Guest CEO Blog: Inclusion with impact – guest blog by Helen Hadley, Employee Experience Manager 

Hello everyone,

I can’t believe it’s been a year since I last had the opportunity to take over the CEO blog – which means National Inclusion Week is just around the corner!  In fact, next week we kick off celebrations to mark the event. Whilst this initiative is born from the UK, we will be embracing the spirit of the event with all of our global colleagues.  

So, what is National Inclusion Week?

It’s an annual event founded by ‘Inclusive Employers’ in the UK that promotes diversity and inclusion, and helps cement the value of cultivating an inclusive workplace. This year’s theme is Inclusion with Impact and centres on the fact that each one of us holds the potential to make a profound and positive impact.

Bringing the theme alive

A key to putting this theme into action is to use data to inform strategy; those based in the UK and Ireland may recall earlier this year that the business launched a diversity data questionnaire to help us understand the baseline demographics of our business.

This exercise wasn’t just about making sure we have the right policies and processes in place – although that was a large part of it- but it was more about understanding the unique needs and perspectives of our employees and creating an environment that is inclusive of these.  

Again, using data to help inform decisions, the People Team have been working on the Inclusive Recruitment project; the goal of which is to ensure that every individual that interacts with Nash Squared as a prospective employee has a positive and inclusive experience throughout the hiring journey.  

Over the summer, we conducted qualitative interviews with our colleagues across Nash Squared to gain valuable insight and feedback on the various aspects of their candidate experience, including the job advertisement, recruitment process, interview experience, and overall accessibility. 

The data was incredibly insightful, and we are in the process of consolidating feedback and preparing recommendations back to the business.  

Key Highlights to look out for next week

• Launching our diversity data guide and dashboard: We are proud to introduce our inaugural Diversity Data Guide and dashboard, based on the results from the UK&I responses. This dashboard provides valuable insights into our workforce demographic to help inform our D&I strategy.  It can also be used as a talking point with prospective clients.  For more information, please contact me directly.  

• Dementia Friends Webinar:  From our diversity data, we found that over 10% of our colleagues in the UK and Ireland perform caring responsibilities for an adult over the age of 18.  Whilst caring can take on many forms and the reasons our loved ones need care will vary significantly from person to person, NASHability have partnered with the Alzheimer’s Society, the UK’s leading dementia charity, to run a webinar to provide valuable insights on how to make a difference and become a Dementia Friend.

Webinar details

Webinar 

Date & Time 

Registration links 

Become a Dementia Friend

25^th September at 10:00hrs GMT

 Register here

Become a Dementia Friend

25^th September at 16:00hrs GMT

Register here

• Personal Stories:  We believe that the power of personal stories can significantly contribute to creating a psychologically safe workplace where all our colleagues feel included and safe to be their authentic selves.  Throughout the week, we will be sharing personal stories from our senior colleagues.  

• ERG content: Monday 23^rd September is Bi-Sexual Visibility Day and our NASHpride colleagues will be sharing information about the significance of this date to the LGBTQIA+ community.

We also have a number of resources to share including our updated Language Matters Guide, which we launched during Inclusion Week 2023, as well as webinars and training sessions hosted on thrive@NASH our global Learning Management System (LMS).  

While Inclusion Week is only for one week, we all have a collective responsibility to ensure Nash Squared is an inclusive organisation 365 days a year, so on this note, I thought it would be a good time to share my 3 key takeaways from last year as they are still as important today as ever.  

1. Educate yourself: Learn more about the importance of using inclusive language, for example, and the impact of your words on others.  

2. Challenge your biases: Be mindful of your own biases or prejudices. Challenge these biases by actively seeking out diverse perspectives and engaging with people from different backgrounds.  

3. Embrace mistakes: Our journey to inclusivity is a learning process and mistakes are inevitable. Do not be afraid to ask for feedback or guidance from other people and be open to learning from them. Move on quickly if you make a mistake and learn from it.  

Thank you for reading and hope you all have an enjoyable weekend.

Helen Hadley  

If you have any feedback you would like to share, please contact the Employee Experience Team or connect with a member of one of our Employee Resource Groups.  Or check out the Diversity & Inclusion pages on our People Information Hub: People Information - Home (sharepoint.com) 

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