This October we celebrate Black History Month and National Coming Out Day, yet despite society saluting the diversity that surrounds us, many employees report that today’s workplaces haven’t come that far since the discrimination acts were introduced in the mid-1970s. So, what can businesses do to forge ahead and finally eliminate unconscious biases and the dangers of groupthink from corporate culture?

The benefits 

According to the 2018 McKinsey and Company report on the issues, businesses with a diverse workforce are 35% more likely to have a financial return above industry medians.  

Companies with a good diversity and inclusion programme are more likely to attract top talent too. The Employer Branding Insights 2019 whitepaper from Wonderful Workplaces supports this view. It found that close to a total majority, 94% of its survey respondents, said they would consider an employer’s brand and culture when choosing who to work for.  

Reputation doesn’t just play a role in recruitment, however, with many companies hitting the headlines unfavourably for ignoring these issues. The subsequent fall out is lost business and faltering profits.  

Building a fair selection process 

The UK Diversity and Inclusion Report 2018, from Hays, a leading specialist staffing business, shows that only 38% say their organisation is proactive in their efforts to source diverse candidates, while just 34% say their organisation ensures interview panels are diverse.  

Creating an inclusive recruitment experience involves taking steps that starts from the beginning and advertising in places to attract the widest talent pool. According to Wonderful Workplaces, one in five candidates (20%) use job sites to find new roles. Recruiters need to start looking at the websites they use to advertise their vacancies on to ensure they can tap into a more diverse candidate base. Imagery and branding in employers’ recruitment materials should also reflect a diverse workforce.  

Mixing up test-based assessments, interview selections and on-the-job skills evaluations helps to ensure that the selection process focuses upon fit for the job. Where an interview does form part of the selection process it is a good idea to have a diverse recruitment panel to ensure a balanced decision is made. Importantly, businesses must make sure their efforts promote positive action over positive discrimination which is unlawful and any reasonable adjustments in the workplace are made to accommodate physically challenged employees. 

Top down approach 

According to the Hays survey, just 35% trust their organisations’ leaders to deliver change on the diversity and inclusion agenda and only 36% believe that their leaders fully understand the relationship between diversity and inclusion and profitability. Having a self-awareness can help leaders move forward. Gathering feedback through 360-degree surveys or face-to-face meetings with colleagues is a valuable way of helping leaders understand their ways of thinking.  

Businesses in which leaders take these issues seriously are often quicker to adopt a positive workplace culture that supports diversity and inclusion than those where it is delegated down the hierarchy. Supporting and promoting debate and diversity of thought is one way leaders can demonstrate their commitment to the issues.  

At Ogilvy UK, the business has put in place teams to challenge the status quo. The networks include: Women of Ogilvy, Ogilvy Pride, Ogilvy Roots, Parents & Carers of Ogilvy and Ogilvy ReWired. Each network has an executive sponsor on the leadership team, which the organisation reports has been vital for its success. 

Equal opportunities for development 

According to the Hays survey, 68% of black, asian and minority ethnic (BAME) respondents say their progression has been limited due to their ethnicity, 48% of all disabled respondents say their progression has been limited due to their disability and 43% of all respondents aged 55 or older say their progression has been limited due to their age, whilst 36% of all female respondents say their progression has been limited due to their gender. 

These findings show that progress needs to be made to ensure that development opportunities for career progression are genuinely open to all candidates regardless of ethnicity, gender or sexual orientation. Creating individual development plans in collaboration with employees and providing performance metrics that are transparent and measurable are ways to achieve this. 

With any diversity and inclusion programme the key is to continuously monitor and assess progress against internal and external benchmarks. Leaders that can adapt their ways of thinking and truly become more inclusive will demonstrate to the organisation the importance of the issues being addressed.

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Annie Hayes is a specialist HR, skills, careers and L&D writer with 19 years experience in the sector.

Just over a quarter of employees (26%) leave their jobs due to lack of career progression, according to the Employer Branding Insights 2019 whitepaper from Wonderful Workplaces. By offering opportunities to grow your employees’ careers you can help retain them, or indeed attract top talent. Here are some steps you can take to achieve this and ensure your get a healthy return on your investment from your employees’ development.

