Small Business Academy

(gentle music) (bright music) Hello, and welcome to the Bupa Academy for Small Businesses.

I'm your host, Holly Tucker.

Today, I'm joined by our expert panel to talk about building a diverse and inclusive culture to help your small business thrive.

In the first part of today's session, we'll discuss what diversity and inclusion in the workplace means, and the benefits it can bring.

And in the second part of the session, we'll explore the strategies and the practical tips to help you build a diverse business.

I'm delighted to welcome our guests; Dr.

Naveen Puri, medical director at Bupa, Kimberly Moss, solicitor and employment advisor, WorkNest, and Kate Hinder, wellbeing advisory lead, Business in the Community, and Dom Hyams, global client director, Purple Goat Agency.

Welcome to you all.

I'm so looking forward to this session.

Right, my first question is to you, Naveen.

Can you please start by explaining what equity, diversity, and inclusion in the workplace means from health and wellbeing perspective?

Sure.

Thanks for the question, Holly.

So, I think equity, diversity, and inclusion are terms that are banded around quite a lot, but I don't often see the conversation attached to health and wellbeing, and so I'm really happy that we're hosting this session to try and bring those two things together.

From my perspective then, a health and wellbeing perspective around equity, diversity, and inclusion, let's call that ED&I, involves people being able to bring their authentic selves to work without a fear of discrimination or bias, and also to be able to express ideas in a psychologically safe space, and to thrive in a workplace as well.

We know that equity is particularly important, because if you consider the fact that there are different people who have perhaps different natural disadvantages or advantages in the workplace, we want everyone to be operating from a similar playing field, and therefore, everyone should have the same opportunity to progress in a workplace, and to thrive and achieve their full potential.

When we consider diversity, there are what we call protected characteristics as part of the Equalities Act.

So things like age, gender, sexual orientation, those sorts of things, disability, are very much protected characteristics I think most of us are aware of.

But there are also other things that are not perhaps as tangible, like your social class, whether you speak with an accent or a perceived accent, your level of education, those kinds of things too.

Which can have an impact on people in in their workplace, and also their journeys through work as well, applying for jobs, promotions, that kind of a thing.

So from my perspective, diversity is all of those things, and we want to ensure that workplaces are inclusive, so that regardless of your individual, and unique, and brilliant talents, and diverse characteristics, you are able to thrive within a workplace as well.

Yeah, that's great answer.

To Kate, from your perspective, why is it critical to integrate diversity and inclusion into the small business wellbeing agenda?

Thanks, Holly.

So at Business in the Community, we've got a really simple formula, and it's, inclusion plus wellbeing equals belonging.

And what we mean by that, just as you've said, that when you're celebrated for who you are, for what you bring, and you've got wellbeing support that helps you be your best and meets your needs, that's when you're gonna bring your best stuff to work.

So, if I give you your best experience of work, you'll give me your best work in return.

So we're thinking about that.

And we did some work last year with McKinsey Health Institute, and it was really interesting, 'cause it was looking at the economic value proposition of workforce wellbeing.

So the size of the prize when we get it right, when we look after people properly, all sorts of people properly.

And prioritise people, it was called.

And it demonstrated that if we do get work more right for more people, you can potentially unlock between four and 12,000 pounds per head in the UK.

So that's per employee.

Incredible.

By getting the experience of work right.

And what does that look like?

Well, for many people, it's about what we would call tackling non-inclusive behaviours.

So that's things like, and I'm gonna read this bit, so it's making sure that it's unfair treatment, exclusion from leaders or coworkers, derogatory, negative behaviours, undermining behaviours, abusive behaviours.

Now, I think as you've noted, some groups are more likely than others to experience those behaviours through no fault of their own.

It's not as it should be.

When I have stats, I always read them off a card, just- Yes.

I'm neurodivergent, so I want to make sure I get it right.

Yes.

So 50% of women age 16 to 30 have been sexually harassed at work.

50%.

52% of mums have faced discrimination when pregnant, on maternity leave, or upon returning to work.

And one in five have had such negative experiences that they've left their jobs as a result.

22% of organisations would close their doors to disabled people.

And 25% of retail workers from ethnic minorities have experienced or witnessed racism in the workplace.

So, I think, how can you be healthy, happy, and feel like you belong when you're having these negative workplace experiences?

When these sort of statistics.

Yeah, so.

Well, thank you for sharing those.

Kimberly, what legal obligations, so based on those facts that we've just heard, what legal obligations do small businesses face in supporting diverse individuals and fostering this inclusive culture?

