Equality and Diversity Equality and Diversity Equality is

Equality and Diversity

Equality and Diversity • Equality is the idea that people should all be treated fairly (not equally) • Diversity is about recognising that there are both individual and group differences and so people should be treated as such.

The Benefits You can look at building an inclusive and diverse workplace in any combination of financial and/or ethical ways but the result is the same: it benefits your organisation to be one. So what are the 7 benefits?

1. Attract and retain the best quality employees

1. Attract and retain the best quality employees • It is tough to attract top-notch people to come and work for your company: everyone wants them and they can pick where they work. • It’s a competitive market best summed up by this little anecdote from a conversation held at a Web summit a couple of weeks ago. • A great guy from a great company found it impossible to hire interns. In one square mile, he was facing competition from Google, Facebook, Linked. In (amongst some of the other tech giants) who not only paid their interns’ loads, but also offered something else he couldn’t compete with: culture. • Culture matters. You may not be Google and have your own campus where families can come and picnic with your employees in the Californian sunshine but you can still offer a workplace that is flexible, tolerant and open.

2. Create more positive working relationships

2. Create more positive working relationships • A team with positive working relationships will be more productive, engaged and focused. • It will also make work a nicer place to be for everyone: if people are getting on, there are less worries for you to manage. • If you’re the type of person who finds stats more compelling, check this out. According to the HSE* 9. 9 million days were lost to stress last year and that’s a lot of time for your team to be short-handed with people covering for someone else… it all adds up. *http: //www. hse. gov. uk/statistics/causdis/stress/

3. Greater productivity within your team

3. Greater productivity within your team • Consider how YOU feel when you go into work. • Some days are great, some days it feels like you’re wading through treacle to achieve even the smallest of tasks.

4. Increased performance

4. Increased performance • In fact, the economy could be underperforming to the tune of several billion pounds. Sounds crazy, but it’s true. A study by Grant Thornton compared the performance of FTSE 350 companies who had all male executive boards to those with at least one female board member. • The difference in performance for the companies with all male board members was lower by 0. 53 per cent. This doesn’t sound much but it equates to $74 billion lower Return on Investment. *http: //www. acas. org. uk/index. aspx? articleid=5533

5. Appeal to a wider audience (of customers)

5. Appeal to a wider audience (of customers) • The more diverse you are as an organisation, the wider the appeal you’ll have with a whole range of people. • We don’t all get along with the same people; we gel better with some rather than others. • Quite simply, the wider the range of people you have on your team, the wider the range of people you’ll more naturally connect with.

6. A more innovative and creative approach

6. A more innovative and creative approach • The more diverse a workforce, the wider the pool of experience and knowledge you’ll have available for tackling problems or creating opportunities. • This broadens out the scope of any conversation, which could lead to somewhere great.

7. Reducing the risk (and cost) of possible legal action

7. Reducing the risk (and cost) of possible legal action • A record award was made by the Employment Tribunal for unfair dismissal last year – it exceeded £ 3 million. • It’s rare that sums this high are awarded but they tend to reach into the thousands and that is without adding in legal costs which can reach into the tens of thousands for even simple cases.

7. Reducing the risk (and cost) of possible legal action • The more you do to tackle discrimination in the workplace, the less need there will be for you to face possible legal proceedings and, even if you do, there are greater mitigating factors that reduce the likelihood of a successful claim against you. • It might sound rather mercenary to talk in these terms but balancing risk is something that needs to be done, especially where it could cause significant financial or reputational harm to the company. • The financial harm is not just limited to the direct costs of defending a claim in court but certain public sector tenders ask if you’ve had a judgement go against you in the Employment Tribunal which will disqualify you from tendering. • Got a particularly salacious claim? The press might pick it up.