Furthering the case for change

Let’s delve deeper into the topic of EDI, and how your teams can benefit from a work environment that embraces these values.

So what can leaders be doing today to support equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI)?  

Many of the issues surrounding the lack of – or poorly designed – EDI strategies stem from a leadership-level failure: refusing to properly plan, create and fully support diversity and inclusion initiatives. Introducing an initiative as a result of a knee-jerk reaction seldom works and will fail to attract long-term employee engagement. Disengaged employees who don’t feel ‘seen’ and valued are not only more likely to quit, they will also do the bare minimum while in their role, HR personnel included. So, what can leaders do? Here are a few basics:

1. Use data

You’ve heard it all before: ‘you can’t treasure what you can’t measure’, ‘errors using inadequate data are much less than those using no data at all’, ‘without data you’re just another person with an opinion’.

With an increased demand for diversity data from all stakeholders, against the backdrop of reluctance to share private information, we need to strip back to basic social workplace needs. This starts with getting to know your people and building trust and loyalty.

From a very young age, listening to family members who ran businesses and later working in those businesses myself, I learned the first lesson of business: value your most important asset – your people. Get to know them, work alongside them, cry with them, laugh with them, direct and guide them, share success and failure with them. This includes your HR talent, often overlooked as seen to be the ‘fixers’. Yet, in the corporate world this basic principle is often overlooked or altogether lost, with leadership teams completely out of touch with those on the ground.

A better understanding around people, talent and fundamentally learning and development (with an individual approach) can take organisations and entire industries to new heights. The responsibility starts from the very top. Leaders need to know their people to better invest in them. Equally, the failure to understand can lead to business declines and failure, with attracting and retaining quality employees being the front-line casualty.

2. Invest in inclusion – optimise innovation

For an EDI strategy to work, inclusion is key. If missing, you can’t unlock the talent. Embedding inclusive practices and values at all levels, including leadership, leads to positive long-term change, the results of which ripple across an organisation and the industry in general. Inclusive companies are more innovative and more likely to achieve long-term growth as an entity and industry wide.

Attracting diverse talent, in any form, is not enough in and of itself. Diverse employees will feel unappreciated and disengaged if they feel on the one hand tokenised, while on the other excluded from workplace practices and held back from making contributions and performing as well as they could. Businesses that meaningfully execute inclusion strategies foster more innovation and loyalty than those that only strive for diversity from an optic or statistical level.

A lack of relatable role models and mentors is a frequent roadblock, particularly for women and minority groups. Providing support and learning that is tailored to your talent’s needs can alleviate disparities. Industries that are facing notorious difficulties in recruitment and retention of diverse talent, such as the financial and legal sectors, must take extra steps to create learning, mentorship and professional opportunities that are specifically tailored to underrepresented groups. This will not only help to bridge inequalities, it will enable more innovation.

With millennials and Gen-Z becoming the dominant and much sought-after generation in the workforce, when attracting young talent organisations must consider their inclusion track record and ranking. Millennials and Gen-Z are not only the most diverse generation in history, they are also the most aware and educated in terms of diversity and inclusion. They are strong in their beliefs, and not scared to voice them. The vast majority believe that workplaces with a more diverse and inclusive workforce will more readily embrace innovation, as a result of which, they will have more to offer them in terms of opportunity and career progression. They are not easily fooled by standardised diversity policies or statements. They want to see action and results, and in the age of ‘likes’ and ‘reviews’, failure to produce will not only prevent talent coming through the door, but existing talent will want to leave too.

3. A thriving workplace

The most recent (June 2024) CIPD Good Work Index shows the importance of considering job quality and satisfaction, noting that pay is no longer a ‘silver bullet’ for keeping staff.

Research from the professional body for HR and people development found that in a 2022 report more than 6.5 million people in the UK expect to quit their job in the next 12 months, with those reporting the poorest job quality being the most likely to leave. Better pay and benefits are the main motivator to leave, but people are also looking for increased job satisfaction and better work-life balance.

The 2024 survey sought views of more than 5,400 UK workers and found that one in five workers (20%) say it’s likely they will quit their current role in the next 12 months, compared with 16% in 2021.

Respondents in 2024 said the following were motivators for leaving their last job:

A 2022 Censuswide survey, commissioned by Juno, among 1,000 ‘white-collar’ staff found that 65% of workers in Scotland considered quitting, as wellbeing took precedence over pay. The survey found 58% to be suffering from low morale in the workplace, rising to 63% in the 45–54 age bracket. This ought to raise alarm bells for business leaders given the often irreplaceable loss of knowledge and experience. 

The research also found that across the Scottish economy, 23% of employees stated they have a lack of care for the company they work for (circle back to the need to build trust and loyalty), while 18% said that their mental and physical health had suffered and 17% said that they work in a toxic environment.

Around 16% of Scottish managers said that salary demands were the primary reason for a potential candidate to choose a different job offer. Scottish workers were also found to be more driven by work-life balance than anywhere else in the UK. This was the primary reason for changing jobs in Scotland, with 35% listing this as their primary motivation to change roles.

In addition, a combined 82% of respondents said that a better work-life balance or workplace culture at a rival company, improved access to benefits and access to wellness tools were the factors driving them to choose an alternative role. This compares to 58% across the wider UK.So in summary, when it comes to EDI, the numbers don’t lie. Despite living and working in a world that is increasingly placing significant importance on artificial intelligence, it really is still all about the people.

In Diversity+ experience, organisations that see the most success in diversity, equity and inclusion in the workplace are those who do a lot of preparation work, in collaboration with their people, and go on to develop comprehensive diversity and inclusion strategies and plans that include a variety of different tools, such as targeted recruitment, retention and mentoring programmes, diversity training, support systems for diverse hires and metrics to track progress. Additionally, these organisations have been the ones in which leadership teams were committed to diversity and inclusion, and regularly reviewed their results.

The key is to make a strong, well-informed and positive start with buy-in from the top, followed by continued leadership support and commitment. Many leadership teams have well-meaning intentions. They believe diversity and inclusion is good for business. Some begin at a fast pace but the baton is often not passed on or dropped due to a lack of continued commitment, support and resources. Don’t be the one to drop the baton.

Written by Naeema Sajid, founder of Diversity+