the selection of staff also reduces the risk of unconscious bias. Additionally, make sure your panel is diverse, with both male and female interviewers. This not only makes candidates feel more welcome, it also demonstrates the diversity of your company as a whole.
Next, your questions and scoring system should always focus on the candidate’s ability to do the job, above gender, race, or anything else. For example, asking a woman if she’s planning to have children anytime soon is obviously strictly out of bounds, as are these questions you should never ask.
Finally, always ask if candidates need any reasonable adjustments in their invite to interview, and make sure you’re well prepared if arrangements need to be made.
This is also something that should permeate through your business as a whole, in a way that ensures current employees aren’t feeling excluded due to religion, race, gender, or anything else.
The Bank of England understands the importance of listening to the needs of your employees, and as a result offer British Sign Language training to all members of staff.
REED’s annual commitment is evolving and to continue our work we do the following:
Having our Head of TA and a representative to attend the Inclusion Steering Committee meetings
Sharing knowledge within TA – New methods of inclusive recruitment
Redefining what a ‘good’ candidate is like – apprentices, non recruitment background
Pilot CV Blinding and other initiative within smaller divisions
Ensure we are sourcing from a diverse pool – E.g. we check with our providers that they are and demand metrics
6. Never stop evolving
The only way to ensure your recruitment process is truly inclusive is to constantly test and improve it – something which can be done through documenting the diversity of your applications.
There are a wide range of technologies that allow you to measure and report on the kind of applicants you receive, shortlist, and hire – and keeping track of these, alongside setting clear targets to boost diversity, is the best way to achieve it.
In fact, some will allow you to see what happens at key stages of the recruitment process.
What kind of candidates do your roles attract? Which demographic is most popular? Where are candidates dropping off?
With this information, you’ll be able to test a variety of approaches, and ultimately figure out the best method to hiring diversely.
It’s also a good idea to document and segment your current employees’ data, to identify which minority groups you’re under-representing, and make the changes needed to bridge those gaps.
Facebook places a high level of importance on diverse hiring, and alongside their Diverse Slate Approach (aiming to ensure minorities are interviewed on site for open roles), have also introduced new analytical tools to provide insights on underrepresented groups.
Remember: inclusivity is not a static concept. It’s always changing. If your business doesn’t evolve alongside it, you’re only likely to be left behind.
This section outlines REED Commitment to Inclusion. And I’m being honest, we are on a journey…
When developing our Group Wide commitment we focused on four key elements to ensure it was impactful….
Commitment coming from the TOP – Our Chairman championing this
Group Inclusion Board Sponsors for each protected characteristic – Reverse Mentoring
Extended leadership part of the Inclusion Steering Committee
Part of the group annual business strategy – each Businesses Balance scorecard
Use some of our insights above to support you obtaining senior buyin internally
Senior buy in – Using the highly regarded PWC Inclusion Strategy Pyramid we started with Senior Level Buy-in
We presented to James Reed and the Board, about why it is important to business. By coming at it from a commercial viewpoint, this helped us to convey the importance of inclusion & belonging.
An important piece of feedback we received was that they were glad we were targeting Inclusion for all employees than targeting certain areas.
And interestingly James Reed our Chairman said, ‘of course you have my backing, I want everyone to feel welcomed at REED and its our duty to ensure they feel they belong.’
This brings LEADERSHIP AND ACCOUNTABILITY
We have re-engineered our diversity governance - To create a framework that would enable greater levels of leadership commitment and accountability for D&I
Group Inclusion Board Sponsors – Reverse Mentoring
Extended leadership part of the Inclusion Steering Committee
Part of the Businesses Balance scorecard
Getting our leaders to view this as a critical business imperative rather than a ‘nice-to-have’ was critical in moving forward
Commitment coming from the TOP – Our Chairman championing this – Brought a level of importance to the topic as he is keen to drive change, he has actively taken ownership our inclusion strategy and has supported us by cascading key messages
Group Inclusion Board Sponsors for each protected characteristic – Reverse Mentoring
Extended leadership part of the Inclusion Steering Committee
Part of the group annual business strategy – each Businesses Balance scorecard
Senior buy in – Using the highly regarded PWC Inclusion Strategy Pyramid we started with Senior Level Buy-in
And interestingly James Reed our Chairman said, ‘of course you have my backing, I want everyone to feel welcomed at REED and its our duty to ensure they feel they belong.’
