The benefits of making Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (ED&I) part of the organisational strategy are widely appreciated and acted on. There is a heap of evidence that businesses are more successful when the culture is truly respectful and inclusive. Even so when things are going smoothly Equality, Diversity and Inclusion training is not always right at the top of the agenda.
But when a substantiated grievance about someone’s behaviour is raised, things can change rapidly. At least, there is a bad atmosphere while things are sorted out; at worst, there are recriminations, long term absences, a drop in productivity, hours and hours of HR and management time spend on investigations, and even tribunals. The impact internally is significant and organisational reputation is put at risk.
Mitigating the impact of the inevitable with least cost in time or money is the mission. And to start with a top down approach is the most secure way of ensuring that you encourage, enhance and embed ED&I best practice in your organisation. There is a sequence of elements that are available to use to enable you to demonstrate ROI through enhanced employee engagement, reduced absence, recruitment and training costs.
During our in-company Equality, Diversity and Inclusion workshops we often invite participants, in the shelter of a workshop environment, to answer carefully selected questions that align with and begin to address specific organisational issues.
You may like to try some of these questions with a group of managers and see how the conversation develops.
The results may lead you to decide that now it is time to take steps to further embed ED&I attitudes and behaviours. Here is a blended approach using as much of your internal resources and technology as possible to get the best result with least cost and time.