Establish a continuous open dialogue

Professional development shouldn’t be a conversation that is confined to the annual appraisal. For all parties, a continuous and open dialogue between key stakeholders is more beneficial.

Formal discussions do play an important part in embedding specific, measurable and achievable development goals as well as providing a written record of what was talked about and agreed in terms of objectives and outcomes, but an incremental approach with small steps and continuous discussion is vital for understanding where an employee is and what their aims and objectives are. 

Encourage individual ownership for career development

Employees need to take responsibility for the development of their career. Line managers should support and encourage, but the ultimate driver for career development is the employee themselves. 

Employees need to invest in self-learning and learn to self-evaluate against current and desirable competencies. This may involve conducting a 360 degree review and getting feedback from a range of stakeholders. It’s important to understand which competencies an employee requires to take the next step on the career ladder and for line managers to act as a catalyst to get them there. It’s important that everyday opportunities for learning are also taken, small things such as asking what was learned after a presentation or meeting or even after a piece of work has been submitted, all contribute to overall employee career progress.

Offer coaching and mentoring

Coaching creates long-term learning and behavioural change and boosts learning through self-discovery, allowing a more personalised and tailored approach for the individual.

Mentors within the business can also help individuals move their careers forward and offer support from inside the organisation from those that understand its structure, working culture and development opportunities. They can also be assigned to ‘stretch’ the employee and move them out of their career comfort zone.

Champion e-learning and skills acquisition

E-learning courses have the advantage of being impartial, up to date with the latest content, and are quick and easy to use. Courses can also be revisited and can be delivered at a time that is convenient to the user. Blogs, YouTube videos and podcasts are all great learning tools too, so even if it doesn’t come packaged as ‘e-learning’ it may still provide a key source of development.

More formal training can also be necessary if it is a regulatory requirement or if exams need to be undertaken in order to move onto the next level within a career. Any acquired new skills should be documented and rewarded.

Employee development is an organisation-wide initiative. Employees that tap into the opportunities that are available within the business and utilise learning opportunities for stretch and growth will see their career flourish, particularly if they take ownership of their own learning and couple it with self-directed skills acquisition and knowledge harvesting. 

Businesses that champion a learning culture will reap the benefits of improved retention and levels of motivation, as well as empowered employees who are willing to leap out of their comfort zones and become key talent.

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Annie Hayes is a specialist HR, skills, careers and L&D writer with 19 years experience in the sector.

Surviving is the reality for a lot of employees who ‘put up and shut up’ in return for the stability of a living wage; yet some companies are turning things around and ensuring that emotional and physical wellbeing is a priority with Employee Assistance Programmes (EAPs), robust work-life balance policies and initiatives in place to reduce stress, absence and mental health issues.

The dangers of ignoring employee wellbeing

In toxic workplace cultures, where presenteeism is applauded, professionals often distrust one another with incidences of workplace bullying, ill-health and high stress levels resulting in spiralling levels of absence and lower productivity.

The cost to businesses with this employee fallout can be very readily felt and can also be damaging to employer brand. The Employer Branding Insights 2019 whitepaper from Wonderful Workplaces shows that 68% of jobseekers said ‘a better work-life balance’ would make them consider applying for a vacancy even if they’re not actively looking for a new job. This demonstrates how important a favourable reputation is and the importance that candidates now put on workplaces being a positive environment.

Listening to and supporting employees

Having an open dialogue with employees is the best place to start. Many companies use employee wellbeing surveys to gather data on how their employees feel. This can be achieved whatever the size of the company or sector and offers a useable benchmark from which to assess current and future progress.

Statistics tell us that one in four people will suffer from a mental health issue. Mind, the charity for better mental health, publishes its annual Workplace Wellbeing Index Awards and celebrates those organisations that normalise conversations about mental health whilst embedding support. The 2017 and 2018 winner was the Environment Agency. Its Healthy Minds programme and staff-led network, Healthy Minds, is an awareness-raising and training programme for both individuals and line managers that teaches people how to spot the signs of emotional distress as well as how to access support. Its employee-led mental health network is entirely run by staff, for staff. 

