As Country Director of the Irish Centre for Diversity, Caroline Tyler is an expert with over ten years’ experience working to drive Diversity and Inclusion (D&I) forward internationally.
She worked for 8 years with the UK National Centre for Diversity, before launching The Irish Centre of Diversity in 2017. Their goal is to positively influence beliefs, attitudes, behavior and conduct around Equality, Diversity and Inclusion within organizations as well as society.
On 4 September in partnership with DCU Centre of Excellence for Diversity and Inclusion they will hold the National Diversity and Inclusion Conference at The Helix, Dublin. The first of its kind in Ireland, the daylong conference will have national and international thought leaders, disrupters and experts in the field speaking and is aimed at Business Leaders / HR Professionals.
We spoke with Caroline Tyler about D&I in the Irish Business Sector and what steps a business can take when starting out.
If your business is starting from square one with D&I, simply begin with having the conversation.
Research and discuss what other businesses are doing in your sector. It can help to look at best practice in other sectors internationally to gain a wider perspective. While this step is crucial, it is still only step one, from here planned action needs to be implemented to make real progress.
There are plenty of excellent case studies / articles online to delve into. Here’s two we recommend;
Cannes Lions 2019 podcast episode – CEO Phil Thomas interviews 3 industry leaders with different approaches to inclusion, equality and diversity at work. Listen here, only 22 minutes.
TechCrunch June 2019 article – an excellent, relevant read on the current state & next stage of D&I initiatives in Silicon Valley tech industry. Read here, it’s an depth piece but well worth it, with a lot of relatable experience.
As we all know D&I is a broad field covering lots of complex areas. To avoid the feeling of being overwhelmed and to increase your chances of changing patterns, pick a few key areas that are relevant for your business. Then focus on taking clear steps that will build towards achieving your goals.
Your contribution can make a real difference - as members of the Advertising, Marketing and Media industry we are perfectly positioned for our D&I contributions to make a wider impact.
Buy in from the top is essential to make waves - consider pitching to key stakeholders in the business to get them on board. D&I is not just the right thing to do anymore, it also makes good business sense.
It can positively impact upon your business bottom line and there is data to prove it. See this Forbes article from last year;
“Companies in the top quartile for gender diversity outperform their competitors by 15% and those in the top quartile for ethnic diversity outperform their competitors by 35%”.
What are your current company values? Could you add one that reflects your D&I aspirations? It’s an opportunity to imbed inclusivity
within the ethos of your workplace - and promote a clear message going forward.
Is your business as diverse and accepting as you preserve it to be? It’s good to ask employees and measure their responses. This is a great way to set a marker, measure progress and can be used for reference to build your D&I policy and training, to ensure they suit your specific business needs. A yearly or biennial D&I survey would clearly measure what’s working and what’s not, allowing you to gain meaningful results.
IAPI are working on a D&I survey to provide an industry benchmark, you’ll be hearing more from us about it before the end of the summer.
In January of this year Nestlé Ireland became one of the first companies in Ireland to be awarded the Investors in Diversity Silver accreditation from the Irish Centre for Diversity. Andrew Shaw, County Manager, Nestlé Ireland on receiving the certification :
“It is a tremendous accolade to receive for our all our people who embraced Diversity & Inclusion in their everyday roles and engagement with others in the business. It has been a people led empowerment which has translated into our company adopting new policies and ensuring our language, attitude and respect for all cross every part of our business from our policies through to our events and activities”
Read more about the programme / learn how to take part here or join the D&I conversation with the hashtag #InclusionAlly.
