This document discusses the importance of diversity and inclusion for employee engagement. It argues that organizations that embrace diversity and inclusion through a long-term strategic effort will see benefits like improved performance, problem solving, recruitment costs and employee well-being. However, many organizations still face barriers to truly embedding diversity and inclusion in their culture and day-to-day operations. The document provides recommendations for overcoming these barriers, including by putting diversity and inclusion at the center of organizational strategy, helping managers build inclusive teams, giving employees a voice, and demonstrating integrity in sustaining an inclusive culture.

1. Putting diversity and inclusion at the
heart of employee engagement
July 2015

2. “Engagement is not a
one size fits all…”
Doug Crawford

3. Difference
creates
opportunity

4. Inclusion
creates the
culture to
sustain it

5. Diversity: what is it in its broadest sense?
Every way in which any
mixture of people has both
similarities and differences
It begins and ends with the individual.
It is about a culture where people feel respected and
valued, and can contribute to their fullest potential to help
their organisation achieve its objectives.
It involves sustained and long-term strategic effort
that, when led and managed effectively, will improve
performance and problem solving.
It’s happening when individuals’ different perspectives
and experiences are embraced in finding the best ways to
serve the public and customers.
InclusionDiversity

6. Why is it important?
The UK workforce is diverse, e.g.
WOMEN MAKE
UP 46% OF
WORKFORCE
81% OF 25-
49 YEAR-
OLDS ARE IN
EMPLOYMENT
14%
OF OUR
POPULATION
ISNON-WHITE
ETHNIC
SIGNIFICANT
INCREASE IN
THOSE WHO
FOLLOW NON-
CHRISTIAN
RELIGIONS
(5.5% TO 8.2%)
THERE ARE
OVER 1.7
MILLION GAY
PEOPLE IN UK
WORKFORCE
67% OF 50-
64 YEAR-
OLDS ARE IN
EMPLOYMENT
MILLENNIALS
WILL
COMPRISE
MORE THAN
50% OF
WORKFORCE
BY 2025
1 IN 6 OF
THE UK
WORKFORCE
CURRENTLY
HAS A MENTAL
HEALTH ISSUE

7. Why is it important?
The legal case
The moral case
The business case

8. Organisations which are more diverse
and inclusive perform better…
People
• Reduced recruitment
costs and a wider talent
pool from which
to recruit
• Raised employee
motivation, productivity
and enhanced employee
wellbeing and
employer brand
Product
• Generation of new ideas
and better products and
services for customers
• Better understanding of
customers and markets
Performance
• There is a positive
quantitative link
between gender
diversity at senior
levels and financial
performance
• An inclusive culture
is a key underpinner
of successful major

9. What’s the reality?
According to ‘Diverse Voices’ report by IPA and astar-fanshawe
• Despite facing a labour market disadvantage and barriers to workplace
equality, women were more engaged than men, although they feel less
able to express their voice at work.
• The youngest workers tended to score higher on employee engagement
and this decreased progressively with age until the former default
retirement age of 65 from where it rose sharply.
• There was a significant and worrying gap in terms of disability – with
disabled employees far less engaged than their non-disabled colleagues.
• There were no significant differences in terms of sexual orientation,
ethnicity or religion.

10. Engagement data may not always reflect
equality, opportunity and performance, e.g.
While 90% of NHS staff surveyed feel ‘trusted to do their
job’, almost a quarter (24 percent) of NHS staff said that
they experienced harassment, bullying or abuse from
their manager or other colleagues in 2014. Black and
minority ethnic staff in the NHS are more likely to be
bullied and harassed.
“The greater the proportion of staff from a
black or minority ethnic (BME) background
who report experiencing discrimination at
work in the previous 12 months, the lower the
levels of patient satisfaction.” Yvonne Coghill, August 2013

11. Diversity & inclusion is not always
embedded into working behaviour, e.g.
The 2014 Power of Diversity research
found that while 84% of City workers
said their company was committed to
diversity from the top, only 15% of
mid-level managers felt their leaders’
actions were consistent with their words.

12. The challenge is to
mainstream diversity
and inclusion

13. What are some of the barriers?
DISCRIMINATION
IN-GROUPS, OUT-GROUPS
D&I IS NOT INTEGRATED
WITH ORGANISATION
LACK OF RECOGNITION
WHITE MANAGERS
ANXIETY
LACK OF FLEXIBLE
WORKING
ORGANISATIONAL
CULTURE
LACK OF AWARENESS OF
WHAT D&I MEANS
NO CONSIDERATION
ABOUT DIFFERENCE
NO LINK TO
ORGANISATION
PURPOSE OR MISSION
UNCONSCIOUS BIAS
LACK OF COMPLIANCE
NO DIVERSITY AT
BOARD LEVEL
ISSUES OF BULLYING AND
HARRASSMENT

14. Put D&I at the centre of your strategy
Strategic
Narrative
Engaging
Managers
Employee
Voice
Integrity
The best organisations
show how diversity and
inclusion is central to
the lives and success of
colleagues, customers
and the organisation
Managers can better
engage and develop
their people through
greater understanding of
difference and creating a
more inclusive working
environment
Voice is critical to
tackling discrimination
and bullying, opening up
opportunities, generating
innovation and creating a
listening culture
The ability to treat
employees with
respect, acknowledging
difference and managing
inclusion truly reveals an
organisation’s integrity

15. Leaders lead on the narrative and change
Leaders need to make
a direct and conscious
choice that increased
diversity will enhance
their organisation’s
performance
Leadership should start a
conversation throughout
the organisation to
develop the story of
what diversity means
and how it will enhance
the organisation’s
performance
Leaders need to recognise
that to increase diversity
they need to drive
change in structures and
processes and allocate
resources to that change

16. Help managers to build inclusive
team cultures
Engaging
behaviours
Developmental
behaviours
Hearing their
concerns, ideas
& opinions
Finding out
what their
talents are
Appreciating
their culture
Coaching
them for
performance
Empowering
them
Developing
them for
promotion
Research shows that employees score their managers lowest in those
behaviours which help people foster inclusion (Ian Dodds Consulting)

17. Show employees that their voices
are heard
Formal or
informal employee
networks
Surveys and
feedback
Managers and
performance
reviews

18. Show the integrity to sustain the culture
Tackle
discrimination and
bullying
Provide training to
raise awareness of
unconscious bias
Proof the
recruitment,
career framework
and promotion
and performance
appraisal processes
to ensure they are
conducted in a bias-
free manner
Measure progress

19. The engagement opportunity
A whitepaper to take
the debate forward
Give organisations
and practitioners the
insight, responsibility
and confidence to
mainstream diversity
and inclusion.
A conference to help
companies make
D&I the engagement
opportunity
Share case studies
and best practice
examples through
Engage for Success

20. Leveraging the Power of Inclusion for
high engagement takes long-term strategic
effort, involving 5 stages
STAGE 1
Unfreeze
STAGE 2
Mobilise
STAGE 3
Realise
STAGE 4
Embed
STAGE 5
Sustain
Diagnostic to find out
what is helping and
hindering inclusion for
different diversity groups
Set up a D&I Steering
Group to formulate a
vision of success through
inclusion & a strategy to
deliver it
Implement the Diversity
& Inclusion strategy
1. Senior managers
role model inclusive
behaviour
2. Ensure management
processes & systems
are inclusive
1. Communicate
Diversity & Inclusion
success stories
2. Keep up to date on
Diversity & Inclusion
best practices