The Better Placed Group ED&I Policy :
Better Placed recruitment Group Ltd is fully committed to encouraging equity, diversity and inclusion in all aspects of our organisation. Our vision is for our people to be representative of all sections of society and for each employee to feel respected, valued and able to bring the best version of themselves to our place of work. In tandem with this, we will extend the same ethos to our clients and candidates, endeavouring to leverage our position as an Employee-Owned, people centric business to influence and drive equity and inclusion in all we do.
Purpose :
Our aim is to provide equity, fairness and respect for our employees and all those we interact with. We will be proactive in ensuring no unlawful discriminatory behaviours are seen as acceptable. We believe it is the duty of each of us, as well as the client and candidate working with us to uphold these values in all of their dealings with us.
Statement of Intent :
Our aim is to build a culture where our employees feel respected & valued for who they are as well as what they bring to the organisation. In turn, we will provide encouragement for every employee to embrace others for who they are, irrespective of any perceived or invisible differences.
Our Commitments :
1. Actively engage in and promote equity, diversity and inclusion in the workplace.
2. Create a working environment free of bullying, harassment, victimisation and unlawful discrimination, whilst promoting dignity and respect for all.
3. Take seriously complaints of bullying, harassment, victimisation and unlawful discrimination by fellow employees, customers, suppliers, visitors, the public and any others in the course of the organisation’s work activities.
4. Provide opportunities for training, development and make available to all employees so that their talents and resources can be fully utilised to maximise the capabilities they have to offer the organisation.
5. Ensure decisions concerning employees are based on merit. We will endeavour to make sure all members of staff are able to develop to their full potential.
6. Monitor and communicate the make-up of our workforce regarding information such as age, sex, ethnic background, sexual orientation, religion or belief, social background, social mobility and disability in encouraging equity, diversity and inclusion. By monitoring our workforce, we can ensure we’re on track to become a diverse and inclusive workforce.
7. Within our own recruitment methodologies, ensure our processes support and actively pursue equity, equality, diversity, and inclusiveness in all of our search outcomes. To proactively discuss with and challenge with our clients where we can go beyond obvious talent pools to identify diverse candidates with less apparent but highly relevant skills to ensure each and every client is effectively represented.
Agreement :
This policy is comprehensively supported by the Board and will be reviewed annually. We will continue to evaluate and seek to improve ED&I internally and proactively influence externally.
How we are evolving the way we recruit :
We have changed and are continuing to evolve the way we register our candidates and how we confidentially capture both personal and professional data; how we understand ALL our candidates attributes and doing so completely clear of any unconscious bias to arrive at the BEST shortlists and ultimately the BEST candidates for the job; how we are presenting our shortlists to our clients and sharing all necessary data to drive and measure progress effectively.
To make these changes permanent, we need to make sure the behaviours of everyone at Better Placed become ingrained in our DNA and culture. Initiatives are in process to ensure all our employees are mindful of the language that they use and the influence it has. We are determined to create an Inclusive approach to the way we interview our candidates but also challenging our own hiring model to recognise bias and then challenge it.
We know that change doesn’t happen overnight, but one of our key initiatives in 2023/2024 is a commitment to do the following :
An “Inclusion Taskforce” has been set up, initially to drive stages 2 and 3, but ultimately to ensure our D&I agenda quickly becomes embedded in the culture of the business;
Discovery – to bring groups of people together in workshops to discuss D&I, to feel confident talking about it, to hear different ideas and perspectives and ultimately to start to include ALL of our employees in the conversation;
Training – the Taskforce will devise a training plan for ALL employees to cover a) internal factors, for example - developing our lead team to become more inclusive leaders and guidance in how to conduct an inclusive interview and b) how to confidently advise our clients on the many different questions they are asking us around D&I and how we can help support their goals and objectives of sourcing a wide range of diverse talent.
Our feeling is that if we can engage all our staff and begin to change their behaviours, then we can play our part in effecting change more broadly. As Sue Unerman, Chief Transformation Officer at Mediacom & Co-Author of the critically acclaimed “Belonging” nicely put it in a recent podcast – “Everybody needs to Lead from every seat”
Our Partners :
We are delighted to say that we have partnered with Catherine Garrod – Founder of Compelling Culture:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/catherinegarrod/
https://compellingculture.co.uk/
We have lots of other things planned around driving the D&I agenda and our website and social feeds will announce those throughout the year. We will also be updating this page of our website regularly to show our progress.