So in the UK, small businesses, like all employers, have several legal obligations and best practises to ensure that they support diverse employees in the workplace.

To start with, by law employers must do all they can not to unfairly discriminate throughout the course of work.

All reasonable steps to prevent discrimination in the workplace, and all they reasonably can to protect employees from discrimination.

Further to that, employers are expected to look after their employees' wellbeing, and that's what's called a duty of care.

In terms of duty and care and duty of trust and confidence, these are two duties implied on employers by their contractual obligations.

So it's imposed on an employer, and essentially what that means is they must do all they reasonably can to protect their employees' health, safety, and wellbeing within the workplace.

Furthermore, there are the Equality Act.

So that is a key piece of legislation now in place in the UK to protect employees in the workplace.

The Equality Act exists to protect employees from any discrimination based on a protected characteristic.

So characteristics being really what Dr.

Naveen has mentioned initially, which include race, religion, and disability.

So further to that, disabled people in the workplace do have a right to reasonable adjustments.

So an employer has a legal obligation to put in place any workplace amendment.

So adaptations to the workplace, or special equipment, if you like, to support employees with disabilities to have the same opportunities as everyone else to do their job.

Further to that, looking at establishing good anti-discrimination policies.

So having a good equality, diversity, and inclusion policy in place.

And also in addition to that, a good bullying and harassment policy, which prohibits that type of behaviour in the workplace, can then support an employer to make sure that they've got an inclusive workforce.

And finally, a good complaints procedure.

So more often than not, employees are not aware how, if they do experience any form of discrimination in the workplace, how they address that and who they address that to.

So more often than not, it's in the form of a grievance.

So having a good, strong grievance policy in place, so employees know where to raise their concerns.

God, that was so clear.

Thank you so much.

Dom, as someone working to grow an SME, what can you tell us about the benefits you see from creating a diverse and inclusive business?

Yeah, sure, hello.

Hi.

For us, we're in a really interesting position where our businesses, we're an inclusive marketing agency, so we actually spend all day every day trying to show and tell brands the value of creating more representative, forward-thinking, and progressive marketing and comms in their work.

But obviously, it's really important for us to not only just practise what we preach, but we see the value of driving inclusivity into our own work as well.

Not only is it just the right thing to do, and we can all appreciate creating a happy, welcoming workforce, as the guys have already mentioned, drives genuine sort of productivity in the workplace, value in the workplace, retention in the workplace.

But then there's that second layer, which is actually, well, how does it drive external-facing sort of considerations as well, and how does the world view you as an organisation, and how do you interact with that world around you?

So often, customers view diverse brands more favourably.

We have a 83% higher consumer preference for brands with the highest diversity scores.

So it's not just the right thing to do.

It's also the right business decision as well, and so that's why we kind of, as an agency, try and reframe the conversation.

Because we're in 2024, we shouldn't be having the, "It's the right thing to do.

" So, how do we create the cut through?

And unfortunately sometimes that's, it could drive value into the business as well.

So we can take either one of those conversations and show the organisations we work with that driving that into your business is just, it just makes business sense.

Yeah, absolutely.

And I think that's such an two key things that you've mentioned there, those two sides.

Kimberly, can you talk to us a bit about the risks associated with not supporting diverse employees?

Yeah, of course.

So first of all, if you don't support employees, diverse employees in the workplace, you're gonna face both legal and operational risks.

First of all, the legal risks.

If an employee does encounter any form of discrimination or unfavourable treatment in the workplace, there is a risk of a claim being brought to you in an employment tribunal for discrimination, both direct, indirect victim, victimisation, sorry, and harassment.

If an employer breaches their implied contractual terms, you're also looking at a claim for breach of contract, and an employee resigning on the back of the act and claiming constructive unfair dismissal.

In terms of the litigation procedure and defending a claim for discrimination, they are both costly, and lengthy, time consuming.

And also it's worth noting that any compensation is uncapped, so you couldn't even put a price on how much you would be facing if an employee was successful in their claim.

Further to that, you've also got your operational risk.

So your reputational damage, particularly with social media being so prevalent these days.

Exactly.

Everybody takes to social media whether a good or bad.

And it reaches such a wide network of people now, you can't limit that.

You're also looking at decreased employee morale and retention.

So as we know, if you're unhappy in your job, you tend to leave.

And therefore you're going to struggle to retain employees and lose both your best, potentially any employee.

