Grow your team
When you become an Inclusive Employers’ Member you grow your I&D team.
Your account manager works with you to understand your goals, your challenges and achievable next steps.
Do you need more support for your inclusive culture to thrive?
Inspiring inclusion best practice
As part of National Inclusion Week every year we like to draw attention to the amazing organisations who make a public commitment to furthering their inclusion through the Inclusive Employers Standard (IES) accreditation. This evidence-based process provides valuable benchmarking insights, action-oriented feedback, and measurable results that help organisations at every stage of their inclusion journey.
92% of submitting organisations feel completing the Inclusive Employers Standard has positively impacted the inclusion progression in their organisation. Additionally, on average there is a 34% increase in inclusion score for those achieving their second accreditation, this can be as high as 45% in some industries.
Recent trends in submissions highlight the following areas as topics organisations are prioritising:
- Communicating about inclusion across the organisation
- Diversity data collection
- Staff consultation and peer connection
Whereas the topics below are ones most organisations are often looking for support with:
- Devolving inclusion responsibility effectively to departmental/team level
- Identifying and implementing positive action interventions to address under-representation
- Impact and return on investment measurement
Pillar by pillar: Celebrating excellence in key areas of inclusion
Whilst all our organisations showcase outstanding examples of inclusive practice across the six pillars: engage, equip, empower, embed, evaluate, evolve and we would like to call attention to just some of the amazing achievements and best practice examples from some of our recent submissions.
1. Engage pillar
Before diving into inclusion initiatives, it’s crucial for an organisation to first understand its workforce composition and culture. This foundational step is often overlooked, but without data-driven insights and a deep understanding of diversity and inclusion within the team, actions and events may fail to make an impact.
The Engage phase focuses on key areas such as:
- Collecting diversity data
- Communicating inclusion values and agendas internally
- Staff consultation
- Conducting employee surveys
Congratulations to…
- Clipfine Limited
- Kearney
- Publicis Groupe
- Refeyn
- ElectraLink
- Think Money
Each of these organisations has demonstrated a clear commitment to the creation of an evidence-based foundation of the Engage pillar. Well done!
Engage Top Tip: Use communication to build trust around data
ElectraLink shared some fantastic examples of how they have used communication to achieve outstanding diversity data disclosure rates. One standout example was when two senior leaders hosted a session about the importance of diversity data at their annual People Conference. This was followed by facilitated discussions to gather thoughts, ideas, and concerns from a wide range of staff. This information was then used to develop a specific FAQs document communicated to all staff to help build trust and support everyone to feel confident to disclose their data.
2. Equip pillar
Employees join an organisation with varying levels of understanding, experience, and confidence when it comes to inclusion. Providing a comprehensive range of policies, guidance, and training ensures that all staff develop the necessary skills, understand their responsibilities, and know how to apply inclusion within their roles.
The Equip phase covers:
- Inclusion policies
- Training for all staff
- Management and leadership development
- Resources and guidance for integrating inclusion into specific functions, such as recruitment
Congratulations to…
- Somerset County Cricket Club
- Lancashire Cricket Club
- Search Recruitment Group
- Clarion Housing Group
Our Equip stars above have provided their people with the tools, techniques and training to apply inclusion in their roles, allowing teams and colleagues to work better together to build an inclusive community.
Equip Top Tip: Make sure your training is addressing the needs of your people
The purpose of inclusion training is to ensure all staff have the skills and confidence to apply inclusion to their role, which means the training must be designed around their needs. Lancashire Cricket Club shared some great examples of how they ensure their training has a strong rationale behind its content and delivery method. The way they have offered training online and in person, in both self-directed and interactive formats ensures staff, volunteers and even youth athletes can access the information in a way that works for them. They also take feedback from attendees to inform the topic selection of future training. This has helped to get staff engaged and excited to attend as they were involved in the decision-making process.
3. Empower pillar
It is essential that staff-led activities have a clear purpose and are supported by data to ensure they align with the organisation’s values, are accessible to as many people as possible, and deliver meaningful impact. Equally important is recognising and celebrating staff contributions, and sharing these successes across the organisation to maintain momentum in advancing inclusion.
The Empower phase covers:
- Inclusion campaigns and events
- Inclusion champions
- Role model initiatives
- Staff recognition
- Staff networks
Congratulations to…
- BakerHicks
- Clariant
- Colt Technology Services
- Schroders Personal Wealth
We would like to proudly recognise our Empower stars for empowering their people to come together, share learning, develop inclusion and proactively celebrate other’s contributions.
Empower Top Tip: Actively recognise staff contributions to empower them further
Colt Technology Services shared some great examples of how they recognise and reward the contributions of their staff to inclusion work both big and small using an internal awards programme. The Inspire awards are linked to Colt’s four corporate behaviours: People matter, Change the world, Find a better way and Win together. Awards span from e-cards that can be shared publicly or privately to highlight an achievement, to value champions awards that come with a monetary value attached and even a special award from the CEO in their annual awards ceremony ‘the Coltie awards’. They have carefully considered the process of application and nomination to ensure accessibility and fairness by allowing any employee to nominate a colleague for an award without the need for a management endorsement.
