The benefits of being a National Inclusion Week supporter

Why is it important to take part in National Inclusion Week?

National Inclusion Week, in its 11th year, is about highlighting and celebrating inclusion in our workplaces. It’s a week of reflection which can involve learning and having awareness of the things we could be doing better and looking to the successes we have achieved through our inclusion and diversity work in our organisations. It should be an essential part of every organisation’s annual calendar and serve as a pause point in a busy year to give inclusion and diversity the spotlight it deserves. It can be used as a jump-start point to get your inclusion and diversity strategy going or can be a time of evaluation on what you have done so far.

Taking part in National Inclusion Week (NIW) as an organisation leader, inclusion and diversity leader or HR professional can help demonstrate to your employees, your commitment to workplace inclusion. Engaging in and prioritising inclusion in this way will allow you to set the foundations for embedding Inclusion and Diversity (I&D) into the workplace culture of your organisation and ensure it is highlighted as a priority for all.

Participating in NIW may support the team in feeling seen and heard and create a space for authentic discussion. It can provide a great conversation starter for individuals in your organisation to share about their experiences, feel safer to open up at work and provide some helpful feedback to make your workplace a more inclusive place to be.

What are the benefits?

By joining Inclusive Employers for National Inclusion Week you will have access to our NIW Toolkit, a free resource containing daily actions you can use in your organisations, top tips, quizzes, logos to share on socials, websites and email signatures, meeting starters, how to guides, and more. With these tools you can really engage your whole organisation in inclusion activities and build your own National Inclusion Week plan, whatever stage you are at in your I&D journey.

Along with the free toolkit, for each person who registers to NIW, you can access one place at each of our free webinar events during the week itself with topics such as inclusive recruitment, challenging anti-wokeness, prioritising mental health being discussed. This means it’s a great time to increase your inclusion knowledge and personal growth, taking this knowledge back into your organisations and using it to inform your ongoing work. Continued learning is such an important part of understanding your workforce, their intersectionality’s and their I&D needs.

Inclusive Employers and NIW registrants are also very active during the week on socials, such as LinkedIn and X (formerly known as Twitter). Last year, National Inclusion Week had a reach of 60 million people! So, get on socials and connect with others, share your own posts, and communicate what you as an organisation are trying to achieve. This will again highlight your inclusion commitments to your employees, but also your clients and stakeholders and will bring engagement to your social media.

Overall, you will be taking steps to make your workplace a more inclusive one, and that is core to the message and intentionality of National Inclusion Week.