Reduced innovation and creativity.

So again, you're not feeling good in your job, you're not gonna have a good output.

And that's gonna affect your productivity and the output of the business.

Furthermore, you're gonna face potential challenges on recruitment.

So if for example, you do get that bad reputation on social media, you're really gonna struggle to backfill jobs.

And that coupled with people leaving is gonna make it very difficult to have a whole workforce.

You're gonna be left with continuous vacancies to fill.

In addition to that, there's also workplace conflicts.

So those who don't feel happy in their workplace, it can lead to conflicts, challenges, complaints.

And it's also worth noting as well that having a diverse workforce can sometimes bring forward conflicting beliefs.

And on that basis, if you do find as an employer that happens in your workforce, the best advice that we can give is not to have an knee jerk reaction in addressing that, and to address it fairly promptly and independently from both sides.

And then finally, your customer relations.

A lack of diversity and inclusion may alienate certain customer groups.

One point to note also, which I didn't touch on earlier, is if you do face a discrimination claim, employees can bring a claim against the employer.

So the business.

They can also bring a claim against the employee as a person.

And also, each employee is responsible for their own actions, so they can also list them as a respondent as well as an individual.

So potentially three respondents.

Yeah, my goodness.

That was, I mean, such risks for a company.

Dr.

Naveen, what are some common misconceptions about inclusion and diversity when it comes to health and wellbeing?

Let me speak to four in particular, which we've listed as part of this session.

So the first is that diversity is all about race and gender, and really only focuses on those rather than other aspects of diversity and inclusion.

And while recognition of the needs of people of different ethnic backgrounds and different agendas is important, remember it's much more broader than just that.

The focus is on making sure that everybody is included, regardless of their background, their level of education, all the other things that we've mentioned as part of this conversation that make up a diverse workforce.

Another common misconception is that diversity initiatives are just there to meet quotas.

I feel very disappointed when that comes about, because actually we want to be promoting diversity.

And sometimes if we have to take proactive actions to bring about that diversity, that isn't necessarily a bad thing.

I'd also say though, that we don't wanna be disadvantaging anybody as well.

So misconception three leads on nicely from that, which is that ED&I initiatives disadvantage straight white man.

Now as I say, I would hate for any group to feel like they're being disadvantaged because of ED&I initiatives.

And that includes people who may perceive to be advantaged versus those that are perceived to be disadvantaged.

Ultimately, whatever we do should be based on merits and ability.

And sometimes it is just the case that we have to encourage certain practises to level the playing field.

So for example, if you put a job advert out and only put it in, this is a really crude example, but a magazine that only men read, you're not gonna get female applicants to that job.

Whereas if you put it into a more broader publication of circulation, you then increase equity and ability for women to apply for those roles.

As I say, a really crude example, but I hope that illustrates the point.

Yeah, absolutely.

We're not disadvantaging men by not publishing in that particular publication that all men read, but rather advantaging everybody equally and equitably by publishing where that may get the greatest visibility.

And then misconception four, this is the one that I can feel quite nervous about 'cause I feel very passionate about this, is that political correctness or wokeness, "I've gone too far.

" And it's all political correctness gone mad.

When you think about where these terms first came from, they were there to bring about an understanding of some of the disadvantages that some people feel.

So just as we now recognise that wolf whistling at somebody walking past a building site isn't particularly okay, there was a time where that was absolutely fine.

But if you wanna call that political correctness and recognise that's no longer acceptable, so be it.

But I think words like political correctness and wokeness in the media, and in the discourse around social media in particular, have become really negatively aligned to the ED&I cause.

And I think sometimes that can be a real, that can lead to a real disservice to the things that need attention.

So misconception four would be that this is all about political correctness and wokeness gone mad, I'd say it isn't that.

But it's about being aware and doing as best we can for the people in our workforce, and for those that are not a part of our workforce that want to become a part of it, so that we are creating opportunities for everybody equitably and evenly as well.

What I love about these conversations is we're actually talking about some of the things that small businesses do worry about.

Don, we were just talking about this sort of side on your last point about wokeness and doing the right thing.

What would be your final point just to close this part of the session?

I think that there's a lot of fear in the businesses that we work with.

And for us, all we can ask of brands and organisations is, once they are educated, once they are upskilled, at that moment is what you do.

Can you decide to iterate and develop your practises over time?

But starting with the smallest steps.

We always talk about the low hanging fruit, what's the thing you can do today, tomorrow?

Not say, "Oh, it's in my 2030 strategy.

