Workforce Integration Design Lab
Launched in January 2021, the Design Lab is a bespoke, design-led 10-month Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) programme based on participative action on Anti-racism and the dynamics of change for companies, sectors and the wider community of London. The Design Lab works with large businesses to tackle the underrepresentation of Black, Asian, and Minority Ethnic (BAME) groups in London’s labour market.
The programme prioritises the following groups, as they have significantly higher than average unemployment and insecure employment rates, while a large proportion are paid below the London living wage compared to other ethnic groups.
- Black men
- Pakistani, Bangladeshi and Black women
The programme provides a bespoke package of support to businesses to explore the causes of underrepresentation in their workforces in an evidence-driven way, in order to design and test approaches to tackling them. The programme rolls together training, coaching and planning on Equity, Diversity and Inclusion to design equity into business culture. Businesses will leave with know-how, reusable tools, and practical plans and contribute to knowledge and leadership on workforce integration for London. Participating organisations will be recognised in a Mayoral symposium for their work to improve their EDI practices.
This round of the Design Labs programme will work with up to 60 businesses across the Mayor’s Skills Academies Programme 6 priority sectors, including Health, Creative, Social Care, Green, Digital, and Hospitality. The programme is being delivered by London Equity and Design (LEAD), a partnership between DK&A, a strategic design consultancy, and The Black Leadership Group (BLG), a not-for-profit Anti-racism training organisation.
LEAD’s methodology brings together best practice in pro-social organisational change and design. The interdisciplinary approach referred to as Equity Design, is taught at leading academic institutions such as Stanford University.
Are you a major London employer in the Green, Social Care, Hospitality, or Digital sectors? Do you recognise the business benefits of diversity? Are you interested in being a leader in workforce integration?
The Design Lab is open to 40 leading London companies to benefit from the latest evidence and thinking on Anti-racism and EDI. Supported by top experts your team will receive training, coaching and resources with the opportunity to collaborate, co-design, and drive practical change in your business, your sector and across the London economy.
- Sector induction: online induction workshop with industry peers to assess common underrepresentation challenges for your sector
- Company immersion: full-day online workshop with a cross-section of your workforce run by leading expert Coaches. Assess where your company is on the anti-racist spectrum using ethnographic data and sector insights, and develop an action plan to tackle underrepresentation
- Coached action-planning to refine and implement the action plan with your HR and project team
- Sector development workshop: share best practice and develop solutions that require sector-wide collaboration
- Latest research and EDI toolkits including new ethnography
- Mayoral symposium to share learnings and recognise businesses.
- Access to free bespoke support with EDI and design thinking experts
- Knowledge sharing opportunities with a cohort of leading businesses in your sector
- Connection to the Mayor’s Skills Academies, a programme to support newly skilled people into employment, to access a pool of talented Londoners
- Mayoral recognition as an industry leader in EDI supporting London to become a fairer city.
Improving workforce ethnic diversity has positive social and economic benefits for businesses. These include:
- Improving business performance
- Increasing capacity within the industry
- Enhancing creativity and innovation
- Tackling skills shortages
- Meeting the requirements of public sector clients
- Reducing the cost of recruitment
- Increasing the talent pipeline throughout the organisation
- Gaining critical customer insight.
A study by the Centre of Economic and Business Research (CEBR) found that the UK loses £2.6bn annually due to discrimination against ethnic minorities in the workplace.
The Design Lab is for employers who want to accelerate their workforce equity and diversity plans and become sector champions. The programme targets London’s large employers. Requirements to join the programme include:
- Your business is a large employer with 250+ London-based employees or a fast-growing SME
- Your business is part of one of the 6 Mayoral priority sectors
- Your business has existing EDI plans and commitments, and recruitment plans in the next two years
- You can commit C-Suite sponsorship to champion participation, communication and action
- You can dedicate a core team of two HR/Operations managers with EDI experience to participate in the Design Lab activities.
Design Lab 2023/25 participants
- Kings College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust
- West London NHS Trust
- NHS North Central London ICB (Integrated Care Board)
- Guys and St Thomas NHS foundation Trust
- North East London NHS Foundation Trust
- Oxleas NHS Foundation Trust
- Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust
- Barts Health NHS Trust
- NHS Blood and Transplant
- Great Ormond Street Hospital
- Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust
Design Lab 2021/22 participants
- SGN
- J Murphy & Sons Ltd
- Wates Ltd
- UK Power Networks
- Balfour Beatty
- Mott MacDonald
- Ferrovial Construction UK
- Laing O'Rourke
- Hyperoptic
- Balfour Beatty Vinci Systra JV - HS2 OOC Station Partner
- Thames Water
- Ground Control
- McGinley Support Services
- Skanska UK
- Kier Group
- Morrison Water Services
- ISG
- Jacobs Engineering Group
- Affinity Water
- Northumbrian Water Limited
'As an organisation we understand the importance of the industry having a more inclusive and diverse workforce. Young black men account for 18% of London’s population, yet only account for 4% of the construction workforce. We would like to tackle this under representation head on by showing our commitment to this programme. We are looking forward to learning more about a structured and comprehensive approach to forge change within our business and supply chains.' Samena Choudhury, Wates Group
'The GLA Win Design Lab programme aligns to social outcomes which is key to our purpose. We feel that coming together with other organisations and professionals will be beneficial to addressing an important issue.' Andrew Lee, Mott Macdonald
'Hyperoptic is a leading full fibre broadband provider, which is headquartered in London. We have ambitious targets to expand our network footprint across the Capital and in other UK towns and cities. Given our ambitious plans we will continue to invest in growing our workforce, especially in our infrastructure division. We wanted to approach our requirement to hire hundreds of fibre engineers with strong diversity principles, which perfectly aligns to the objectives of the GLA WIN Design Labs programme.
We are an equal opportunity employer that is scaling quickly, which has a large and on-going recruitment drive. We are building a future-proofed broadband network that enables people to get the best Internet experience – whether they are streaming 4K content, live gaming or connecting to a VPN while working from home. Our staff are part of a journey that’s creating a digital legacy for decades to come. We feel that our ethos and cutting-edge services are perfectly aligned to capture the imagination of younger people who want to start and develop a career in engineering.
We want to successfully scale a diverse workforce. The more inclusive we are, the better our work will be.' Claire Jones, Hyperoptic
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