Leaders play critical role in fostering inclusivity within their organisation, research shows

Diversity and inclusion in your business brings better decisions, greater revenue, and more resilience. That is the central message in a feature article in People Management. We agree, and so do many of the clients we have been working with to make it happen. We’ll speak to a D&I specialist about that.

This is an opinion piece by Shavone Dajee, managing director for growth at CCI South Africa. The CCI group, headquartered in the UAE, provides customer management services in Africa, supporting domestic and international clients including in the UK. Dajee’s main point is around the importance of good leadership and she refers to research reported last month in an article in the Harvard Business Review called ‘What Makes an Inclusive Leader’. It found that inclusive organisations are 73% more likely to reap innovation revenue, 70% more likely to capture new markets, up to 50% more likely to make better decisions and up to 36% more likely to have above-average profitability.
 
Those are powerful numbers but, she says, what really caught her eye was the finding that leaders play a critical role and can reduce employee attrition risk by 76%. She says: ‘What I’ve learned as an African female leader in senior boardrooms is this: diverse leadership creates space for empathy and servant leadership in companies. In my own sphere of influence, where our people are our greatest asset, the way we choose to invest in mid-level and senior management and the personal skills each of those managers brings to the table, is absolutely what our success hinges on. We cannot underestimate the business value of diversity in the workplace, or in the boardroom.”

We agree, D&I needs a ‘top-down’ approach, with buy-in from the board and senior people in the business. As we have highlighted a number of times in this programme recently, many of our clients have been focussing on one strand of D&I in particular, namely ethnic diversity. It’s an area which, for various reasons, has unfortunately slipped off the radar of many companies notwithstanding promises made after George Floyd’s murder. To help clients catch up, we’ve developed what we describe as a ‘Race Leadership’ offering which takes a holistic approach to this area with employment layers working closely with our D&I consultancy Brook Graham. 

So, let’s hear more about it. Shuabe Shabudin is an employment lawyer who has been involved in that work and earlier he joined me by video-link to discuss it:  

Shuabe Shabudin: “So, Brook Graham work very closely with us as lawyers. So, for example, what we would do as lawyers is maybe look at the legals behind a particular intention of an organisation. So, they may want to increase the representation of a particular ethnic minority. We might work out how that can be done by way of positive action, for example, we might look at targets, we might look at quotas, we might look at the discriminatory angles behind that. Once we've done that work, once we've come up with the plan, if you like, it would then be for us to be supported by Brook Graham as to how that plan can be realised, how that can be brought to life. They would be acting on the ground, as it were, and really working with the organisation to embed, to create, to have that cultural change or that that that business shift change, whatever it might be, that has been identified by us on the legal side.”

Joe Glavina: “Can you tell me about the scope of this support on race leadership that we're providing to clients. You talked to this programme last week about how it’s helping clients in the FS sector but, as I understand it, it can work equally well in any sector. Is that right?” 

Shuabe Shabudin: “Yes, very much so. So, I think the first thing to say is that the support we're able to provide is sector agnostic. We are, of course, able to provide tailored support based on the sectors that we work in but, overall, the message that I want to be giving is that we are able to provide support in relation to addressing race and ethnicity inequality in a number of different ways. So, as we're discussing here, that might be in terms of target setting, rationale setting, it may also be in terms of investigating issues, it may be in terms of auditing, we can support by way of training, tailored training, targeted training, lots of different ways that can be provided and even moving down to the onboarding process, so ensuring that a recruitment process is as inclusive as possible. So the product, the race leadership product, is, as I say, both sector agnostic and much wider than just the type of support that we've been discussing today in relation to how we can support FS firms with the very likely regulatory requirements that are going to come in as a result of the FCA and PRA consultations.”

Joe Glavina: “You talked last week about why your clients in the FS sector are now taking ethnic diversity more seriously in light of the rules we expect the FCA and PRA to announce in 2024 and the requirement which we expect to see around publishing data externally as well as internally. That is a heavily regulated sector unlike most others so what’s the incentive for those other sectors to address this? What’s the driver for them?” 

Shuabe Shabudin: “I think there are a few points. Clearly, there's the moral and the ethical reason behind it, which is it's just the right thing to do, but then, of course, there is the business reason. Now the business reason has many different facets. For example, there is still a war on talent, there is more of a movement towards wellbeing featuring quite highly on what a job applicant sees as being important to them. There's also belonging. There have been a number of organisations, a number of sectors, who have needed to protect their workforce, we can't afford to be losing good talent. So, I would say it boils down to those areas really, and just to say as well that there was some really good work that was done in the wake, and in the aftermath, of the George Floyd murder so I think firms and organisations may in some ways be doing themselves a bit of a disservice by not refocusing the spotlight on any commitments that were made and really seeing through that change for all of the benefits that that I've just mentioned.”

If you would like further details about our Race Leadership product please do contact Shuabe - his details are on the screen for you - or alternatively contact your usual Pinsent Masons adviser. If you are a firm in the financial services sector then you may be interested in watching last week’s programme with Shuabe talking about the ongoing consultation by the FCA and PRA on diversity, or the lack of it, in the financial services sector. That programme is: ‘FCA and PRA consult on proposals to increase diversity and inclusion in financial services’ and it’s available for viewing now from the Out-Law website. We’ve included a link to that too.

LINKS
- Link to People Management article: ‘Better decisions, greater revenue, more resilience: why EDI is good for your business’
- Link to HRNews programme: ‘FCA and PRA consult on proposals to increase diversity and inclusion in financial services’