" And actually create meaningful change, but small but steady steps over time.

As an agency, we are not perfect, and we will never be perfect, but we have kind of perfection on the horizon and the distance is somewhere we aspire to go.

And that kind of education piece, where if we are kind of listening and we're trying to develop ourselves, and we're trying to drive inclusive practises and improve what we're doing both internally and externally every single day, that's all we can ever ask of ourselves and the partners we work with as well.

Thank you all for this incredibly insightful session and conversation today.

I think after hearing this panel, there is no doubt that we are moving in the right direction, but that also we can feel nervous about diversity and inclusion as much as we can feel nervous about other areas of our businesses that we don't feel we're experts in.

I think what will stay with me is, again, like so many of our sessions, it's formed from having great culture and values, having open conversations, and caring deeply about everyone who works for you, getting to know your workforce not just in meetings, but really understanding their needs.

But also, we should all be aware there is a very strong legal framework that all small businesses needs to follow in order to get the best out of our workforce.

As Kate said, if you can get work right for everyone that you employ, you can expect to see an uplift of productivity with an estimated financial value of between 4,000 and 12,000 pounds a year.

(bright music) We're now moving into the second part of today's session where I'll be speaking to our experts about practical tips and advice on how to build a diverse and inclusive business.

The first question is for Kate.

Kate, can you provide any guidance on how small businesses can develop and implement effective policies and strategies to support diverse employees?

Sure can, thanks, Holly.

So, I think the first thing I'd suggest is to get to know your people.

Get to know the folk that work for you.

So what data do you hold, for example, in your HR systems?

For example, so I'm in my 50s now, and I've worked for business in the community for, I think 11 years and counting.

And in that time and since the pandemic I've had, I guess a lively experience of menopause, I'll call it that.

I've experienced bereavement, and I'm now a sandwich carer, and I'm neurodivergent.

BITC has been able to look after me all of that time in different ways, and it's had to adjust its support in order to give me my best of experience of work all the way along.

And I think that's the first thing.

So know who works for you.

The second thing is obviously associated that with that is being data driven.

So understanding who works for you, so the demographics of your workplace.

Then understanding a bit more about what people's different experiences are.

We don't all experience work in the same way.

So let's find out a little bit more about what that looks and feels like.

So engagement surveys are a really good place to start.

You can learn all sorts of things there.

For example, if we're looking at how do the experiences of black women in their 50s compare to those of black women in their 30s?

Or how do they compare to black men in their 50s in your organisation?

So you might see differences in experiences emerging when you look at different breakdowns of the kinds of folks that work for you.

We talk about finding out the stories behind the numbers, so getting to know a little bit more about that lived experience from people.

So BITCs advisory team, we love taking qualitative and quantitative data and smushing it together to understand, I suppose what's good about working cultures from different perspectives, but also I think what needs to be better.

And once you know what that is, what needs to be better, who for, then you can start going after that, you can start making priorities.

'Cause you can't boil the ocean.

Yes, yeah.

You have to be able to do one thing at a time.

Yeah, absolutely.

So then you meet your priorities.

And then I guess finally, and the disability rights movement has been saying this for decades and decades, nothing about me without me.

So you want to make sure that you're hearing from the voices of the people in your organisations whose experiences you're impacting through the policies, strategies, procedures that you're implementing.

'Cause there might be unintended consequences to what you are proceeding in good faith to do.

So keep listening, and keep talking.

Those are great tips.

Thank you so much, Kate.

Dr.

Naveen, can you share some other examples of how a small business owner could shape their workplaces to be more inclusive of people's health and wellbeing?

Hmm, absolutely.

I mean, Kate's mentioned some really fantastic examples there, and just to build on those then.

The kind of things that we find to be quite effective, and that we actually practise within Bupa as well, are providing training to line managers.

So when you are in a position of leadership or management, you haven't suddenly acquired this magic skillset that enables you to deal with the diverse and inclusivity needs of your staff.

And so accessing training, making things like this, the workplace people academy sessions available to your people can be really helpful to upskill them.

I'd also say that as a manager, being open-minded to what is out there is also helpful too.

You're not expected to know if everyone's needs all of the time, but actually if a need suddenly becomes known to you.

Such as a colleague going through the menopause, or somebody who may have a disabled child at home, perhaps take the opportunity to start a conversation and consider where you can upskill yourself as well.

And resources around that can certainly be helpful within the workplace.

Kate mentioned a really lovely turn of phrase there, which was, nothing about me without me.

