The Challenge
Unlike many organizations where D&I strategy is relatively simple to set at the top and roll down through the business, this major engineering and
infrastructure client was facing a much bigger challenge. The nature of their business meant that everyday activities were happening across a complex structure of sub-divisions and independent contractors operating from multiple temporary and permanent sites across the UK and beyond.
While they had a high level of control and visibility within the head office, when it came to D&I strategy this quickly disappeared once it spread throughout the company, with limited understanding and feedback on the impact interventions were making on the ground.
In the absence of data, many decisions around D&I were being made based around assumptions or on insight gained only from key corporate locations where working conditions and culture was far removed from construction sites where the majority of employees were working.
To devise a renewed strategy for driving a more inclusive and diverse culture for all employees, the client recognized that they needed to bridge this knowledge gap and dramatically increase their understanding of the true make up of the organization and the lived experiences of those who work there.
The Solutions
We began our engagement by running RADAR; our inclusion benchmarking tool. Key to this was an employee survey which ran across all areas of the business. As we were aware that some audiences were harder to reach than others we put specific attention on effective ways to promote participation at onsite locations as well as in main offices.
Alongside this we conducted virtual focus groups with a representative sample of participants from across different areas of the business. These focus groups created a safe space for participants to steer the conversation and brought us closer to the key concerns for each unique group when it comes to
their experiences of inclusion. Across the groups we noticed many opinions being shared about the implementation of HR processes, so we conducted a further focus group with HR team members to get their own thoughts on how the function worked within the business.
All our data and findings were included in a single report alongside key recommendations for creating a renewed D&I strategy which addresses the concerns of all areas of the business.
Using the findings as a backdrop, one of the first actions we supported was a tailored inclusive leadership workshop for their main senior leadership team. Following great feedback, we subsequently conducted tailored workshops for the senior leadership teams of each major business unit in the organization.
