A quick guide to the National Inclusion Week Daily Actions

National Inclusion Week (NIW) is incredibly important to us at Inclusive Employers. It is our largest campaign and our biggest opportunity each year to reach as many employers as possible and encourage commitment and action on inclusion.

Understanding the National Inclusion Week Daily Actions

This week we are excited to have launched the Daily Action resources as part of our National Inclusion Week Toolkit. These have become a staple part of National Inclusion Week, reimagined each year to align with our overall National Inclusion Week theme.

This year’s theme is, Time to Act: The Power of Now and you can read more about the Daily Actions for every day of National Inclusion Week below.

Use your toolkit to learn about the Daily Actions

When you register as a free NIW registrant, you’ll find an overview of the Daily Actions in the (free) toolkit.

For NIW Supporters, the Supporter toolkit contains an in-depth guide to each Daily Action, as well as advice and tools on how to bring each action to life, during NIW and beyond.

If you are not already a NIW Supporter, it is easy to upgrade. Learn more about the Supporter benefits and how to become one today.

For all Inclusive Employers members, remember you are automatically registered as a NIW Supporter, as part of your membership. You can login to access the toolkit anytime.  

Our toolkits are full of resources designed to help organisations recognise and celebrate National Inclusion Week in the easiest ways possible.

The Daily Action resources have been created to provide simple and practical ways for your organisation and employees to participate. They are designed to consider the least engaged and busiest employees in your organisation so they have no excuse to not get involved!

Whether you are leading inclusion and diversity in your organisation, part of an employee network group or in charge of planning National Inclusion Week, we know you are busy, so anything we can do to make your job easier, we will!

Committed to improving the impact of National Inclusion Week

This year, 2022, will be the tenth year of National Inclusion Week. After every NIW we ask our members, National Inclusion Week registrants and our own Inclusive Employers team for feedback. We want to improve the campaign each year to make it bigger, better and more importantly, more impactful for everyone who participates.

After NIW 2021 we listened the feedback and as a result:

• The Daily Action resources contain guidance on multiple, simple ways people can bring the actions to life, allowing freedom to choose what works for them. In previous years we have mainly provided one way for people to get involved each day. This year you will be able to choose which activities work the best for your organisation and employees.
• We have introduced guidance at the end of each Daily Action resource that encourages organisations to develop activity beyond National Inclusion Week. We want to ensure organisations are taking a meaningful approach to inclusion and diversity and this guidance provides the tools to get you thinking about longer term, strategic activity, taken directly from our Inclusive Employers Standard accreditation.

What are the Daily Actions for NIW 2022?

There are seven days of National Inclusion Week, 26 September – 2 October, and here you can learn what this year’s Daily Actions are and what the inspiration behind each one is. Importantly, you will also learn how you and your organisation can get involved every day!  

Remember, you can find out more when you read the Daily Actions resources in the toolkit, available once you have become a free registrant or NIW Supporter. If you are already registered or a member, login to download the toolkit resources today.

Monday 26 September – The Power of Identity: Share who you are

This Daily Action gives employees the tools to take small steps in sharing their own identity, which will have a long-term, positive impact for the people around them.

This resource contains advice on sharing pronouns and name pronunciation, why it is important and practical advice on how to share this information in your email signature, Microsoft Teams, Zoom and LinkedIn.

Tuesday 27 September – The Power of Connection: Reach out

This Daily Action encourages people to reach out and connect with their colleagues, across teams, departments offices, and across the globe. It includes advice on why it is important to connect, along with practical ideas on how to reach out including coffee roulettes, inclusive lunch huddles and networking.

Wednesday 28 September – The Power of Recognition: Empower your colleagues

Day three’s Daily Action is designed to encourage employees to identify and empower those people around them that are creating inclusive cultures in workplaces every day.

It includes advice on who you could recognise and practical ways to do this, including using our supporting ‘Tweet Sheet’ resource.

Thursday 29 September – The Power of a Diverse Network: Expand your circle

This Daily Action offers a guide to the small changes employees can make to diversify their perspective and understanding of experiences that they might not have been exposed to before. This includes a supporting activity so that people can examine the diversity of their own circle, as well as practical advice on how to expand it.

Friday 30 September – The Power of Knowledge: Take ownership of your learning

Friday’s Daily Action will provide employees with tools to acknowledge their own gaps in knowledge and gives practical steps to improve them. This includes questions to get them thinking about where they don’t know enough, topics they want to understand more and signposting to useful and interesting books and media so they can take ownership of their learning instantly.

Saturday 1 October – The Power of Allyship: Be an active ally

The penultimate Daily Action provides employees with information on the types of allyship, what being an ally means, tips on how to be a great ally and practical advice on how to start straight away. It also includes a brilliant supporting activity which helps employees to understand their own privilege and how they can be a better ally.

Sunday 2 October – The Power of Commitment: Pledge your action

The final Daily Action for National Inclusion Week 2022 allows employees to reflect on what they have learnt during the week. Importantly it encourages them to make a pledge to continue to take action for inclusion over the 12 months until National Inclusion Week 2023.

This resource includes advice on why making a commitment is important, a supporting sheet to support sharing the pledge publicly and tips to help make sure the pledge is followed through and there is accountability for it.

How to get the best out of the Daily Action resources?

We have created the resources for you to use so you can maximise engagement with National Inclusion Week in a way that works for your organisation and employees.

Here is some advice on how to make the most of the Daily Action resources:

• If you haven’t already, sign up to attend one of the upcoming Bringing the Daily Actions to Life webinars.
• The Daily Actions are a suggestion. If you want to interpret each one in a different way that is ok too, be sure to share with us on LinkedIn and Twitter so we can see what you are up to.
• We know it is hard to commit to activity each day of the week, you may want to choose just a few of the Daily Actions to participate in.
• You may want to pick and choose activities from within each Daily Action that you think your employees will enjoy or connect with the most. We have provided options for each day we don’t expect you to do them all, although if you want to then that’s great!
• It is ok to lift the content into your own communications and marketing work. Use it in a way that is right for you.
• Connect with your exec, senior leaders and line managers in before you start planning NIW in your organisation – make sure you have buy in and support from them – organise time and ways for them to be involved in your NIW activities.
• Use your employee networks, inclusion groups and forums to lead on Daily Action activities, share the resources with them in plenty of time to let them organise and plan.

Make a long-term commitment to inclusion this NIW

As I write this Pride Month is in full swing. what stands out this year is how much more organisations are being called out for simply changing their logo to rainbow colours without doing the meaningful work behind it to ensure LGBTQ+ employees have an inclusive experience in their organisation.

We know inclusion is not just a week long commitment. Whether this is your first National Inclusion Week, or your tenth, make sure you continue the work beyond the week itself. Or why not start now. Use the momentum created from these planning stages to build on your inclusion work.

If you are an employee in an organisation taking part in National Inclusion Week make sure you hold them to account once the week is over. It is everyone’s responsibility to create inclusive workplaces.

Next steps for the Daily Actions…

If you haven’t already registered for National Inclusion Week 2022 take a look at our toolkit options and register now!

For free registrants, you can download the Daily Actions overview, along with other resources, when you access your toolkit. Start planning how you will recognise this year’s theme, Time to Act: The Power of Now and take action every day.

For NIW Supporters, you will find an in-depth guide to each Daily Action in your Supporters toolkit, which includes suggestions for how to take action on each day of National Inclusion Week, as well as how to make sure you continue to do this work long after NIW 2022.

Enjoy the planning journey and we can’t wait to share National Inclusion Week 2022 with you all!