As you will be aware, the new duty to take reasonable steps to prevent sexual harassment comes into force on 26 October. As the Equality and Human Rights Commission has made abundantly clear, employers will be expected to provide regular training sessions for all staff so that they understand what sexual harassment is and their role in preventing and/or addressing it. Their guidance says: “Training should be tailored towards the nature of the employer, the target audience (in terms of, for example, the seniority and job roles of the audience and the best method to deliver the training to them) and the employer’s policy to maximise its impact.” But in a difficult economic climate, how can HR persuade the board that the D&I budget should stretch to this latest demand? We’ll ask a D&I specialist.
Research by Barnett Waddingham which was reported by People Management earlier this year highlights the challenge for HR professionals. It shows nearly three-quarters (72%) of the 300 HR directors and C-suite professionals surveyed said employee demands for an EDI strategy were a major concern for their business. Employers said that growing business costs have caused them to reduce their investment in EDI, with the vast majority (83%) citing operational costs as a factor.
And yet, the same survey showed D&I policies are still highly valued by HR directors and CEOs – nearly two thirds (73%) said they thought treating employees fairly improves business performance in the long term, while 70% said employee happiness is critical to productivity.
So, given that picture what can HR do to help make sure that their D&I initiatives are properly recognised and valued by the business notwithstanding the cost pressures? Earlier I spoke to D&I specialist Kate Dodd who joined me by video-link from Manchester.
Kate Dodd: “I think there's no doubt that it's a challenging time. I've got a lot of HR/D&I colleagues within our client organisations who are finding their budgets being cut, they're finding projects that they thought were going to go ahead in 2024 have been paused, or delayed, or cancelled. So, it is really challenging. There are a couple of pieces of advice that I would give to our clients on this. Firstly, make sure that the work that you're doing on D&I is part of a strategy. We say this constantly: don’t do standalone things, don't have one-off initiatives etcetera because: (a) you're not going to see that there will be progress made, so you're not going to get necessarily the return on investment that you need, unless it's part of an overall strategy; and (b) it means that if you do need to pause, or if there needs to be a change of direction, or there is going to be a process whereby a particular funding is delayed, it means that your overall strategy can continue so you don't start to go backwards, or slip backwards, in terms of the progress that you've been making on D&I. The second point I would make is making sure that the board are engaged and involved from the word go. So, if the people that you're going to for budget are not involved in this, or they don't see the value of it, then you are really going to have to try and sell it. Whereas actually, what we would always say is, let us have a conversation, let us, or whoever it is that is providing your D&I services, let us talk to the board right at the beginning, right at the outset, and let us, or the people who are delivering for you, make sure that we've done that hearts and minds process with the board, with the people who hold the budgets, so that they understand where they're going with these things because, of course, it's going to be a lot easier to cut the budget for something if you don't see the benefit of it. Whereas, if you're part of that, and you've been part of that process from the beginning, if you've got a kind of three-year plan, a five-year plan, then it's going to be much harder because they can see the value of this and they're going to want to still prioritise investment, but also, it's going to be something that you're not having to convince them of and, if they are having to make difficult decisions, what we see in these situations is a pause, it's not a cancellation, and then things do pick back up as soon as they are able to.”
Joe Glavina: “You’ve mentioned previously that the label the business gives a D&I initiative, the title, or the name they give it, can sometimes put people off and how simply re-badging it can help win people over. Tell me how that might work?”
Kate Dodd: “Sometimes there is an anti-D&I feeling within a business. I have to say, we don’t really see this much in reality of anti DNI, but maybe there are conversations going on, maybe there are funding decisions going on by people who are influenced by social media, they're influenced by people in serious power, saying, you know, D&I is the death of society, or whatever it is that people are saying. If that is the case, then you need to be a little bit canny about what you're calling stuff. So, if you've got a programme that you are really wanting to press ahead with, and you've called it, I don't know, ‘D&I upskilling’ or ‘Unconscious bias training’ or something else like that, then think about the title that you're giving to that, think about what you're doing. Instead of saying I want this money for D&I, you could say, right, this is an important part of our employee engagement programme so please can we have this money for employee engagement. Or, as part of our employer brand, so can we please have some money to help us with this project which is to enhance our brand, or recruitment strategy? So, think about the name that you are giving this project, think about how it is that you're selling this into the business and, if you do believe that there is a kind of anti-D&I sentiment, or there are people questioning investment in this, then aligning yourself with the comms team, aligning yourself with the employee engagement team, for example, and going under that banner can sometimes be really successful.”
Joe Glavina: “Finally, Kate, anything else for HR viewers?”
Kate Dodd: “Another thing to think about, of course, if you are HR or if you're a D&I team who are facing a difficult time, is to think about this as a long-term issue. So, yes, there might be constraints this year, a lot of people might have faced constraints last year, but where does this sit in your overall D&I strategy and in your plan? It might be that you say, right, we've always had this delivered by the Brook Graham team for example, but what we want to do now is to undertake a ‘train the trainer’ programme so that we can deliver it ourselves, so that we can keep momentum going for the next 12 months because we aren't going to be able to have people coming in to do this for us because that will raise questions and, therefore, we're going to make an investment in ourselves, in our own people, and we will deliver that training for this period of constrained spending and, of course, Brook Graham are very much able to do that. What we would do is work with our clients, and we are doing this, to train up their trainers and then in 12-months’ time, when they've done that delivery and everybody's upskilled, it's time to move on and, of course, by then you're back on budget. What I don’t believe will happen is, I don't think we're going to get into a situation where budgets are slashed indefinitely. I think there is very much, at the moment, a tightening of belts but unlike the last recession there is no doubt, of course, the data is out there showing the absolute benefit of being an inclusive employer, of having good representation to innovation, finances, decision-making, and everything else. So, I think it might just be a case of making sure that you can keep going, you can keep your efforts up during this period of potential constrained spending.”
We mentioned the new duty to prevent sexual harassment which will be coming into force on 26 October. Last week Kate talked to this programme about conducting audits and risk assessments ahead of the new duty coming inti force on 26 October. That’s ‘Focus on audits and risk assessments ahead of new sexual harassment duty’ and is available now for viewing from the Out-Law website.
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