4. Embed pillar
The Embed phase focuses on making inclusion an integral part of an organisation’s structure and processes. This means going beyond surface-level commitments and ensuring that inclusion is deeply rooted in both strategic planning, everyday operations and every stage of the employee journey. By doing so, inclusion becomes a core element of how the organisation functions.
The Embed phase looks at the following:
- Corporate strategy
- Inclusion strategy
- Departmental inclusion goals
- Individual inclusion goals and performance management
- Governance and oversight
- Pay gap reporting
- Recruitment and career development
- Procurement
Congratulations to…
- Norfolk Cricket Board
- National Highways
- City of London Police
Great work has been achieved by our Embed stars who have been effectively building inclusion into the strategic direction of their organisation and showcasing wonderful examples of how to embed inclusion into each stage of the employee lifecycle.
Embed Top Tip: Use a framework to embed inclusion considerations into all organisational decisions
National Highways provided brilliant examples of how they use equality impact assessments effectively and consistently to embed inclusion into all organisational decisions. For all decisions that will impact people from individual staff events to major infrastructure changes they require the completion of an online equality impact assessment. The online form is accessible and comes with clear guidance and training to support staff at any level to have the skills to complete the form effectively. EDI advocates, champions, staff networks and detailed data provide additional insight and support throughout the process. A process for regular review and monitoring is built in to ensure all assessments are done to the highest quality.
5. Evaluate pillar
Active monitoring, review, and understanding of inclusion activities are essential for making the best use of resources, time, and energy. This ensures that the inclusion activities create the greatest positive impact on both individuals and organisational transformation.
The Evaluate phase gets into the finer details through:
- Assessing impact and measuring return on investment
- Using qualitative and quantitative data for effective goal setting
- Continuously reviewing data throughout the employee lifecycle, from recruitment to promotions and beyond
Congratulations to…
- Arts University Bournemouth
- Alzheimer’s Research UK
- West Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service
The above organisations, our Evaluate stars, have shown an outstanding commitment for effectively using evaluation and impact measurement to drive change across their organisations.
Evaluate Top Tip: Use data visualisation to make your data make sense
Arts University Bournemouth shared how they report their staff and student diversity data annually and even share this publicly on their website to support their commitment to transparency. They use a data dashboard and other data visualisations to help identify
patterns in their headcount and lifecycle data, allowing them to set suitable goals and implement different recruitment and retention initiatives to address any areas of underrepresentation. Conducting this process annually has allowed them to understand more about the impact and return on investment of different activities to ensure they are using their time, effort and budget in the most effective way for their staff, students and local community.
6. Evolve pillar
Inclusion doesn’t stop at the door. It’s vital for organisations to continually seek inspiration from others and aspire to be role models in their industry. We encourage our Members and IES community to share best practices through articles, events, and direct connections with one another, providing plenty of opportunities to evolve and learn.
The Evolve phase includes:
- Networking and horizon scanning
- Integrating learning back into your organisation
- External inclusion role modelling
- Holding your industry accountable
Congratulations to…
- Foster and Partners
- Autolus
Both of the above organisations have achieved outstanding success in seeking innovative learning to bring back into their organisations, as well as actively seeking out ways to support and develop their wider industry. Well done to our Evolve stars!
Evolve Top Tip: If opportunities to connect don’t exist, create them!
Autolus Therapeutics shared a fantastic example of how the passion of a few individuals grew into a community of practice. Noelia Sainz Pastor, a patent attorney at Autolus Therapeutics, is passionate about LGBTQ+ inclusion and set up their internal LGBTQ+ ERG (DICE). Through her passion and active collaboration Autolus Therapeutics has also gone on to support OUTBio UK, an independent LGBTQ+ network within the biotech community, through hosting, contributing to and promoting their events and initiatives. Through collaborative activities, Autolus Therapeutics, OUTBio UK and many other biotech organisations have created a supportive LGBTQ+ community where members can network and learn from each other.
Take the next step in inclusion: Contact us to discover the impact of the Inclusive Employers Standard
If you’re interested in learning how the Inclusive Employers Standard can advance your inclusion efforts and provide you with globally recognised accreditation, fill in the form below and reach out to the IES Team.
Grow your team
When you become an Inclusive Employers’ Member you grow your I&D team.
Your account manager works with you to understand your goals, your challenges and achievable next steps.
Do you need more support for your inclusive culture to thrive?
Learn more about the Inclusive Employers Standard
Inclusive Employers awards inclusion accreditation to over fifteen organisations in the latest round
Inclusive Employers Standard case study: Teach First