Business Leaders interview - DE&I - Joanne Sullivan

How would you define diversity, equity and inclusion, and why are they important to you as a leader?

If DE&I are not on your agenda you are not taking into account the thoughts, feelings and impact you are having on your team as a whole, so how can you the lead if you don’t either understand or take everything into account 

How have you incorporated DE&I into your organisation's culture? 

Weve built it around our Values and Mission, we’ve ensured we are asking the teams at all stages of their journeys with us from inception to induction and throughout in pulse and annual surveys, we hold annual appraisals against our values, and we run leadership workshops and events to ensure we are holding the agenda, dripped down into their brief sheets. 

Has there been a moment or experience that significantly shaped your views on DE&I?

I think our induction programme it was called Academy and was “award winning” but wasn’t built around neurodiversity  we didn’t take into account people’s needs, learning styles or languages ability, we ripped it up looked at our demographics which by opening the culture mean people could be their true selves at work by building Be You Be Rare the employee brand and our demographics increased from 6% neurodiversity in 2022 to 33% in 2024 for me this shows people can not only feel like they can express themselves but that they can have the support they need to do what they can to achieve anything

BUSINESS STRATEGY

How do you measure progress toward your DE&I goals? 

Annual engagement survey, retention, turnover, turnover from LAB and probation reviews

How do you ensure that your DE&I initiatives are aligned with your overall business objectives?

As above all aligned all strategies are built with the values in mind and the impact on those 

In your business, what role does the leadership team play in promoting and sustaining DE&I? 

They hold the key to ensure it feeds into the team by creating the space they need 

RECRUITMENT 

What strategies do you use to attract and recruit a diverse workforce? 

We work with a number of recruiting charities; we look to support applications and welcome virtual interviews and applications to break down the barriers of needs and language