This brings LEADERSHIP AND ACCOUNTABILITY
We have re-engineered our diversity governance - To create a framework that would enable greater levels of leadership commitment and accountability for D&I
Group Inclusion Board Sponsors – Reverse Mentoring
Extended leadership part of the Inclusion Steering Committee
Part of the Businesses Balance scorecard
Getting our leaders to view this as a critical business imperative rather than a ‘nice-to-have’ was critical in moving forward
Inclusive recruitment review
Creating periodic Inclusion reporting
Updating new starter forms
Holding an annual inclusion survey
Every companies data is likely to tell a different story and you can target key initiatives, using this insight to have the biggest impact.
E.g. Women in leadership was a key one for us , so we implemented mentoring programmes, WiL Events with our chairman etc. – We saw the data and acted upon it with pledges from our chairman
Data driven approach informed by the facts of today
Inclusion is changing and more resources are becoming available
Align your Inclusion strategy with Business Objectives, values and purpose
Lessons learned Case study 1 – Blinded by assumptions Historically, there was a general perception at PwC that we needed to fix our leaking pipeline of female talent by driving programmes focused on the retention of women and on support for new mothers. However, when we applied rigorous analytics the data told us something very different. In fact, it revealed that: • Across the network, more women leave than men at our most junior grades only – and at this point in their lives very few of these women are at the stage of starting a family. • At all other grades, more men actually leave than women. But we were replacing both our male and female leavers with predominately male experienced hires. This data-driven approach enabled us to debunk a common myth: that the equal gender representation at the graduate hire stage was not reflected at the top because, at some point during their career, our women were leaving to have families. In response to this insight, we have switched from a strategy focused on staunching a leaking pipeline of female talent, to an approach today under which we have identified diverse experienced hires as a critical KPI for global D&I acceleration.
Lessons learned Case study 2 – Blinded by best practice A PwC member firm beginning its diversity journey made a conscious decision to focus the bulk of its energy and resource on establishing a programme to support new mums returning to the workplace. This decision was taken based on external market trends, and the fact that a neighbouring PwC member firm recommended it as one of its established practices. However, when we looked at this programme through a data-driven lens, it quickly became clear that the impact opportunity of such a programme in this PwC firm was very limited. In fact, the data told us that: • Only a very, very small percentage (less than 2%) of its population were post-maternity returners. • More importantly, this population’s turnover rates were actually lower than the wider employee population. Through these insights, the data-driven approach enabled us to debunk the myth that a recommended leading practice from one PwC firm (or an externally lauded practice) will automatically address another PwC firm’s unique challenges or create the required impact. The outcome has been that rather than driving a strategy which centres ‘leading practices’ at its core, we take an approach today under which we use data-driven insights to identify areas of focus and target resources to create the optimal impact and achieve the best results. We are also focused on transitioning from a culture of sharing ‘leading practices’ to one of sharing PwC ‘proven practices’. At the heart of this culture is a commitment to adopting critical interventions that achieve results, and sharing only those critical interventions that have had an impact: proven practices.
Inclusive recruitment review
Creating periodic Inclusion reporting
Updating new starter forms
Holding an annual inclusion survey
Data driven approach informed by the facts of today
Inclusion is changing and more resources are becoming available
Align your Inclusion strategy with Business Objectives, values and purpose
Lessons learned Case study 1 – Blinded by assumptions Historically, there was a general perception at PwC that we needed to fix our leaking pipeline of female talent by driving programmes focused on the retention of women and on support for new mothers. However, when we applied rigorous analytics the data told us something very different. In fact, it revealed that: • Across the network, more women leave than men at our most junior grades only – and at this point in their lives very few of these women are at the stage of starting a family. • At all other grades, more men actually leave than women. But we were replacing both our male and female leavers with predominately male experienced hires. This data-driven approach enabled us to debunk a common myth: that the equal gender representation at the graduate hire stage was not reflected at the top because, at some point during their career, our women were leaving to have families. In response to this insight, we have switched from a strategy focused on staunching a leaking pipeline of female talent, to an approach today under which we have identified diverse experienced hires as a critical KPI for global D&I acceleration.