I really like that.

And I think you can utilise the expertise of your people to see whether that might be something they want to contribute to your business as well.

On that front, I'd also say though, don't expect your people to be the experts in their conditions or their diverse and inclusivity needs.

So for example, if you've got a woman, she's not a spokesperson for all the women in your team.

And if you've got somebody with accessibility needs, that isn't the spokesperson for everybody with disability of all kinds in your team as well.

Yes, yes.

But certainly tapping into that can be really helpful.

And including and involving them can be really good as a way of engaging and building from the ground up.

We also find that sometimes people have got lots of resource and insight, but don't wanna share it for fear of how it might be perceived or judged.

And so sharing anonymously can be helpful as well.

We in Bupa find that having surveys that are anonymized can be really helpful to tap into intelligence of your people, and also their insights as well.

And sometimes the most rich insights I gained when people haven't gotta put their name to it, of course it has to be respectful, but I'm sure most people operate from a place of respect and wanna provide feedback that's helpful and constructive rather than damaging or critical for the sake of it.

I've already mentioned training, so when you go into a position of leadership or management, you aren't expected to acquire all of this knowledge and just know what to do.

But it is your responsibility to consider that you are at the helm of a team or a set of people whose opportunities and development depend on your insight and your ability to help them navigate through the workplace.

So if you've got somebody who's neurodiverse, being aware of what that means for them and perhaps conducting yourself in a way that helps them thrive at work can be really helpful.

As one of many examples.

Making your workplace accessible is really, really important.

I think, as Dom said, this is 2024, we shouldn't be having these conversations at this stage because there is now so much help and support available to us.

And so really tapping into what you can do to make the workplace more accessible can be helpful.

One thing I found quite helpful sometimes is, and this is just one example of many things that I'm sure lots of folk out there do, is taking steps through your workplace in the shoes of somebody else, or in the mindset of somebody else.

What does it feel like to be somebody, for example, who might be transitioning gender and using bathrooms that aren't necessarily to their comfort or preference, or being stared at by other colleagues who don't necessarily know how to address them or to include them in conversations.

As one example of many, taking steps in somebody else's shoes can be a really good way to kind of almost embed yourself in the challenges they face day to day.

The kind of things they perhaps don't want to bother you with or trouble you with, but which could make a big difference with your understanding of them.

Within Bupa, again, we also have lots of networks, and so networks can be really powerful because they encourage people to collectively raise the conversation and share insights, and tips, and ways of working as well.

Networks can be really good to give people the safety and the comfort to be around people of a like mind.

We have, for example, a parent and carer network in Bupa.

We have networks for women, we have networks for people with disability.

And these are really good spaces where conversations can be had and people can feel a sense of kinship and a sense of familiarity amongst people that have a similar lived experience as them.

Sometimes if you're the only person in your team with your lived experience, that can be quite isolating.

But to recognise across your organisation there may be others can be really fruitful.

So I'd certainly encourage developing and growing networks as well.

One of the things that links so many of our conversations is culture and values, and open communication, and treating each other like colleagues and friends, and trying to build good within the atmosphere that we are in.

'Cause we spend so long at work, don't we?

We spend so long at work, and it's really that for leaders to create a place that feels caring, and inclusive, and that you matter.

Dom, given that inclusivity is at the heart of your business, can you tell us a bit about your initiatives and the positive impacts, so that these have had on your employees and organisation?

Yeah, of course.

And when I knew I was gonna be asked this question, I actually had to think in some ways, because it's so intrinsic to the DNA of who we are as a team.

We have got 50% plus lived experience of disability within our workforce.

And that kind of caring human sort of communicative approach to ED&I is just so fundamental to who we are and what we do.

And if you then have to break it down, I suppose it really is just trying to create a safe space, removing all barriers all along the way for the individuals so they can absolutely give their full and their best in the workplace.

The first part of that, of course is just making it abundantly clear that this is in open dialogue, nothing's off limits.

They can say anything they want and you are an open door that's not gonna go.

(gasps) Be shocked and surprised with whatever they saying.

And that really counts for a lot.

But similarly, when someone's applying for a job, making sure that your website is accessible is such a fundamental step.

Where people won't feel like a business is for them if they can't even access a website to apply for a job.

Similarly, representation on your website is something so often people don't even think about, but if you can see a diverse workforce, then you're much more likely to think that it's some workforce that you belong in.

So again, those are things before you've even started a hiring process or a culture to think about how you can engage potential people.

