Taking Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Beyond Box-Ticking
The Diversity and Inclusion report ‘Beyond Box-Ticking’ has been officially launched.
Encouraging Equality, Diversity and Inclusion in workplaces is among the most urgent work of our time. However, too often initiatives become box-ticking exercises rather than drivers of meaningful and lasting change.
On Friday 20 May an event was held to officially launch the Diversity and Inclusion (DandI) report ‘Beyond Box-Ticking’ which set out tangible actions that businesses can and are taking to improve leadership diversity and build inclusive pipelines for talent.
The report was commissioned by a group of professional service organisations in the West Midlands, including the Wesleyan Group, was produced by the University of York's Centre for Women’s Enterprise, Leadership and Diversity (WE LEAD) and supported by the West Midlands Combined Authority Leadership Commission.
The event was hosted at the Wesleyan headquarters in Birmingham city centre where WE LEAD’s Director, Professor Kiran Trehan was joined by Andy Street, Mayor of the West Midlands and Mario Mazzocchi, CEO of the Wesleyan Group, to host delegates and inspirational panellists to the breakfast launch.
‘Beyond Box-Ticking’ has highlighted five recommendations for businesses:
- Pursue more granular data to enhance DandI outcomes
- Continue to prioritise DandI, beginning with recruitment imagery.
- Reconsider relevance and use of academic requirements to enhance DandI efforts.
- Continue to include networks and diverse employees in the process, but be mindful of tokenism and fatigue.
- Share DandI strategy and progress with employees and stakeholders.
During the panel discussion, delegates heard unfiltered stories about how the challenge of improving EDI in the workplace must be addressed from Roger Dix, Faith Watson (Wesleyan), Lisa Perkins (Wesleyan), Yetunde Dania (Trowers) and Anita Bhalla (Leadership Commission). The audience question and answer session was lively and inclusive, with views shared by passionate leaders from the business, enterprise and community sectors. The call for greater diversity in leadership was clear: “If you aren’t on the table, then you are on the menu.”
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