Learning lessons about diversity and inclusion in DWP
Diversity and inclusion are incredibly important in the Department for Work and Pensions. Having an environment that enables everyone to flourish and be their best is kind of a no brainer, but in practice it is obviously tough.
Having worked in DWP for over six years, I know that people here are really supportive and inclusive. Flexible working and a broad range of support for family commitments is probably the thing we do best in my opinion, and even in my time in the organisation, I’ve seen conversations and agendas move forward in different ways.
During the last year, I’ve supported our Race Equality Champion, Kevin Cunnington. Focusing on race equality was new to me, and I really enjoyed it. What I learned as a part of this will stay with me for a long time.
One of the first things Kevin and I had to do was understand people’s views on this (very emotive) topic. Not always an easy thing to do. Chuck in that loads of people have spent loads of time thinking about this and working on it before we came along, and it becomes really hard to not come across as naïve and clueless.
This isn’t the first time I’ve faced that challenge (*quiet at the back there*). When I was 25, I was given the job of running a Jobcentre Plus office after only nine months experience managing advisory teams. So, faced with this new challenge, I dug out that playbook and found the page I followed to overcome the test. Dive into the data, read up on the facts, get advice from trusted people, and understand what’s actually going on across the Department.
I had a go, and my first conclusions still stand up to scrutiny: there’s no morale crisis according to DWP’s annual people survey; numbers of BAME staff broadly reflect the UK’s diversity, but it varies slightly; the proportion of people who are BAME drops too quickly at higher grades; BAME staff report more bullying and harassment.
The initial ideas we reached – a national network to support people and tweaking policies on promotion – were broadly right and are being developed in exciting ways.
But I totally missed the point.
It wasn’t that I turned to data (I’m going to take several enormous strides away from the whole “what’s more important, data or personal experience / emotions?” debate), and it wasn’t that I borrowed from past experiences. For a while I didn’t even realise I had missed the point.
When I initially talked to colleagues and those people who I get trusted advice from, I usually explained it along the lines of: “there are pockets of real problems, but DWP is good at this. But something isn’t right when you look at the senior posts. There’s obviously something unfair here, nobody can deny that. So we need to fix it.”
Then I started talking to different colleagues about this (including one who happens to have an MBE for “services to diversity and inclusion in the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games” and is super casual about it so you always forget that), and I realised I had it wrong. While I understood the what, I had missed the why: diversity and inclusion isn’t just about fairness, and it isn’t something to only address through a negative lens.
Inclusive and diverse teams are better teams because they draw on different experiences. They are more creative because they allow different views to be considered. They are higher performing. They are more fun.
It’s not just opinion. There are studies, reviews, and some attempts at quantifying it. There are personal experiences too. (*takes steps away from the debate again*) This is how you make the case for change. This is how you engage people – the enthused, the open minded, and the cynics – in the discussion. Diverse teams are better, so how do we get there?
Isn’t that approach mind-numbingly obvious? Well clearly not, because it changed the way I see the issue of diversity entirely. But it’s obvious to me now, which I guess is my point. Diverse teams who share and enable everyone to flourish are fantastic to work in, with, and for.
A big part of my learning came when reflecting on how I got to this idea.
The first round was shaped by me, reading a lot, having a few conversations, and reflecting on a couple of workshops. I’m naturally a bit introverted, so that’s kind of a default position for me. But the breakthrough came when I started discussing with people from different backgrounds, people with different experiences, and having genuine 1-1 conversations with people who know different stuff. Basically, my breakthrough that diverse teams are better performing came when I started acting as a part of a more diverse team.
So my final lesson? If you want to understand an issue, put yourself in the place of people impacted by it. And if you want to start making a change, take a chance and start being the thing.