Spotlight beyond race and gender

Barclays, whose toolkit was recommended by interviewees, has a focus on ‘multicultural’ diversity rather than ethnic diversity specifically – broadening its goal to cultivating inclusivity across race, ethnicity, nationality and faith. Alongside this, the bank also has a specific focus on multigenerational inclusion, acknowledging and understanding the different needs of different generations.

The large global management consultancy has employee reference groups beyond the typical – including aspects such as introversion, family life and veterans.

The private equity firm focused on gender first, as that was the biggest challenge, but having had some progress, the company is now opening the conversation up to ethnicity, disability and neurodiversity including ADHD.

• A number of organisations are doing work on menopause, period health and hormones more broadly. The Mining Remediation Authority for example have been running the menopause café programme, which alternates between a women only space and everyone welcome. They have been surprised how much the men are getting out of attending particularly in talking through how best to support as managers of those going through the menopause. One has a hormone network.
  
  
• A number of organisations had even more specific employee networks reflecting their own demographics and the engagement of those groups – one medium size law firm has the following employee networks: Dads and Sons, Enable, East Asian, LGBTQ+, Menopause, Supporting Families with SEN, South Asian and New and Expectant Parents.  On the flipside they had struggled to gain traction with a black employee network – there was not the momentum and sufficient employee appetite to lead it and make it successful and they didn’t feel the need to force it just to be able to say they had one. As the demographic of the organisation has changed, the appetite has now started to grow and they are hopeful that they will soon have a black employee network.
  
  
• A number of organisations have refocused from diversity to diversity of thought. 50% of IHPN members who responded to our survey stated this as a priority aim. One medium-sized management consultancy reflected that after their first push they “looked more diverse but weren’t more diverse.” They found that they were simply recruiting individuals who had very similar ways of thinking and backgrounds but with a different demographic profile and had to rethink their approach.
  
  
• Bevan Brittan also sponsor Bristol Pride in line with their goal of ensuring LGBTQ+ staff feel they belong in the workforce.
  

The idea that being really specific about the problem helps is a theme that came across strongly in many of the conversations. One national heritage charity shared it is focusing on ending unequal access to its sites. As part of its wider inclusion work, the charity is beginning to investigate the impact of socio economic background (which is not a protected characteristic) on connection with its cause. This involves looking at audiences and also internally at staff and volunteers. Once again, data is key here and they have added the Social Mobility Commission’s recommended questions to their recruitment process: “What did your father do when you were 14?”.