At the Principality, we have made inclusion a core plank of our corporate strategy – I joined the society two years ago with the express remit of pushing this agenda. While we have by no means arrived at our desired destination yet, we are keen to share some of the lessons we have learnt so far.
A key point may sound obvious: it is important that everyone understands the language used in relation to diversity and inclusion (D&I) from the outset. I’ll give some examples of the analogies we use to define some of the core terminology. It helps to think of the workplace as a party.
Diversity – When we talk about diversity, we mean who is on the guest list for this party? Who is invited to join? Are we asking people with sufficiently diverse perspectives, roles, lived experience and backgrounds?
Inclusivity – When it comes to being inclusive, what is on the play list? Is the music catering for all tastes? Are there enough different tunes for a range of people to dance to? Will everyone enjoy it and take part?
Belonging – Will everyone feel welcome in this environment? We know that a sense of belonging in the workplace means people are more likely to work hard, be productive and stick around. Whether they want to hit the dance floor or sit in a corner on their own, are we putting people at ease?
Our experience
At Principality, we decided that our priority had to be creating an inclusive environment, not just accepting but welcoming different ways of thinking, a variety of opinions and different ways of working. We want our people to feel they can be themselves in the workplace.
We set up numerous colleague network groups and encouraged them to talk to one another about their lives outside of work, sharing details of the religious festivals they observe, their involvement in Pride celebrations, their experience of adopting children or going through IVF, for example… anything that would help them better understand each other.
We also encouraged our neurodivergent colleagues to share their experiences through the groups, which enabled us to set up support mechanisms for them and for their line managers, and to improve our internal communications with relation to neurodiversity.
We then looked at how we could help everyone practice greater inclusion on a day-to-day basis. It’s clear that no one manager could ensure that inclusivity is embedded across the company.
But cross-department fertilisation of ideas, from IT to sales to ops could help. So we used the colleague network groups to share their range of perspectives on many issues. One example is our Paid Parental Leave Policy. Rather than just having the HR team rewrite some rules, we consulted the network groups who brought a wide range of experience to the table.
Of course, we still have some distance to go, and bringing everyone along on this journey is a challenge. But it is a challenge we embrace. I have been greatly helped in my role by an expert called Catherine Garrod, and I will leave you with her tips on how to be more consciously inclusive:
- Make sure there is a mix of people
- Invite everyone to join a conversation
- Deliberately seek an alternative perspective
- Ask what would make people feel more included
- Get to know people not just like you.
