Recommendations to Help Organisations Improve and Maintain Focus on Diversity and Inclusion
A report prepared by CIPD reveals various findings relating to diversity and inclusion.
The report is based on information from 2,009 decision makers in UK employers and highlights that less than half of employers surveyed (48%) have a stand-alone diversity and inclusion strategy, and that of those employers with a strategy, 18% of them take no steps to actually monitor its effectiveness.
The report also notes a significant number of organisations appear to have an ad-hoc approach to diversity and inclusion, only responding when a problem or a need arises. 47% of those surveyed said their organisations don’t have a formal strategy or action plan on diversity and inclusion.
The CIPD has drawn out seven recommendations to improve and strengthen diversity and inclusion practices:
- Build a long-term plan and track its progress - this will help organisations set direction and foster commitment.
- Collect and use data to inform the approach to diversity and inclusion - the report noted that only 38% of employers surveyed collect some kind of equal opportunities monitoring data from employees and/or job applicants.
- Assess the organisation's approach to people management from a diversity and inclusion perspective.
- Empower and train managers on diversity and inclusion - employers should take steps to equip managers with the skills to manage inclusively. According to the survey, just 23% of employers say they train managers in fair and inclusive people management.
- Support leaders to champion diversity and inclusion as role models - leaders should exemplify inclusion behaviour, it therefore likely that leaders will also need training and support to understand what it means for them and their role.
- Tailor the approach to diversity and inclusion to suit the organisation.
- Maintain focus on the long-term aims.
Staff EDI Training
You may be interested in one or all of our EDI online courses for all staff, covering equality, diversity and inclusion, anti-harassment and bullying, and unconscious bias plus a tailored EDI course for Managers.
Our courses are written and updated by our legal experts and are designed to sit alongside your EDI and anti-harassment and bulling policies so you can ensure staff have read and understood them as part of the training and to show your organisation's commitment to equality for staff and suppliers.
If you are interested in the eLearning, need help drafting the related policies or want more information about our eLearning Solutions platform, please get in touch to discuss.