Advance Inclusion in your workplace

Lead the way to create inclusive workplaces with expert support, tailored resources, and a vibrant member community. Inclusive Employers membership gives you the tools and insights to advance inclusion and make a lasting impact.

Advance Inclusion in Your Workplace Today

Inclusive Employers have delivered many Inclusion Allies programmes to different sectors, sizes of organisation and levels of inclusion maturity.

Addison Barnett, Director of Impact and Major Programmes, explains the important role inclusion allies have on workplace inclusion, what our Inclusion Allies programme looks like and the impact it has had on those who’ve been a part of it.

What it means to be an inclusion ally

“If a person does nothing in the face of racial inequities that are pervasive, if they don’t challenge them, what are they doing?”

Ibram X. Kendi

Having personally delivered a large proportion of Inclusive Employers’ inclusion allies training, it’s one of my favourite programmes. The commitment from the inclusion allies is inspiring; it’s wonderful to see these inclusion allies grow themselves as a network, challenge themselves and their organisation, use their privilege and influence to keep inclusion on the agenda, and have deep, genuine discussions around complex inclusion topics.

In the wider world, the conversation around allies has matured in the last few years. One of the gifts of the increased prominence of the Black Lives Matter movement has been more scrutiny of what allyship really means: when we refer to ourselves as allies what are we actually doing? Is it a badge we give ourselves to make us feel good, or is there conscious commitment there to challenging the status quo and taking action?

Similar to being anti-racist: it is no longer good enough to simply be an ally to marginalised groups. We must examine our privilege, power and influence and make amends for our mistakes. Those of us who hold more privilege e.g. because we are White, in senior positions or not disabled must be prepared to give up the platforms our privilege gives us. ‘Ally’ is a verb not a noun.

“90% of Allies programme graduates reported that completing the programme supported them to be more inclusive at work.”

Become an Inclusion Ally
Two office workers shaking hands

Our inclusion allies programme

[On organisational change] “Don’t boil the ocean – while you reach “stickiness” once you surpass 50%, about 15% of your organization is enough to build material momentum toward change.”

John Kotter

Our inclusion allies training is designed to empower colleagues across your business to act in allyship for minority groups, role model inclusion, break down silos, and help drive inclusion forward. The programme will help you build a network of inclusion allies across your organisation who can help drive cultural change, helping you reach the 15% (and beyond) needed to really drive momentum on inclusion.

The programme takes place over 4 weeks, with a range of learning opportunities including live and recorded webinars, an inclusion allies workbook and a buddy system to promote discussion and secure accountability.

After the 4 week programme is complete, the inclusion allies are provided with 12 months’ post-programme support. This can include ‘inclusion surgeries’ with one of the Inclusive Employers experts to problem solve and workshop solutions, additional resource libraries for self-service learning, and additional bespoke training covering key topics identified by the inclusion allies.

We designed the inclusion allies programme to have maximum impact for the small time commitment. We recommend inclusion allies set aside around 2 hours a week for the 4 week programme. It’s a light touch, high impact programme.

What’s the impact of the inclusion allies programme

We have worked with many organisations of all sizes and sectors to run inclusion allies programmes in their business. A 2021 survey of Inclusion Allies found:

90% of Allies programme graduates reported that completing the programme supported them to be more inclusive at work

76% of Allies programme graduates agreed that completing the programme had changed their behaviour

80% ranked themselves as confident or very confident to step in when they witness exclusion, compared to 25% feeling able to step in before the programme

When asked to rate themselves against the following statement “I feel confident to step in when I witness exclusion” before the programme and after.

Before the Inclusion Allies programme, participants were:

Before the Inclusion Allies programme 29% of participants didn't feel confident stepping in when witnessing exclusion. Only 11% felt very confident.

Image description: This is a horizontal bar chart showing a confidence scale ranging from “Not at all confident” (1) to “Very confident” (5). Each bar represents the percentage of respondents selecting a confidence level, with the following breakdown: 29% selected “1 – Not at all confident.”, 29% selected “2.”, 17% selected “3., 14% selected “4.”, 11% selected “5 – Very confident.” The percentages are aligned on the x-axis, from 0% to 30%.

After the Inclusion Allies programme, participants were:

After taking part in the inclusion allies programme, 80% of participants said they felt confident to step in when witnessing exclusion.

Image description: This is a horizontal bar chart displaying confidence levels from “Not at all confident” (1) to “Very confident” (5). The percentages for each confidence level are as follows: 0% selected “1 – Not at all confident.”, 3% selected “2.”, 17% selected “3.”, 40% selected “4.”, 40% selected “5 – Very confident.” The x-axis ranges from 0% to 45%, and each percentage is shown beside the corresponding bar.

The Inclusion Allies have gone on to make real change in their workplace: facilitating conversations, connecting departments, promoting good practice and positively challenging themselves and their colleagues. Most of all, they role model the curiosity and humility required of inclusion allies to support minority voices in their organisation.

If you’d like to know more about our inclusion allies programme, please get in touch via our the form below.


Advance Inclusion in your workplace

Lead the way to create inclusive workplaces with expert support, tailored resources, and a vibrant member community. Inclusive Employers membership gives you the tools and insights to advance inclusion and make a lasting impact.

Advance Inclusion in Your Workplace Today

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