And then once you're in the application process, you obviously want to make sure that you have that open dialogue, you ask the question.

We so often say, "Nothing's off limits, don't feel scared to say anything to us.

" But similarly there has to be a confidence around saying, "Look, we're here to support you in whatever you need?

What do you need?

" And it's, these are questions that as an individual, they've been asked that a million times, so it's not a new question to them.

I've not suddenly woken up today and just discovered I'm disabled.

I'm like, I've been well aware for a long time.

And so if someone asks me a question around it, it's coming from a place of care and consideration.

And so you know that, you should take that into your work as well.

If you've got the right intention, then that's gonna come across with those that you are talking to and communicating with as well.

And I think finally, just to pick up on a point we've already heard, is that educational piece.

Your internal teams have to be doing this work themselves and they might not have that skill and expertise inbuilt as standard.

So, how do we nurture and support internally to make everyone feel comfortable and confident, that when someone applies for a job, and someone looks at a CV, and we ultimately we just don't want 'em putting it in the bin.

We want them to go, "Right, I feel comfortable and confident enough that I can support this individual, and get the best out of them in the workplace.

" Whatever the barrier might be or the diversity might be.

And you'd be surprised how often, if people are really honest, they would go, "Well I dunno what to do here.

" They put it to one side.

And so ultimately if we're trying to do one thing, it's to build the comfort and confidence to not do that.

Yeah, such a great point, Dom.

Kimberly, how can small businesses effectively recruit a diverse workforce and ensure that their hiring practises are fair and unbiased?

Yeah, so picking up, really, on Dom's great points there.

Some strategies in order to have, or to ensure that we have a fair recruitment process.

First of all, review your job descriptions.

Make sure that they're not discriminatory in any way, that they use gender neutral terminology.

And also that they focus more on skills and qualifications rather than experiences, because experiences in themselves can automatically isolate a group of people.

In addition to that, implement blind recruitment.

Fantastic process whereby removing all personal data from your first initial sifting stages.

So remove the name, the age, and gender.

And therefore that also reduces the risk of unconscious bias.

Standardise your interview processes.

So the same questions for everybody, that way everyone gets a fair process and a fair opportunity in applying for the job.

Also, basically picking up on both Dom and Dr.

Naveen's points, consider putting your recruitment managers through diversity training initially, so that they know from the get go how to support individuals who are diverse.

Inclusive employer branding.

Again, picking up on Dom's point.

Including or highlighting your commitment to diversity inclusion, whether that's on your website, your social media pages.

And where possible get testimonials from your diverse employees to promote and show how important a diverse workforce is for you and your business.

A diverse interview panel as well.

If you've got that option, a great way, again in bringing loads of different views and opinions and preferences to the table.

Finally, your assessment and testing, making sure that you focus, again, on the skills rather than somebody's experiences.

And then getting feedback.

That's always good in terms of looking at ways to improve your process.

So feedback from the employees who were successful in the post, and also candidates who went through your process, just to highlight anywhere that, for example, as Dom said, maybe they struggled to find the application initially on the website or anything, anything to do with your interview process.

And even if they're not successful.

Absolutely.

I guess that's what you were saying as well.

To get that get that feedback.

Thank you, Kimberly.

Kate, what resources or support are available to help small businesses implement diversity initiatives within their workplaces?

Thanks, Holly.

Well, business in the community, we've got loads of resources on our website that are freely accessible, and they're definitely suited to small businesses.

I mean, we're an SME ourselves.

Yeah.

And we always have that SME audience in mind.

So I'm gonna stick to three things for now.

The first is the Workwell Self-Assessment Tool.

And it's free, that's always a good start.

So on the website, and what it does is it helps you look at your overall approach towards health and wellbeing across the business.

So that it helps you understand, I suppose, what you're getting right and where you have room for improvement in your approach.

Both in terms of colleagues feeling like they're appreciated, and understood, and valued.

I suppose whatever their lived experience, whatever their identity, because it's all that we are is what we bring to work.

You've mentioned that before.

And what you get back from that is you get a report that shares not just where you are at the minute, so your baseline, but also you get a benchmark against other organisations who've used the tool.

And that can be really important when you're looking to recruit talent.

Yes.

So understanding what's your competitive advantage or what you need to do in order to make sure that you're getting all of the possibilities for talent coming through your door.

Yeah.

So we like that.

And about a third of our current users of the Workwell Self Assessment Tool are SMEs, so we know we're onto a good thing.

