Last-minute ways to get involved with National Inclusion Week 2022
National Inclusion Week is almost upon us but don’t worry if you’re yet to plan your activities for the celebrations. There are still lots of ways you can get involved! This blog explores some easy ways to support National Inclusion Week and help your organisation champion and celebrate inclusion and diversity in the workplace.
Start your weekly meetings with an I&D ice breaker
Initiating conversations around inclusion and diversity can seem daunting, but if you embed the conversations into your everyday activities in the workplace, you’ll find it’s much easier to spark discussion. Why not consider starting each of your regular meetings, or any workshops you have planned during the week with an ice breaker around I&D?
For example, you could start with a simple exercise on the concept of privilege, ask each of your colleagues to explore a list of activities which they can or cannot do due to their societal privileges and enter into a discussion on how they can support others.
We’ve developed a number of meeting starter activities within the National Inclusion Week Supporter toolkit to help you.
Embrace the Daily Actions
Everyday of National Inclusion Week has a Daily Action associated with it. These are a vital part of bringing the National Inclusion Week theme to life.
We will remind you of the actions each day and provide an overview of what they mean and examples of how you can involve yourself with them throughout the week. You could try to implement an activity across your teams which fits with the theme for each day to encourage engagement with the Time to Act: The Power of Now theme of this year.
More details and support on how to bring these actions to life are included in the toolkit, available to those who are Supporters of NIW or are members of Inclusive Employers.
Share insights & top tips
You might want to share some personal insights, stories and experiences or top tips that you’ve picked up from National Inclusion Week with others in your organisation and wider. Consider sharing your experiences (where you are comfortable) in internal communications, via internal intranet spaces or even on social media. Highlight your progress as an organisation or as an individual within the I&D space, share your learnings and be open and honest.
We’ve pulled together some top tips to help you navigate social media during the week and how to amplify you activity in our full NIW toolkit.
Use NIW as a discussion topic within your own internal communications
National Inclusion Week can act as a catalyst for ongoing conversations within organisations on the topics of inclusion and diversity, so why not have a NIW takeover on your internal communications during the week?
Think about how you can bring in different groups of people across your teams, including those who may be working outside of the UK. Use this as an opportunity to share ideas, illustrate work that is being done or areas where work should be increased. Take the time to engage those who may not see I&D as an important business initiative and encourage participation from all.
If you’re struggling to think how you could engage the unengaged within your organisation, register as a supporter for NIW and get access to our top tips!
Become a National Inclusion Week Supporter
Registering as a paid Supporter of National Inclusion Week will give you access to a number of planning resources including an overview of this years theme Time to Act; The Power of Now, a recorded webinar that will help you understand how to bring the Daily Actions to life and an overview of the events which are ongoing throughout the week and after.
You’ll also get access to the full National Inclusion Week toolkit which includes activities to help support the use of the Daily Actions within your organisation, 5 minute meeting starters, top tips and fun activities which will help you get the conversations flowing and the celebrations started.
On top of this, all NIW supporters receive one free seat to each of the National Inclusion Week events running from Monday 26th – Friday 30th September. Please note that if you’re an Inclusive Employers member you already have access to all our NIW resources and events.
Don’t panic if you haven’t started work on your National Inclusion Week activities yet, there is plenty you can do to join in the celebrations and make 2022 the Time to Act!