Inclusive Employers 5 minutes with… Courtney Wright
'5 minutes with...' is our interview series that gives you the opportunity to learn more about the Inclusive Employers team and other I&D professionals who are working to make inclusion a reality every day.
Here we learn more about Courtney Wright, Senior Inclusion and Diversity Consultant at Inclusive Employers.
Content warning: brief mention of the murder of Sarah Everard
1. Can you tell us how you came to be in your role
My background is in human resource management, and I was first introduced to the inclusion and diversity space during my time at university, where I chose modules relating to inclusion in the workplace and wrote my dissertation on bias in recruitment. I have always been interested in people’s minds and how we work, and knew I wanted a career in the people profession. When I began my career search, I found that entry level inclusion roles were few and far between, so I applied to generalist HR grad schemes. However, I had a gut feeling this wasn’t for me and I was lucky to land in a diversity and engagement HR Officer role just two weeks after graduating. I’ve been in the inclusion sector ever since.
I came across Inclusive Employers when working in my previous role in the charity sector, by using their free National Inclusion Week campaign. I loved that this was the type of organisation that offered free resources, alongside blogs and podcasts, which could make a difference to organisations that were too small or didn’t have the budget to be members. Inclusive Employers advertised roles for consultants at the same time I was considering how I could progress in my career in this space – I am always grateful for the opportunity to work in a sector I am so passionate about.
2. Can you share an ‘inclusion moment’ with us – a time when you have felt included either at work or in your personal life?
Over the past year, I have been part of two member webinars on lived experience in areas that are not often talked about: multiracial heritage, and socioeconomic background. On reflection, I had never previously had the opportunity to talk about these parts of my identity and experience in the workplace, and I was nervous about how I would feel opening up. Both of these sessions were met with genuine curiosity, empathy, but also people sharing their own similar experiences!
We should never underestimate the power that sharing our stories holds, and the space it creates for opening up conversations. Having people reach out to share their own stories, is something I will always treasure. Our member webinars are of course designed to help others understand and make practical change, but I’ve found real comfort in being able to be so open about who I am, and felt truly seen.
3. What do you love most about your role?
One of the things I particularly enjoy is training sessions where people initially come along feeling scared to talk about these topics, but you can see that there is a willingness to learn. Being able to create that space where they can open up, ask questions and leave the session feeling more confident is so rewarding. I love helping someone take those first steps on their inclusion journey.
4. What is a typical day like for you?
Every day is truly different and that’s what makes this role so enjoyable. I start each day by checking Teams messages – as we work remotely, we have a casual chat to keep us all in touch and its lovely to get that sneak peek into my colleagues’ lives. I then check my inbox and calendar and see what the day is going to bring.
It could be anything from monthly check ins with members, delivering webinars or workshops, writing up consultancy pieces, designing new training material, meeting with new clients to find out how we can support them, or creating resources or content.
5. What’s been your most memorable moment in your inclusion career?
In a previous organisation, part of my role was to support our staff networks. I am a big advocate of the power of staff voice, and I could list so many different ways they had an impact. One that stands out to me was the introduction of safe space discussions. This particular one was following the murder of Sarah Everard, and it was a chance for people in the organisation who had felt affected to come together and talk about how they were feeling. I remember someone saying that until that moment they felt that they’d been expected to just carry on as normal, despite carrying around these heavy feelings. This really highlighted to me the importance of allowing space for emotion within our workplaces, and that people can’t be expected to leave their identity at the door.
Not only was the talking powerful and therapeutic, but it also led to practical conversations about our staff’s safety. Having people from across the organisation come together meant there were multiple people there who could take away feedback to make a difference.