We know it's good for small businesses.

Exactly, exactly.

The second thing is we have a Race at Work Charter, and over a thousands businesses have signed the Race at Work Charter.

And there are seven key actions with resources to help you amplify your commitment to equality of opportunity for people from minoritized ethnic backgrounds.

So sign up to the Race at Work Charter and take action on that.

And then finally, inclusive recruitment has been a theme we've heard across all of us this morning.

We've got a toolkit.

We've got a toolkit on inclusive recruitment, to make sure that you are able to reap the rewards of a diverse workforce.

And I like threes, so the threes there are inspire, hire, and thrive.

That's what we want to do.

Mm, oh, that's again brilliant tips.

Dom, could you share any personal experiences or challenges related to workplace inclusivity, and how they impacted your work or day-to-day life?

Yeah, of course.

I think largely speaking, I'm very lucky that I've not had any overtly awful or negative experiences in my work and life.

And I know that that isn't always the case, and I know many people that have had terrible experiences.

For me, I, before marketing, I was in the world of TV, so I was a TV producer.

And the first live broadcast I ever went to, and that day I turned up there was a OB truck, so broadcast truck, and it had stairs into it.

And so I got lifted like a sack of potatoes into the OB truck and sat on the chair.

And that moment I realised I wasn't gonna work in live TV, because the facilities and the infrastructure is simply not accessible.

And so you have these kind of sliding doors moments of life, and I've been quite good through my life at just knowing where to move to just keep as many doors open as possible, and remove barriers where I can, of course.

But TV infrastructure is one that I couldn't tackle on my own really.

And so working at a sports production company, I instantly moved into more magazine show style kind of programming.

But then with that over time, as the rise of social media and YouTube and things like that, I moved into sort of specialising more in digital formats, which obviously most of that I can make and produce from a desk.

And so it's really, in that sense I was playing to my strengths.

But obviously it'd be great if we don't have to do that.

And I think nowadays we are seeing conversations where even things in the TV industry, they're changing the accessibility of broadcast spaces.

Paralympics have opened a new studio in Wales that is as accessible, in the most accessible studio space in the world.

And they were literally looking at the equipment, something as simple as the actual equipment they use in the truck.

There's no captioning, there's no sort of basic accessibility that we would use and see on every technology we use in our day to day life.

And it's that kind of consideration that we now have to retrospectively.

Retrospectively, yeah.

Retrospectively put into the process.

So of course, if and when those considerations are in the worlds of the SMEs we're talking to today, like how can you bake inclusivity not just into your processes, but also the infrastructure around, that becomes really fundamentally important to make sure we are removing barriers for individuals as well.

Yeah, absolutely.

Dr.

Naveen, how can line managers effectively support a diverse workforce, and what are the consequences of not making your employees feel included?

I think it's important that line managers recognise that it's their role to help their people develop.

And actually they can be inadvertently a real blocker if they're not aware of that responsibility.

So some of the ways that we consider this can be actioned is to consider your behaviour as a line manager.

You are in a position of leadership, and whether you like it or not, some of the things you say quite casually in potentially what you consider to be safe spaces can have a real impact on people around you.

Just the perception that you are able to share those views so openly and so brazenly can have a real impact on people around you.

We know visibility is really important too.

So be the kind of leader that you would've wanted when you were up and coming as a manager or a leader now.

People who are looking up to you will certainly recognise in you things that they then will use to thrive within the workplace.

So for example, if you are somebody who saw something interesting on TV around equality, diversity, or inclusion, share that with your team, mention it in a team meeting, post about it on your internal work networks or even on your own social media if people have access to that.

Because it gives people an indication that you are somebody who is tuned into conversations around this.

So for example, if you are a male manager and you've been on a training session around the menopause, maybe share some of the insights that you've taken from that, and perhaps the personal impact its had on you.

And replicate that across all aspects of diversity and inclusion can have a really powerful impact moving forward as well.

I'd also say think about how you wanna celebrate diversity as well.

You don't have to know about every event out there.

There's a very robust diversity calendar, but there are big things out there which most workplaces now are probably signed up to.

Black History Month, LGBTQA+ Pride, Disability Pride Month, Mental Health Awareness Week, those kinds of things.

I think just by promoting some level of understanding around those, and maybe thinking about even one event your workplace could host in response to those can be really powerful.

And those then end up becoming things that perpetuate themselves.

You might find individuals in your company who wanna take on responsibility for celebrating those events or big significant landmarks in the calendar in years moving forward.

