More than two in five (42%) employers have a dedicated diversity, equality and inclusion (DE&I) resource in place, a new study has found.
According to research by Hays, half of organisations have a team committed to DE&I, while around a third (34%) have a DE&I manager and a similar proportion (31%) have a head of DE&I or chief diversity officer within the business.
The recruitment firm’s annual DE&I Report also found that 15% of employers have a junior-level DE&I resource and 10% have external support in place, such as an agency or consultancy.
Carried out in partnership with Fairer Consulting among more than 5,700 UK employers and professionals across organisations in a variety of sectors, the study included responses from “very large” organisations with 1,000-plus employees, large businesses between 251 and 1,000 employees, medium firms with between 51 and 250 employees and small organisations with between 11 and 50 employees.
It highlighted that very large organisations are more likely to have a dedicated DE&I resource than smaller ones. Nearly two-thirds (64%) of this size of business had one, compared to 42% of large businesses, 29% of medium firms and 22% of small organisations.
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The public sector was found to be more likely to have a dedicated DE&I resource than the private sector, at 53% versus 34% respectively.
DE&I resources are also most likely to be in place in the education sector (52%) and at London-based organisations (47%).
Overall, seven in 10 (71%) of professionals believe positive employee wellbeing is associated with ED&I at work.
Almost half (44%) of employers polled said they combine their DE&I resources with their wellbeing ones, with just under a quarter (23%) having always done so and a further one in five (21%) making the move to combine them in the past 24 months.
In the future, however, only 8% of organisations plan to combine their wellbeing and ED&I resources, while 44% don’t intend to and almost half (48%) are uncertain.
The top five factors that employees believe DE&I will positively affect at work are company culture (69%), recruitment, including attraction and selection (39%), staff morale (36%), company reputation (29%) and retention (29%).
Dan Robertson, managing director of Fairer Consulting, said: “While recent news reports suggest organisations are now dialling back their DE&I initiatives and budget, many organisations continue to acknowledge the ongoing importance of DE&I and do have a dedicated DE&I resource.
A capable and committed DE&I resource, whether that’s an entire team or a specific manager, is essential for pushing forward and making progress in building diverse and inclusive teams; the more organisations with a DE&I resource the better, but there is certainly still room for improvement.”
Robertson insists there should be better communication and transparency around where the responsibility for DE&I sits within an organisation and what plans they have in place to improve their commitment in the future. Employers that fail to do so “risk missing out from a talent attraction and retention perspective, as well as from an employee morale, job satisfaction and company culture perspective, he believes.
“Ultimately, getting DE&I right in the workplace is not a destination to reach but a long-term journey that requires regular reflection on what is going well and, crucially, what can be done better,” Robertson added.
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