Similarly, many of the bigger firms now have EAPs in place that help employees deal with personal problems that might adversely impact their work performance, health and well-being. Occupational health facilities, together with on-site gyms and exercise programmes, can also support physical wellbeing and promote a healthier lifestyle.

Normalising work/life balance

Millennials and increasingly older professionals are demanding an improved balance between work and their personal lives. Many businesses have removed the taboo from home or remote working for professionals that need to strike a balance between domestic responsibilities by cutting their commute whilst ensuring their productivity is at an optimum level. 

Businesses that achieve this champion their policies from the top down with senior leaders ‘walking the talk’ by demonstrating to junior colleagues that a work/life balance can be achieved by stamping out presenteeism. Policies like working from home can also help maternity returners find their feet as they ease their way back into working life after having a baby.

Work fulfilment

Employers are caretakers of professionals’ careers and programmes need to be put in place to ensure that workers play a part in their own development. Rewards programmes, both financial and other, are instrumental in assisting this. 

It is also important that employees buy into the values of the business and this can often be achieved with corporate social responsibility initiatives and other fulfilment exercises including opportunities for employees to do good works for related charities or community efforts.

For many employees, working for a business that pays more than lip-service to their emotional, mental and physical wellbeing, is a key factor in how aligned they feel to the organisation and in turn the successes they have whilst working there and for the company. With absenteeism and stress being a huge cost to businesses it is an issue that cannot be ignored.

National Work Life Week (7-11 October 2019), is an opportunity for both employers and employees to focus on well-being at work and work-life balance.

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Annie Hayes is a specialist HR, skills, careers and L&D writer with 19 years experience in the sector. 

Reputation and values are the cornerstone upon which many successful businesses have built their strengths. Yet most employers do not have the luxury of brand strength, which triggers a vicious cycle of struggling to attract the best talent, and a potential subsequent failure to produce better products and services. In turn, this typically leads to an employer brand that is not highly regarded. 

What does an employer brand mean in practice?

Branding is often thought about in terms of what a company means to consumers and how a business is portrayed in the public in terms of its goods and services. When we talk about employer branding, however, we are looking at a company’s reputation as an employer and what it can offer to its employees. 

Brand names become synonymous with quality, value for money and trust. It’s what many marketers aim to achieve – the customer choosing to pick their product over the opponents – and the same is true when it comes to candidates choosing who to work for. 

Why is employer branding so important?

Candidates often lean towards the familiar, well-regarded employers over start-ups or growing businesses that haven’t emerged as key players or indeed trusted organisations that will take responsibility for your career and its progression. A failure to work on employer branding can quickly damage the recruitment efforts of your business and make it increasingly difficult to bring the best talent into the business.

The Employer Branding Insights 2019 whitepaper from Wonderful Workplaces found this to be true based on its survey of over 840 candidates. Close to a total majority, 94% of respondents said they would consider an employer’s brand and culture when choosing who to work for. A figure that is up four percentage points from a comparable survey three years ago.

Sadly, under half felt their employer is not effectively communicating their employer brand, demonstrating the missed opportunities that are occurring within organisations to propel their businesses forward.

How to build a strong employer brand

Building a robust employer brand must be mobilised across the business by all levels within the organisation. The best advocates for your business are those that work there, so it’s crucial that a brand building exercise starts from the grassroots and begins with making the business a great place to work for by respecting its employees, offering them sufficient and targeted opportunities for personal and professional growth, and taking the time to talk to its employees to find out what their key values are – including flexible working or work from home opportunities.

The business’ online reputation and the stories it shares is also a key element in building a strong employer brand. Any negative comments left on careers websites should be dealt with and responded to and shows that your company is serious about improving things. It’s always good to share case studies about the great things your business is doing and investing in employer kite marks such as Investors in People, a standard for people management, or People Management Awards from organisations such as the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development is a great way of achieving that.

Looking for creative ideas on how to build your employer brand? Get in touch with Wonderful Workplaces on wonderfulworkplaces@haymarket.com 

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Annie Hayes is a specialist HR, skills, careers and L&D writer with 19 years experience in the sector.