Melissa Carr, world of work institute director at Henley Business School, spoke about the evolution of equality, diversity and inclusion (ED&I).
She said it started with a focus on equity and equality in the 1950s, the business case for diversity in the 1980s, while more recently, organisations were more interested in inclusion and making sure people could “bring their whole selves to work”.
“One of the issues in terms of ED&I, if you look at this transition from equity to diversity to inclusion, is what you tend to have is an ideological ascendency. At different points of time, the focus becomes on those different elements, and what we know is that all three are needed together,” she said.
An inevitable backlash to progress
She said since President Trump had taken office, his first 100 days in office felt like a rollback of 60 years when it came to ED&I, with “shock and awe” tactics through numerous executive orders as well as a lack of clarity on what is now illegal.
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Carr said this was not new and anyone who worked in ED&I roles knew the “writing was on the wall” and referred to Susan Faludi’s 1991 book, Backlash: The Undeclared War Against Women, which explained that any time there was progress made for underrepresented groups, it was met with backlash.
Carr said in the last three or four years, there had been elements of this happening, but Trump’s actions had been a catalyst. Looking back at 2020 when the Black Lives Matter protests happened, Carr said many organisations employed chief diversity officers and the role was a big growth area, but by 2022, these jobs were in decline.
“Much of that action in 2020 felt quite performative,” she added.
She also said the return to work mandate was evidence of this, too, as working in the office impacted certain groups and was not shown to improve productivity or wellbeing.
“The pendulum was swinging, but Trump gave it a massive push,” Carr said, adding: “When the enemy has no face, society will invent one.”
How organisations are reacting
Carr said in response to Trump’s actions, some companies were going through a “regional recalibration” by creating an “internal firewall” and still linking executive pay to ED&I goals, but not enforcing it in the US so they could maintain their commitment.
Other companies have gone through a “cultural split”, where in the UK and beyond they maintained and doubled down on ED&I, but in the US had taken a different approach.
The third response was to retract from ED&I, “with risk both to employees and to reputation”.
She said this had a big impact on people and culture as it created a discourse with uncertainty, instability and poor behaviours. Carr added that it was important for organisations to understand what this meant for employees and their sense of psychological safety.
To help employees through this “destabilising” period, Carr said organisations needed to listen and offer support. She also asked: “Who owns ED&I?”, adding that it was usually a HR function but was not always integrated into all aspects of an organisation.
She said leaders needed to “take a stand and have a voice”.
Avoiding groupthink
Naomi Sesay, head of creative diversity at Channel 4, followed on by discussing how to create psychological safety and high-functioning teams.
She said we were in a state of “psychological, emotional, physical flux”, but people do not like that as they prefer to feel certain.
“In that place of uncertainty, we need to understand where our core values lie and always see where we’re going to go in the future,” Sesay added.
She said: “Comfort has never been your compass,” as people needed to get out of their comfort zone to stretch themselves.
Sesay said understanding why people might have an emotional response to certain things allowed them to unpack what was behind that.
She said certain kinds of intelligence, such as non-Western intelligence, were “marginalised and discarded”, which was why it was important for humanity to understand that “together we are better”.
“You cannot innovate in a homogeneous group. You’ll get to a certain level, then plateau off.
“You need different expertise, different ideas, different people, different cultures, different life experiences in order to meld that together and get to that sweet spot of innovation,” she added.
Sesay said this is what a high-functioning team does.
She said ED&I being a separate function made it exclusionary by design, and it needed to be absorbed into the mainstream.
“The success of ED&I strategies is when ED&I strategies and functions don’t exist anymore because everyone gets it,” Sesay added.
She said ED&I functions sometimes made people feel disconnected and excluded, especially if they were not part of the group being focused on and said everyone needed to be involved.
Sesay said inclusion felt “snuggly” and like being part of a family, and organisations needed to make sure they created that atmosphere.
Understanding exclusion
Sesay said in order to understand inclusion, people needed to understand exclusion.
Recalling times in her childhood where Sesay felt excluded because of her African identity, she said she started to “cut out pieces of her identity” and decided not to dress in traditional clothing, not to tell people where she came from, to eat Western foods and to speak like those around her.
She said people were programmed to think the way they did, which was why it was hard to unlearn how to ride a bike once you had been taught, and added that having a feeling of not belonging was embedded in neurology through experiences.
Sesay said: “The moment I step into an environment where I feel that I’m not going to belong, I will step back out. If I have to be in there, I will lean back and I will not give 100% of myself.”
‘You can only be what you see’
The presentations were followed by a panel discussion with Rachel Doy and Dev Malle on mentoring.
Malle spoke about being mentored by Graeme Hughes while at Nationwide, and said he was “very lucky to get the right person” as he had “massive impostor syndrome” because he had been fast-tracked through his career via a number of programmes.
Hughes suggested that he mentored Malle away from what was prescribed by HR, and he felt he had an advantage with Hughes supporting him.
Malle said this showed him the power of having the right mentor.
When Malle decided to become a mentor himself through the Working in Mortgages initiative, he said his mentees said it would be helpful to have someone who would empathise with them and understand the challenges they might face.
Malle asked Doy how the scheme was going and said it came about to address what barriers were blocking people from entering the mortgage sector and putting themselves forward for promotions.
“Something we hear a lot about in these spaces and these talks is ‘you can only be what you can see’, there are so many people who don’t see themselves represented and it can be really difficult,” she added.
The DIFF Annual Review 2025 – five key takeaways
Embed ED&I into core business strategy
- Treat ED&I as a commercial imperative, not just a moral or HR concern.
- Ensure executive accountability and top-down leadership, with senior leaders actively involved and held responsible.
- Benchmark ED&I efforts against customer demographics to reinforce commercial relevance.
Build psychological safety and inclusive culture
- Foster psychological safety by explaining the “why” behind data collection and encouraging open dialogue.
- Promote authenticity, allyship, and vulnerability at all levels—from executives to entry-level staff.
- Use tools like well-being passports, listening groups, and inclusive events (e.g. menopause awareness, including all genders).
Empower and upskill line managers
- Mandate ED&I education for all line managers, equipping them to handle difficult conversations, adjustments, and cultural sensitivities.
- Encourage managers to know their teams personally, recognising diverse life needs (e.g. fertility treatments, neurodiversity).
- Provide practical tools and support assets, especially for middle managers and field-based employees.
Rethink recruitment for diversity and fairness
- “Fish in different ponds” – expand recruitment sources and ensure diverse hiring panels.
- Use blind CVs, inclusive language, and provide interview accommodations (e.g. advance notice of questions).
- Hire for skills and difference – select candidates who add new perspectives, not just cultural fit.
Engage everyone, communicate often, celebrate progress
- ED&I must cut across the business – not just HR – with champions in every department.
- Host inclusive conversations about real-world events; mix leadership levels in discussions and roundtables.
- Share progress stories and lived experiences and ensure remote and field workers are included in messaging and events.
