Handbooks
The HR Leader’s ED&I Handbook
Insights on what organisations are doing wrong and what tactics to implement to make a change
On 30 April 2024, OnHand hosted an impact webinar with 3 leading voices on equity, diversity, and inclusion.
ED&I is a huge pain point for businesses. Not only is diversity and inclusion a delicate social topic, there’s also a huge gap in the market for the business case.
This is why we’ve prompted our speakers to discuss how to raise awareness of these issues — both social and economic — and how to approach the solutions.
OnHand also conducted an survey across nearly 200 anonymous participants from our partner organisations, around their personal experiences and pain points on ED&I topics.
We’ve included the full breakdown of the results further on in this handbook.
Why it’s important for leaders to take action
With tepid growth on GDP and organisations struggling with the cost of living, employees with ED&I training are at a loss. The business case and ED&I strategy aren’t interwoven enough, so that when concerns stray to business, ED&I is left in the dust.
Organisations are falling back on what they know. All white, male leaderships over the age of 50 are as prominent as ever, even with customer demographics shifting.
In essence: leadership needs to speak to users. Demographics are changing, so it’s crucial that businesses catch up and look to invest in rising populations of previously minority communities.
Less than
10%
of survey participants felt fully confident in dealing with ED&I matters
Almost
70%
of survey participants felt well informed about ED&I policies in their workplace
What’s going wrong?
The best people to tell you what’s necessary to improve ED&I training are the people in the communities themselves, but they’re not being given space at the table.
People need to want to learn and correct their mistakes, but they’re not given the space or community to ask questions.
Organisations aren’t taking accountability or responsibility for their mistakes around ED&I training.
There’s a severe disconnect between ED&I training and implementation. The training can be failsafe, but if there are no tangible actions that follow it, your employees are going to be adrift with their new insights and resources.
What can leaders do?
Start out small
Small, tangible actions are far more effective than huge, distant plans. Action something doable and manageable today.
Celebrate wins
Reasonable adjustments don’t have to take the world. Appreciate the small wins, as they’ll snowball into larger and further-rooted changes.
Be proactive
Don’t be reactive — be proactive. In future scenarios, don’t wait for the problem to happen. Instead, identify it and manage it before it spirals.
For the full list of actions you can take to boost your organisation’s ED&I implementation, as well as the full survey results on ED&I in the workplace, download the handbook today.