Lessons learned Case study 2 – Blinded by best practice A PwC member firm beginning its diversity journey made a conscious decision to focus the bulk of its energy and resource on establishing a programme to support new mums returning to the workplace. This decision was taken based on external market trends, and the fact that a neighbouring PwC member firm recommended it as one of its established practices. However, when we looked at this programme through a data-driven lens, it quickly became clear that the impact opportunity of such a programme in this PwC firm was very limited. In fact, the data told us that: • Only a very, very small percentage (less than 2%) of its population were post-maternity returners. • More importantly, this population’s turnover rates were actually lower than the wider employee population. Through these insights, the data-driven approach enabled us to debunk the myth that a recommended leading practice from one PwC firm (or an externally lauded practice) will automatically address another PwC firm’s unique challenges or create the required impact. The outcome has been that rather than driving a strategy which centres ‘leading practices’ at its core, we take an approach today under which we use data-driven insights to identify areas of focus and target resources to create the optimal impact and achieve the best results. We are also focused on transitioning from a culture of sharing ‘leading practices’ to one of sharing PwC ‘proven practices’. At the heart of this culture is a commitment to adopting critical interventions that achieve results, and sharing only those critical interventions that have had an impact: proven practices.
https://www.pwc.com/gx/en/diversity-inclusion/best-practices/assets/the-pwc-diversity-journey.pdf
Leadership training
Inclusion Stories
Love Inclusion Blogs – How to support Co-Members who …
Unconscious Bias Training
Wellbeing benefits – Reminders and enhancements
Conversation guides for managers – on family leave, mental health, transitioning at work
https://www.pwc.com/gx/en/diversity-inclusion/best-practices/assets/the-pwc-diversity-journey.pdf
Leadership training
Inclusion Stories
Love Inclusion Blogs – How to support Co-Members who …
Unconscious Bias Training
Wellbeing benefits – Reminders and enhancements
Conversation guides for managers – on family leave, mental health, transitioning at work
Inclusive Recruitment solutions for our Consultants to support their customers
Unconscious Bias for Hiring Managers
Diversity Champions
Inclusion & Belonging Steering Committee
External Diversity best practice resources for our
Cultural Guides
Leadership training
We can review 5 core categories with an Diversity lens and form interventions to ensure they are Inclusive to all:
Strategy & Leadership Commitment
Leadership Diversity & Pipeline
Attraction, progression & engagement
Learning and development
External positioning and client focus
Example 2 - Talent progression measures
• HC processes (e.g. performance management process) are
consistently reviewed with interventions established to
mitigate for any potential blindspots
• Monitoring processes in place to respond actively to network
diversity acceleration KPIs (promotions, potential, ratings)
• TDL sits on the firm Talent Council
• Diversity lens applied to local in and outbound global mobility
Strategy
Inclusive Recruitment solutions for our Consultants to support their customers – Bias decoder check of our adverts, have an equal op statement and Unconscious bias training
Unconscious Bias for Hiring Managers
Diversity Champions
Inclusion & Belonging Steering Committee
External Diversity best practice resources for our
Cultural Guides
Leadership training
We can review 5 core categories with an Diversity lens and form interventions to ensure they are Inclusive to all:
Strategy & Leadership Commitment
Leadership Diversity & Pipeline
Attraction, progression & engagement
Learning and development
External positioning and client focus
Example 2 - Talent progression measures
• HC processes (e.g. performance management process) are
consistently reviewed with interventions established to
mitigate for any potential blindspots
• Monitoring processes in place to respond actively to network
diversity acceleration KPIs (promotions, potential, ratings)
• TDL sits on the firm Talent Council
• Diversity lens applied to local in and outbound global mobility
Strategy