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Building an inclusive culture

This section of the toolkit offers strategies that create and support inclusive working environments in the green sector. When people feel they belong at work, they experience greater meaning, satisfaction, and stability; and as a result, their performance is positively impacted. Recent research from Belonging Space and 3Gem Research suggests that a third of the UK working population has felt isolated or lonely in the workplace at some point. Your organisation can build a more inclusive culture by building strong employee relationships, creating positive employee experiences and encouraging frequent employee recognition.

Review your employee policies annually to ensure they reflect EDI best practice

Embedding EDI practice within an organisation can be achieved through improvements in corporate processes, including performance management, training and development, and organisational and people management processes. As a minimum, employers should review discrimination, parental, recruitment and other employee-related policies. Policies and procedures should be reviewed annually to ensure that they remain relevant.

Here are some practical steps you can take to ensure that your policies are inclusive:

  1. To maintain accountability, state who is responsible for policy reviews at the top of each policy document, and how frequently the policy is to be reviewed and updated. Include these dates in internal calendars.
  2. Have a system of ongoing policy tracking. To analyse if any group is being disproportionately affected by a policy or process, collect anonymous demographic data. This is crucial in evaluating trends in the use and application of policies.
  3. Create a robust Equality Impact Assessment (EqIA) process - an approach designed to assess the impact of policies on different demographics. Conducting EqIAs will help to ensure all new policies and procedures are designed with inclusion at the core, and that any potential adverse effects can be noted and mitigated against. Guidance is available online.
  4. Each policy should exist in an accessible format, including making sure they are accessible to screen readers. It is important that all parties can access the information. 
  5. Use resources, like those published by CIPD, to follow EDI best practice.
  6. Create a clear discrimination and harassment policy that is included in onboarding and systematically reviewed. Guidance is available online.
  7. Consider how your organisation supports expectant and working parents, and those returning from parental leave.
  8. Additionally, review, and if necessary enhance, your parental leave provision and ensure consistent communication from line managers to support working parents. Enhancing your parental leave policy can greatly increase the chances of retaining working parents.

Ensure your employees have access to external HR

A trusted and independent HR function, clearly identified to employees, gives staff confidence that issues they raise will be handled fairly and confidentially. They can also provide better analytics and reporting, and improve regulatory compliance. 

Most micro-enterprises and small organisations do not have a HR team. Outsourcing this role protects your business and your employees.

More details on the pros and cons of outsourcing HR are available.

Discuss EDI and upskill your organisation on EDI best practice

Collaborate with independent EDI consultants to train your employees on how to engage in inclusive recruitment, dealing with microaggressions, conscious inclusion strategies, and other EDI training, including positive action schemes. EDI should form part of hiring managers’ performance reviews for accountability against your organisation’s inclusion goals.

Ensure your team and social events are inclusive

Always organise events with accessibility and inclusion in mind, so that team social events are welcoming for everyone. Unlimited has produced a useful and comprehensive guide on running accessible events.

Here are some ways to get started and support religious holidays and promote interfaith inclusion in your workplace:

  • Identify an EDI calendar which incorporates religious holidays or identity-based observances (e.g., Black History Month) throughout the year. Send out a survey to better understand how employees want to be supported or  want to celebrate different holidays and/or identity-based observances (e.g. offer flexible working during Ramadan);
  • To raise awareness and promote inclusion, identify internal and external speakers to talk about the meaning of different religious holidays and identity-based observances;
  • Recognise the practical elements of religious holidays (for example, does your office have a quiet and private space for prayer and meditation in the office?).  Articles such as this one provide help when considering how best to support employees during Ramadan.

Support your employees to set up an Employee Resource Group (ERG) and report findings/suggestions to senior leaders and managers

Employee Resource Groups (ERGs) (sometimes called Affinity Groups or Staff Networks) are employee-led groups that aim to promote an inclusive workplace; they typically unite employees who share a particular characteristic, such as ethnicity or faith. ERGs help marginalised groups and remote workers feel connected through a common cause or interest, making the physical and psychological work environment safer and more inclusive for everyone.

Facilitate the creation of an EDI committee that will assume responsibility for guiding the development of initiatives that help to build a culture of inclusion. To have a truly representative committee, it is crucial that the voices of diverse colleagues have equal agency.