Diversity and inclusion matter in business.
Diversity helps you think differently and come up with new ideas, approaches and solutions. In turn, this helps your business appeal to and engage with a broader range of clients.
Inclusion reinforces diversity. Companies with inclusive cultures will find that their people are more engaged, feel more comfortable talking openly with each other and are more likely to stick around.
Those are my opinions as Head of People at Charlton Morris. However, I wanted to ask everyone else how they feel about diversity and inclusion: why do they think it’s important? So, we posed this question to everyone in the business. You can hear the responses in the video above.
At Charlton Morris we want to create a diverse and inclusive business. In the past few years, we’ve really stepped up our efforts and have been actively addressing the matter. That’s because we know there is still work to do and how important it is to have difficult conversations, as we did last year.
After speaking to all our teams in the summer of 2020, it was clear there were areas in which we could create active change. This led to us forming Charlton Morris’ Diversity & Inclusion team, which is made up of individuals that are passionate about the topic and improving Charlton Morris.
The Diversity & Inclusion team’s meetings are solutions focused and a place where ideas are shared. In the four months that the team has been working together, we have already made a number of changes:
There’s been a conscious effort to engage with a broader range of societies at universities, so that we can attract a diverse range of candidates to improve the Charlton Morris team. To achieve this, we’re also reaching out to a wider range of universities too.
When we return to our Leeds city centre office, we’ll be using our auditorium for presentations and talks from speakers to help educate our teams and make our end of period celebrations more inclusive.
Games and books have been added to the breakout space, as another option away from the pool table.
There’s also been efforts made to get people talking about diversity and inclusion within the company, taking inspiration from Emmanuel Acho’s fantastic ‘Uncomfortable Conversations with a Black Man’ series on YouTube. At CM, that’s been spearheaded by two of our most passionate consultants on the topic and is set to continue in 2021.
We’re hoping that these changes can make a big difference to how people feel about working at Charlton Morris. We will continue to listen to our Diversity and Inclusion team, as well as any individual that wants to talk to us about making the Charlton Morris working environment more open, equal and fair.
We also want to learn from our peers across the business community, which means you! If you have any suggestions as to how we can continue to build on the progress we’ve made, please feel free to connect with me on LinkedIn or contact me directly at rebecca.cook@charltonmorris.com.
