The importance of Inspiring Inclusion in today’s workplace.
An honest round table discussion unpacking the significance of this year’s International Women’s Day theme – Inspiring Inclusion – in business and beyond.
Seven inspiring individuals from Partners& rallied together to share their perspectives on what ‘Inspiring Inclusion’ in the workplace means to them, why this is such an important topic in today’s climate and how they feel businesses can take the next step to foster a greater culture of inclusion.
Special thanks to panellists – Rowanne Dicker, Florence Dennis, Evie Taylor-Frith, Rebecca Merry, Emily Thompson, Jonathan Miller and Felicity Stell.
What does Inspiring Inclusion in the workplace mean to you?
Florence Dennis:
“An inclusive workplace is about actively creating an environment where people from all walks of life and backgrounds feel safe to bring their true selves to work and breaking down the barriers to make people feel included.”
Rowanne Dicker:
“For me, it is about having people to look up to from different walks of life, that do and don’t look like you, making sure there is a broad range of views, intellects and experiences to learn from and embrace.”
Emily Thompson:
“Implementing an inclusive culture ensures that all employees feel that they belong and have the same opportunities. This is something which should be both led by senior managers in a business, but also have a bottom-up approach where individuals in the organisation, at whatever level, have the opportunity to get involved.”
Jonathan Miller:
“As Emily mentioned, inspiring inclusion must be at all levels. Top-down and bottom-up to be able to create an environment where people feel free to share and bring as much of themselves to work as they possibly can. That’s the way that you get the best out of them. It’s important to have the leadership set an agenda, but also that everybody in the business feels they can bring their particular concerns or worries and strengths to the workplace.”
Rebecca Merry:
“A really big part of inspiring an inclusive mentality is making sure we have allyship. That there is education around how we can each check our privilege every single day and inspire people to take on more of a diverse thinking mindset.”
Why do you think this message (inspiring inclusion) is so poignant in today’s culture?
Jonathan Miller:
“The reason why this message continues to be so important is because we’re still not where we want to be, there’s still a lot of work to do both internationally and in the UK. As a country, we have still a gender pay issue. We still have an equality and equity issue, in terms of things like parental leave and returning to work, for women especially, so there are still things to do. Even within our business, we do fantastically well on a senior leadership level in terms of our gender split, but you look throughout the business, and we don’t seem to have the same balance at every level. So, it’s still a real focus, even for businesses like ours, hence why having conversations like these are so important.”
Rowanne Dicker:
“Right now, I think it’s particularly important to create safe spaces for people where they can both be themselves and be able to learn from one another. Going out in the world today, and listening to the news, I’m not sure that it can always feel like a particularly safe space. So, creating that within our business, allowing people to flourish in the hope this will support them across the rest of their lives, can only be a great thing.”
Evie Taylor-Frith:
“For me, this message of inspiring inclusion is so important largely because it goes far beyond this week and International Women’s Day itself. It’s an attitude we should continue to cultivate throughout the year across so many facets. For example, take the way so many of us now work, hybrid working comes with its benefits, but sitting in your home office, it is so easy to feel disconnected. Combine this with the current mental health epidemic throughout this country and the world, it couldn’t be a more important to message to reflect on right now across a whole spectrum of activity within organisations.”
Rebecca Merry:
“The message this year also encourages us to be slightly braver and bolder in the decision-making that goes on not just in our work life, but in our home life as well. When we think about bringing our whole selves to work, that also expands into allowing everybody else to bring their whole selves into our lives as well. So, for me, that inspires much braver and bolder conversations.”
Florence Dennis:
“Inspiring inclusion is really important because we live in an ever-changing world and like Rowanne said, quite a scary world at times. Therefore, we must take on some of the responsibility to improve that for the future. Aspire to improve the world a little bit and get rid of unconscious biases that sometimes create barriers for so many people.”
Finally, in what ways do you think businesses can foster greater inclusion?
Emily Thompson:
“I think one of the great things we do here at Partners& is our networks, events and the groups that we have that help different people to support each other. I’m lucky enough to be involved in both the Menopause Network, AKA, the Hot Chicks and the Women’s Network as well. We discuss many topics relevant to us, hold virtual events, and invite external speakers to come in and these are all well-attended within the business. So, I feel that’s a great thing that we do as a business that hopefully others could learn from.”
Rowanne Dicker:
“Small changes can make a huge impact and giving people the opportunity is key! Something as simple as making sure there is a broad range of applicants for roles is a key way businesses can foster greater inclusion. It sounds simple enough, but I think it’s something to be conscious about, take our industry, I feel very lucky to be surrounded by five other brilliant women and obviously Jon too, but I don’t think that’s the same experience for everyone.”
“It’s also important for us to challenge unconscious bias and making sure that we’re not just employing people that look like you and that you feel hold the same values. In a way you can’t control your unconscious bias, but we need to learn how to question it. If businesses can start doing that, you’d open up a whole load of opportunities for a range of different people, which is really important.”
Rebecca Merry:
“That biased piece is so utterly important! Further to that I think there’s also a level of being personally brave enough to bring your whole self yourself in the workplace. That vulnerability, authenticity and bringing your whole self in order to encourage others to bring their whole selves is a massive part of fostering that culture of diversity and inclusion.”
Evie Taylor-Frith:
“It starts with us, we are the best advocates ourselves to inspire inclusion elsewhere. That’s so much of why we are all here talking about this today.”
Jonathan Miller:
“I agree with all of that! One of the important things from a business perspective is to embed it into the DNA of the business. A cornerstone that your business is built on. It is far more difficult to retrofit that sort of thing, particularly when not everyone buys into it. Embedding it from the beginning attracts the right talent. We have countless advocates across our business and it’s something that our clients and networks appreciate. Just this week we have had more feedback from a client who shared how great it is that we have been proactively sharing with them what we are doing in the ESG space and how we are exporting what we have learnt and making it accessible to businesses like theirs.”
“Ultimately, it’s about educating ourselves, getting actively involved and sharing that message.”
Florence Dennis:
I think businesses can really foster greater inclusion by challenging the status quo. Looking at how things are done today and asking why they’re done that way is really important. It goes back to having a diverse set of people in the room to generate different views so we can grow from them. Creating a snowball effect, as you promote the diversity you have created, you attract more and more great talent which through developing internal networks and developing allyship we continue to support and champion one another.
Felicity Stell:
It’s important business also ask employees what they would like to see within the business to support greater inclusion. It’s great when businesses are proactive in asking and listening to their employees to make positive change.
The group concluded:
It is vital to keep having these conversations, encouraging one another to challenge the status quo and question convention. All whilst being brave enough to bring your authentic self to work, so others feel inspired and welcome to do the same.