GUESTS OF THE PODCAST

“When you're bringing people with you and organisational change, it is head, hand and heart. You have to understand it intellectually. You have to be able to demonstrate that it will work, but you also have to believe in it.”

“Creating a wide sense of belonging can become a competitive advantage for any company and help create diversity and inclusion.”

“Keeping an open mind, being curious, remaining authentic and listening to our employees helps in making inclusive-based decisions based on employee insight.”

“By acknowledging past injustices, by being honest about where we are and what we have done, that’s when healing can really come, that’s the only we can really move forward - the benefits outweigh the risks.”

“When you think about all that energy that people are putting into just fitting into an environment where they don’t feel included, that is energy and effort that your business is not getting. So, it is incredibly important that people feel included.”

“The roadmap to inclusion and diversity is about progress. It's about moving forward. It's about changing and making change one conversation at a time.”

“Remain true to yourself and your values. Do right by the people you are supporting and working with. Be responsible for change in everything you are doing.”

“Don’t be afraid of the word “No”. It’s just a few letters. The word no could just mean “not right now” or “talking to the wrong person”. Learn to advocate for yourself, speak on the value of your worth, don’t doubt yourself, know and push for what you are worth and go for the job that you want.”

“The data is in now and we know now that diverse companies commercially outperform their non-diverse competitors.”

“You cannot have a D&I target without having something sitting beneath that to back it up.”

“Diversity and Inclusion takes time. Work has to be done internally in the culture of the firms where people are more accepting of people from different backgrounds.”

“Open your mind and be open to engaging people from a different background because that enriches and informs you. It makes the inclusion work easier because you’ve got a wide understanding.”

“What fuels me with D&I is about inclusion. It’s about making sure that at every single level, we see people that look like us, that have commonalities that we can share, have the same lived experience.”

“I would want to see a fully diverse organisation where you can look across the organisation and see people who look like you in senior roles. You see a diverse group of people who represent the communities that they live in, and this would be a really good place.” 

“We've almost dropped the 'D'. For us, it's all about Inclusion. If you create a really stong and inclusive culture then diversity will happen as a result.” 

“Leaders have the ability to influence and driver culture and behaviour. Working with leaders so they can understand the impact that they can have and the positive influence they can make is important.” 

"We are not all homogeneous, we are different, and we need to embrace those differences, and provide services and media around those differences to make things more diverse and inclusive.” 

“We need to go beyond box-ticking D&I. What achieves a sense of belonging is when we start looking at authentic identities, the intersectionality and what is important to each individual.” 

“Equity is the key in reaching equality. We need to go beyond symbolic gestures. We need more action to sustain momentum."

“If you've got a real passion to work in this space, then continue with it, but just make sure you always think about your mental health."

“Having allies and mentors s critical and having trust in leaders who hold an element of power but recognise that change or diversity adds value to the organisational proposition gives the workforce hope that they can be the best that they can be, that they can come to work just as themselves. It’s important to motivate and give trust to the workforce.”

“Diversity is something that is really good for the boardroom not only from a “right-thing-to-do perspective” but also in creating a more innovative organisation, creates higher profits and overall, more diversity of thought” 

"What gets measured gets done. So if you don't put a target out there, you're probably not going to make any progress."

“It's not necessarily about taking pieces of the pie away from others. It's about working together to make more pie." 

"Race Equality is part of an organisations fabric. It should not be a bolt-on to DE&I".

“Think about what your organisation is doing to tackle race equality. We need more action. The time is now.” 

"If you don't have the climate for change already, it's very difficult to make any changes, and this starts with senior leaders putting Race Equality at the of their agenda." 

“We focus to much on absenteeism, but the bigger problem is presenteeism. Employers should  be aware of early warning signs of burnout and mental health issues to protect  the wellbeing of their staff.” 

“DEI is truly a change management capability and should be treated as one of the primary risk factors for an organisation.” 

“Diversity should be an input into your organisations growth rather than output.” 

“Until we have more women in senior leadership roles, we will never close the gap.” 

“We need to have leaders who not just understand diversity, but who actively engage and role model.” 

“We leverage the knowledge of our ERG's and support them to help us shape our business.” 

“To be a true ally, you have to understand and recognise your privilege.” 

“We don't have enough role models for young people from underrepresented communities” 

“We need to look internally as well as externally to support our efforts in inclusive hiring and build leadership accountability.”