Top 4 Reasons To Run Your Own Diversity And Inclusion Week

An engaged workforce is a happy and productive workforce; this is the view of CEO of Broadland Housing Group Michael Newey, a champion of his company’s annual diversity and inclusion week, aptly named ‘Challenge and Change’. Michael provides his top four reasons why every business should consider running their own week to help improve employees’ understanding of equality and diversity.

1. Challenge prejudices to improve relationships

Prejudices are often based on ill-informed perceptions of other people. Changing these ensures that we treat others — co-workers, stakeholders and customers — with respect and understanding. This can have a significant impact on the deals and sales made by the business due to improved communication and empathy.

2. Mitigate risk

Our Challenge and Change Week is organised by a team drawn from across Broadland Housing Group. It brings together staff from many different locations, including lone workers working out of maintenance vans. This has a significant impact on staff engagement and helps to breakdown silos within the business, thus boosting collaboration and reducing the chance of errors occurring between different teams.

3. Improve staff moral and reduce sickness

We challenge staff to consider their own wellbeing and, whether the outcome is people undertaking more exercise or rethinking their diet, these benefits present themselves through an improved working environment and a potential reduction in staff sicknesses.

4. A cost-efficient way to engage your workforce

Many of our Week’s activities are organised at no cost to the organisation as staff use their personal contacts and other organisations in our local community.

The phrase “challenge and change” is now commonly used by our staff to gently challenge each other when they feel that someone has said or done something they feel is inappropriate and not in line with our values.

In my opinion, the key to a successful week is the encouragement of your staffs’ ideas and contribution: ensure your leadership is fully on board and supportive, empower staff to deliver the programme and gather feedback for continuous improvement.

Following Challenge and Change Week, we invite all staff to complete a confidential survey, so that we can find out what worked and what didn’t, as well as how we might shape next year’s activities.