Empowering Tomorrow
Beyond moral imperatives a diverse and inclusive workforce is required for sustainable performance
In 2023, a rapidly evolving global landscape places a premium on adaptability, creativity, and diverse perspectives.
For UK organisations specifically, the post-Brexit environment, coupled with international shifts towards more inclusive governance and commerce, underscores the necessity of a robust diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) strategy.
Beyond moral imperatives a diverse and inclusive workforce is linked to enhanced innovation, better decision-making, and improved financial performance. It is also a unique opportunity to drive positive social outcomes for customers, suppliers, other stakeholders and more broadly, our society.
We typically consider the following four areas when developing DEI strategies:
Purpose & Strategy: Effective DEI strategies have to be developed in the context of the environment in which the organisation operates. They have the power to help share the organisation’s purpose, goals and strategy.
Innovation & Transformation: Embedding DEI across the value chain drives innovation, performance improvement and value creation. This includes designing and developing new products and services and improving operating models and ways of working.
People Outcomes: By creating an equitable workplace, DEI initiatives and policies enable greater opportunities for employees and contribute to the achievement of the human capital strategy.
Social Impact: DEI initiatives can drive social impact and outcomes within and outside of the organisation. One example is by reducing the barriers to education and employment pathways.
Understanding DEI
Diversity in itself is not enough to achieve equity or inclusion; everyone should have the same opportunities to succeed
Diversity is the foundation of equity and inclusion. Diversity recognises the breadth of human experiences, backgrounds and identities. It's about valuing every individual for who they are, regardless of age, gender, ethnicity, disability, sexuality or any other characteristic.
The UK, with its multicultural cities and a long history of immigration, has a living tapestry of cultures, languages and traditions. Harnessing this diversity means drawing strength from different viewpoints, ideas and skills. We typically consider the six dimensions to account for people’s diversity (see table).
Equity is about ensuring fair treatment, access and opportunity for all, addressing the imbalances that might exist due to societal structures. In the context of the UK, it means recognising the challenges faced by specific communities, from racial and ethnic minorities to LGBTQIA+ individuals and ensuring that barriers to success, whether they be in education, employment, or elsewhere, are identified and dismantled.
Inclusion is about creating environments where everyone not only has a seat at the table but feels truly valued, heard and involved. For UK organisations this means fostering a culture where differences are celebrated, where every voice matters and where everyone has an equal opportunity to thrive.
Belonging is considered the emotional culmination of any DEI initiative. Employees should feel comfortable and feel like they are accepted as they are in the workplace. Though intangible and hard to quantify, belonging is a crucial part in really cultivating a truly inclusive space for all employees.
Making DEI work
We have identified five characteristic to successful DEI strategies and initiatives
Despite widespread communication of intent and discussions about DEI, progress remains slow on the ground in some industries. Common challenges include lack of leadership support, unclear goals and case for change, internal resistance, limited data and metrics or lack of resources. Below are the five key imperatives to consider on you DEI journey.
1. Understanding and prioritising DEI themes
Your starting point should be to understand the DEI challenges and opportunities that are specific to the environment in which you operate (e.g. sector, geography) and your organisation. This should be informed by a factual analysis of your ecosystem and an identification of the key issues and their root causes. The analysis and prioritisation of the problem areas should ideally involve the target populations that you have identified.
2. Setting clear goals and explaining how the targeted outcomes will be achieved
After prioritising an opportunity area, you need to define goals and outcomes in the short, medium and long-term. Some organisations will use a logic model or theory of change to explain how the outcomes will be delivered. This makes the articulation of the case for change easier and helps to connect the strategies to the organisation’s purpose and business outcomes. It also clarifies which actions have to be taken by whom, from within or, sometimes, outside the organisation.
3. Designing fit-for purpose solutions and mobilising employees for sustainable change
The design of the solutions and activities should be informed by the understanding of the root causes and the outcomes model. The change should be integrated in the relevant processes and ways of working to enable scalable and sustainable impact. Employees should be informed, equipped and encourage to embrace the new ways of working.
4. Ensuring leadership support and accountability
DEI strategies and initiatives should get the buy-in of the senior leadership and be included in the organisational strategies and objectives. It is critical to ensure that the initiatives are adequately resourced and funded and receive appropriate visibility and sponsorship. Moreover, senior leaders have to be accountable for the DEI outcomes and be change-makers themselves.
5. Monitoring process and adjusting solutions
Issues and opportunities related to diversity, equity and inclusion are not static. You need to define clear and measurable performance indicators, track progress regularly and make necessary adjustments to strategies and initiatives.
Measuring DEI
Our framework enables benchmarking and ongoing measurement of progress
The lack of data about DEI is often cited as one of the main challenges for organisations. It prevents the understanding of the core DEI issues, the design of effective solutions and the measurement of progress and success.
We have developed a DEI measurement framework to help you quantify, measure and track diversity, equity and inclusion in your organisation. The framework can be easily tailored to your organisation to consider your operating environment and your DEI aspirations. The selection of data will compliant with local regulations and data privacy requirements.
The framework includes four distinct areas:
DEI Strategy & Execution: The objective is to measure the extent to which the DEI strategy has been developed, communicated and implemented across the organisation. This looks both at what has been achieved and how it is perceived by employees.
Diversity: We want to measure the diversity of the workforce and the extent to which diversity is embedded within the organisation.
Equity: In this section, we analyse equity metrics such as pay, promotion, retention, attrition and work-life balance and collect employees feedback on the equability of the current processes and ways of working.
Inclusion & Belonging: This last area aims to test the extent to which employees feel welcome, respected and valued by combining an analysis of incidents, complaints and communications with employees feedback.