So in terms of the impact then, you asked around why this is important.

And I think I'd share a couple of things here.

We know that teams that are truly diverse just do so much better in the workforce.

There's a statistic that I've come across, which is that 30% higher productivity is achieved by teams who are diverse.

And that is because of the diversity of opinions, diversity of perspectives, the fact that they reflect your customer base, which is also incredibly diverse as well.

Think about ways of working that could be completely unique and different to how you might consider them.

If you're surrounded by people who only think like you, you're only ever gonna get outcomes that you would get yourself.

Whereas if you surround yourself with a diversity of opinions and perspectives and lived experience, just think of the absolutely amazing rewards that can come from that.

And we also know that when you're a diverse workforce, attracting talent becomes much easier too.

People want to actively work for you, but also retaining that talent as well.

Think of all the resources you put into training your people and to upskilling them, only to lose them if your workplace is not walking the walk and talking the talk around diversity and inclusion.

So what I'd say is that there are many advantages to be had.

I think we've all sort of illustrated those points quite heavily today.

And it's your responsibility as a manager in the best possible way to upskill yourself as best you possibly can.

Make use of the resources out there, seek help or seek guidance when you need it.

And hopefully that encourages a much more inclusive and diverse workforce.

I think what's also interesting is you're saying, there is a calendar out there, but start.

Like to Dom's point, just start, take those first steps.

And I think that that's the most important thing, that small businesses have smaller resources, all of those sorts of things.

There's a lot of pressure on SMEs just to survive, actually.

So actually it's taking those first steps, building that culture.

Dom, can you tell us how businesses can assess the impact of their diversity and inclusion initiatives?

Yeah, I think Dr.

Naveen definitely mentioned some really, really good things from the sort of internal lens.

And as again, I suppose we look both internally and externally.

From the internal, of course it's like as you said, retention is a really valuable one, really easy one to see.

Are people comfortable, are people happy, are people wanting to thrive in your workplace?

And I think that's such an easy sort of metric to be able to track and follow.

Similarly, depending on how you do it, disclosure.

Where is your percentage of disabled staff?

We were working with a law firm that almost proudly said to us that of their 400 staff, no one's disabled.

And I was like, "No, they just don't tell you they're disabled.

" And it was a really fascinating interaction, because they was just like, "Oh no, we don't have anyone disabled in our law firm.

" And I'm like, "No, no, no, you definitely do.

" But again, it's like they clearly don't have a culture where it's acceptable and appropriate to mention disability.

And so for us, if you've got a team that are comfortable and confident and talking, of course people are allowed to keep things private, it's completely up to them.

But creating a platform where if they want to, they can, it's just so fundamentally important.

And they're obviously looking externally, we measure success of being diverse and inclusive for brands every single day.

And that can be how representative they are in their marketing and comms.

It can be what consumers think of them, and how their brand stands out compared to others.

Again, like reiterating that with 24% of the population being disabled, the largest minority in the world, so often brands are not even considering how they're engaging these communities or even representing these communities.

And so if you think of this as a consumer group that actually you can tap into, and they're the most loyal consumer group.

Once you know how to effectively engage them, suddenly this becomes a really exciting opportunity for organisations to start thinking about and tapping into as well.

So I think, yeah, just get on the journey, start the process.

As you say, just starting somewhere, and then you'll see the kind of fruits of your labour, as it were, as you go along.

And ultimately this isn't scary, this isn't difficult, it's just about kind of being open and honest to that iteration, I suppose.

Yeah, such a great point.

This whole session has been fascinating.

Thank you Dr.

Naveen.

Thank you, Kimberly.

Thank you, Kate.

Thank you, Dom.

I think what really stood out for me was the small practical steps that we can all take to start bringing inclusivity and diversity into the workplace.

So three steps I think anyone could start with would be, number one, to explore all your existing channels.

Such as, is your website accessible?

Do you amplify other voices on your social media channels?

You need to represent what you want to attract.

Another would be what Kate was mentioning.

There are lots of resources at bitc.

org.

uk, where you can access a whole host of free resources such as the Workwell Self-Assessment Tool.

And finally, think about how you're hiring.

Are you hiring yourself, do you all feel and look the same?

Diversity of thought, life experience, as Dom said, is not only great for your culture and your brand, it is just, fact, good for business.

And the bottom line, with 83% higher consumer preferences when it comes to diverse brands.

We hope you found this useful, and we'll see you next time.

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