EDI policies, charter marks and Equality Impact Assessment (EIA)
A good policy should be more than a document that lives on a shelf but no one reads. It should be a statement of intent, setting the culture and motivation for the policy underpinned by clear, SMART actions to ensure the policy is implemented.
‘EDI policies’ can incorporate many different areas. Working out what you need and want is a good starting point.
We have experience in developing national EDI policy, organisational EDI strategies and more specific policies, such as recruitment and selection.
Charter marks
We have extensive experience with equality charter marks. We have been involved in Stonewall and private sector equality standards, as well as higher education-specific Athena Swan and the Race Equality Charter.
We have a unique insight, having both developed charter marks and assessed applications, as well as writing and submitting applications. We know the process from both sides.
We are able to:
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Run briefing and training sessions on the charters to assist your staff in engaging with them. This can be particularly useful for departmental Athena Swan applications
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Assist with developing action plans and running action planning sessions
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Assist with drafting applications
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Facilitate self-assessment meetings
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Project manage the charter mark process
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Proofread your draft applications
Equality Impact Assessment (EIA)
Equality impact assessments are one of the best ways of building EDI into everything you do. EIA is a way of:
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Identifying and assessing any potentially negative impacts of policies, processes, functions or services on different groups of people
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Identifying and assessing any opportunities to make policies, processes, functions or services more inclusive and therefore advancing EDI
We highly recommend that significant decisions, for example, relocations are impact assessed as they will affect different groups of people in different ways.
Often there are small, quick actions that can be taken to mitigate any negative impact and to make things more inclusive.
We usually begin an EIA by gaining a thorough understanding of what is being impact assessed. We will then do our own background research to understand some of the issues that might exist. We would then speak to those impacted to get a more thorough understanding of their concerns and ideas for change.
We take a practical approach to EIA, ensuring we prioritise our recommendations and assess what can be implemented in the short, medium and longer-term, taking resource into consideration.
Our services at Advancing EDI
At Advancing EDI we work with clients on EDI policies, charter marks and Equality Impact Assessment (EIA), listening exercises and research, as well as providing comprehensive training.
Listening exercises and research
We have recently worked with several organisations running listening exercises with their staff and stakeholders. This can be a really useful thing to do every couple of years, to check in with people and understand their lived experiences and what the organisation needs to do on EDI.
Listening exercises are also useful in advance of developing a new EDI strategy, or developing EDI policies.
We have skilled facilitators with a combination of research and EDI expertise to run interviews and focus groups. We speak to your people confidentially and create a safe space for them to share.
We identify key themes and trends and report back with our findings and recommendations.
We are also able to undertake EDI-related literature reviews and evaluations.
Training
Training is most effective when it has clear aims and objectives and is embedded within a wider strategy. We can work with you in ensuring your training achieves maximum impact and provides you with value for money.
We run a variety of training sessions, including sessions focused on charter marks and equality impact assessments. We make our sessions interactive using a variety of methods, including quizzes, small group discussions/activities and videos, with plenty of time for questions
We prefer to tailor training to your specific needs, but two popular areas are:
Creating an inclusive workplace
This training touches on ideas of bias and implicit bias but take it further to look at micro aggressions and micro inequalities. It explores the impact of cultures, policies and structures on creating a sense of belonging for everyone.
The training aims to find a balance between the actions and behaviours of both individuals and organisations and how both contribute to equity, diversity and inclusion.
How to engage with equity, diversity and inclusion
Most senior management teams understand why they need to engage with equity, diversity and inclusion, but are unsure how or where to start and how to manage this work with competing priorities.
This session is aimed at managers and senior managers and re-caps the key benefits of equity, diversity and inclusion and how to start the journey. Setting a culture for EDI is key and this training helps managers think that through and to begin developing strategies and accountability mechanisms for taking this work forward.
Training online
Since March 2020, all of our training has been delivered online, usually using Zoom, but also Microsoft Teams. Inevitably, it is a different experience, but there are also benefits to online training:
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people do not need to travel;
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it can be easier to fit in around other work; and
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there are more mechanisms for people to ask us questions anonymously through the chat box, which they wouldn’t be able to do in person.
Break-out rooms and polls help to facilitate engagement and small-group discussions and the feedback we have received has been very positive.