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Scrabble letters spelling out equality, diversity and inclusion

What Equality, Diversity and Inclusion work really involves

Equality, diversity and inclusion is important to me because I have experienced a lot of discrimination in my life. Earlier in the year I wrote a real story that touches on these personal experiences in a bit more detail and is the reason why I started my journey into campaigning for the rights of marginalised people. 

Many of those difficult personal experiences of discrimination happened within the workplace. I have learned from my own experiences and heard from the experiences of many others that organisations often fail to put practices in place to safeguard staff when they experience discrimination, and to create a safe space for those people to express their experiences without some sort of push back.

There then may be a lack of supportive action or people with no knowledge of the person’s background or identity making decisions for them, instead of with them. Another big issue is that there are different types of discrimination. Some are more obvious than others and people’s ideas of what discrimination is can vary due to lack of education. 

It is this lack of education, understanding, and willingness to do the work that can be so damaging for people who experience discrimination.

It can make people feel isolated, withdrawn and exhausted, which can hinder their work and productivity. It can also lead to people feeling anxious, depressed and in more serious cases, people can get post-traumatic stress disorder. It can even lead to suicidal thoughts and attempts – I know this to be true because I’ve been one of those people. This is why it’s so important for people to feel safe. 

That’s why organisations must take EDI seriously. They must take action to ensure their staff feel safe in the place where they spend a lot of their time.  

A lot of organisations say that they care about EDI, and they may do work that reflects that externally and they may even be great at that external work! But they can struggle when it comes to their internal EDI work and actually listening to their staff’s needs. This is because some people become defensive when EDI is bought up and don’t have the knowledge and tools to understand how they themselves contribute to a system that continues to discriminate against marginalised groups. 

There is an act for England, Wales and Scotland that legally protects people with certain characteristics in the workplace and beyond called the Equality Act 2010, these characteristics include:  

  • Age  
  • Disability  
  • Gender reassignment  
  • Marriage and civil partnership  
  • Race  
  • Religion or belief  
  • Sexual orientation 
     

Under the Equality Act 2010, there are different types of discrimination:  
 

  • Direct discrimination  
  • Indirect discrimination  
  • Harassment  
  • Victimisation  

Just because these characteristics are in law, it doesn’t mean that marginalised groups necessarily feel or are protected. Employees may not know about the Equality Act 2010, and even if they do they may find it difficult to flag issues if they haven’t got a safe space to do so. They also may not have the money to get legal advice if they do feel their rights have been breached, although there are organisations out there that offer help with legal matters such as unions. 

While there are many ways an organisation can work towards making their workplace inclusive, the most important first step is being open and honest about where you are at with your EDI journey and having the willingness to learn.  

Understand that you may not have all the answers and accept when you don’t get it right, then take the steps to make amends.  

It’s important to include people from different backgrounds and identities in your conversations if they wish to be included; listen to them and let them be heard. This only works if you truly listen to what they have to say, work towards putting some of their thoughts into practice, and change things that aren’t working.

Ensure you spend money on implementing EDI practices. It isn’t fair to expect the people running and leading EDI work to be doing it for free. Setting up voluntary EDI working groups is a good idea, but if people are delivering training and helping your organisation do transformational work, money will need to be spent. Spending money also includes spending money on reasonable adjustments, paying your employees a fair wage, and helping them with opportunities to progress. 

EDI is a colossal segment of work with many layers but the importance of it is invaluable.

If you have a diverse team who feels seen, you will get so many more different perspectives and better engagement, which overall will be better for your organisation. The work can be difficult, and at times you may feel resistant to it, but ensuring you meet people at their level as well as putting intersectionality into practice can save lives. 

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