Our framework is tailored to help you benchmark diversity, equity and inclusion throughout the employee life cycle, ensuring consistent measurement of progress against your objectives. Complementing this, our suite of DEI dashboards enhances visibility into your DEI performance. These dashboards not only support informed decision-making but also bolster transparency and accountability throughout the organisation.
Our DEI Consulting Services
We combine DEI expertise with advanced analytics to help our clients create a more equitable future
We support you in understanding DEI challenges and opportunities, and driving change within and outside your organisation. We help you embed DEI in everything you do across business functions and organisational priorities.
Our starting point is to learn about you. We want to understand your ways of working, your culture, where you are as an organisation in your DEI journey and your ambitions for the future.
Research and Diagnostic
System Mapping: Analysing the state of DEI in a sector, mapping pathways and identifying opportunities and challenges.
DEI Diagnostic: Running an organisational DEI diagnostic to assess the current state (including benchmarking) and inform strategies and plans.
Materiality Analysis: Supporting an organisational ESG materiality assessment that includes DEI.
Due Diligence: Performing DEI and Human Rights due diligences.
Vision and Strategy
DEI Strategy: Developing data-driven strategies that embed diversity, equity and inclusion across the organisation as an accelerator of purpose, business value and sustainability.
System Change: Engaging with stakeholders to build sector-wide DEI strategies to drive change at scale.
Organisational Models: Shaping an organisation strategy and operating model that embraces DEI
Enablement and Integration
Leadership & Culture: Creating an inclusive, accessible environment and culture where everyone belongs, is valued and is empowered.
Inclusive Employer: Providing fair and supportive career pathways to give everyone equal access to opportunities across the employee life cycle (e.g. new talent pools, skills development, advancement and diverse workforce retention).
Inclusive Practices and Value Chain: Designing business practices and policies that provide employees and partners with access and opportunities to succeed and promote innovative, responsive and cost-competitive solutions.
Inclusive Growth: Identifying growth opportunities by integrating DEI into business/market expansion and product development.
Inclusive Design: Innovating through inclusive and accessible design, enabling more to engage and access products and services equitably.
Learning & Development: Improving the knowledge and skills of leaders and teams in DEI.
Collective Impact: Building stakeholder partnerships on societal impact.
Monitoring and Evaluation
Performance Management: Measuring and communicating DEI achievements through the development of DEI dashboards. scorecards and reports.
Evaluation: Assessing the impact of DEI initiatives and interventions (e.g. mentoring programme).
Why Aleron
We are committed to helping your organisation not only to value diversity but to thrive on it
Data-Driven
We put data at the centre of our work, from the initial analysis of the current state to the definition of measurable goals and monitoring progress over time. We use advanced analytics to understand how mindsets, behaviours and actions are shifting over time and contribute to a more inclusive environment and culture.
Co-Production
We believe that the design of DEI interventions should be informed by the needs and the voices of those who are most marginalised; our teams bring expertise in user-centred design, co-production and multi-stakeholder engagement.
System Change
Sustainable change happens in an ecosystem of aligned leaders and strong governance. We help you to identify the root causes and interrelationships of systemic problems to drive outcomes and impact within your organisation and/or our society.
Collaboration
We work closely with you, understanding your unique needs and perspectives, to collaboratively frame your DEI aspirations. Together, we strategise to secure leadership commitment, ensure staff buy-in and diligently embed the necessary processes, capabilities and tools to efficiently and effectively realise your overarching organisational goals.
On the ground experience
Drawing from our deep expertise, we genuinely understand what it takes to deliver meaningful, sustainable change at scale. Our work is continually informed by our track record in advancing DEI matters, alongside the collective experience of our practitioners, partners, and technical advisors.
Our work in DEI
Improving diversity in motorsportImproving motorsport
We worked with a Formula 1 company and a nonprofit organisation to analyse the education and employment pathways to science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) careers' in motorsport and identify the root causes of the lack of diversity in the sport. This has led to the identification of specific interventions to address the identified issues and the development of the organisation's grant-making strategy.
Connecting disadvantaged young people to employmentemployment
We led the design phase of a digital solution to connect young people aged 16-30 to available jobs in the technology sector. We set up a youth board to co-develop the digital solution and engaged with employers through surveys, interviews and focus groups. The application is currently in development and will be launched later in the year.
Evaluating diversity mentoring programmes
We helped with a market leader in DEI mentoring programmes to evaluate the outcomes and impact delivered by their different mentoring programmes. This analysis looked at the programmes as a whole and the benefits to each of the participating organisations. We have also supported the development of their most recent impact report.
Measuring DEI in research and improving the research culturethe culture
We worked with a British research institute to assess the diversity of their staff and their organisational culture. The work was done through a range of data collection methods which included a mix of HR data, employee surveys, employee focus groups and selected interviews. Our work informed the development of new roles and policies to improve DEI and transform the research culture. It also served as a baseline for the monitoring of the progress made.
Improving diversity in food businessesImproving businesses
We supported a provider of shared kitchen workspace in assessing the diversity of their members and identifying policies to address the barriers faced by specific target groups in setting up a food business. As part of our work, we have conducted research on diversity in the food industry and developed a theory of change.
Building a more inclusive digital and AI services
An American technology company and their foundation engaged us to develop a strategy and action plan to build a better and more inclusive internet, and launch a movement on trustworthy artificial intelligence (AI). Our work involved an analysis of the DEI issues related to the design of AI products and services.
Creating DEI insight to inform strategies
We worked with a UK insurer to develop greater insight about the diversity, equity and inclusion of their workforce to inform future strategies. Our work involved defining the DEI metrics that they should track and benchmarking the results so that they could identify the right interventions and suitable ways of working to support an inclusive workplace. As part of this process, we helped them build the case for change for their leadership and the communication to their employees.