d&i

As the dust starts to settle on the troubling results of Britain’s first race disparity audit published by the UK Government on 10 October 2017, many Talent Acquisition leaders are now becoming more aware of the critical role they play in this diversity issue. The facts and statistics paint a clear picture. UK employment rates are lower for ethnic minorities (excluding white minorities) than the overall population across the country. In 2016, just over 4 percent of White people were unemployed, which is lower than the rate of unemployment for people from all “Other” ethnic groups.

We conducted a Q&A interview with Martin Kirke, Coach, Non-Exec Director, Consultant on HR, D&I and Change, around leaders, and how they can create a culture of inclusion.

From your experience, what are the attributes required from our leaders to gain their commitment to engaging our community and driving forward the diversity agenda?

Every alternate article on the World Wide Web makes a reference to unconscious bias and discrimination in one form or another. Look hard enough and you’ll find it. There are, of course, some forms of discrimination that are referred to about more often than others are. Take for example, diversity. The words that probably come to mind when you hear ‘diversity’ are – gender, race and religion; and of the three, we all know which catches the largest focus. However, there is one other form of diversity that is fast dwindling in the workplace and yet is hardly talked about.

It scares me sometimes when I think about the big decisions I’ve made on gut feel and will probably continue to make relying on my instincts.

How many research papers do we need to read or edicts from top class CEOs before we get the message that in every organisation, it all comes down to the people?

We conducted a Q&A interview with Suzie Lewis, Managing Director at Transform for Value, around business transformation, strategic organisational change, and the importance of inclusion and wellbeing within an organisation.
 

Could you introduce yourself and what you do?