At Guinness Homes we don’t have a Network model, instead we have a D&I Steering Group which is responsible for the delivery of our Diversity Strategy. we also have task and finish working groups for specific events on our Diversity calendar such as Black History Month, National Inclusion week, 16 days of action against Domestic Violence etc.
What current initiatives is your network doing to represent and support your BAME colleagues?
As a result of the conversations above we are developing the company racism statement and action plan to eradicate racism in Guinness.
The action plan will include collecting all D&I data at various points in the employee lifecycle from pre recruitment to exit as well as other initiatives such as proportional representation in training and the Staff Forums , possibly target setting in recruitment and maybe a BAME specific development programme however this is yet to be confirmed.
Is there an Equality, Diversity & Inclusion strategy in place for your organisation?
We have a 5 year D&I Strategy called ‘Everyone’ which is reported and progress published on annually. The working groups feed into the D&I Steering group who are responsible for the delivery of the strategy and meet quarterly to determine key priorities with racism being one of the key priorities this year.
Tell us a little bit about what your organisation is currently doing outside of your network to meet the ED&I strategy?
There have been several actions taken in the last few years to meet our strategy. Key highlights including increasing our Mental Health First Aiders from 12 to 65 in the last year, signing up to Housepround and UNIFY, sending colleagues to Leadership 2025, participating in the HDN Mentoring scheme and encouraging our suppliers to sign up to Disability Confident.
How do colleagues within your organisation sign up to to get involved with your EDI initiatives?
When we need to create a working group we ask for volunteers on our company intranet.
We recently had 4 Race and Ethnicity conversations with approximately 160 people across the organisation. We asked for attendees via email from me the Head of Engagement, the intranet and in our weekly CEO email. Interested colleagues emailed the Head of Engagement for joining details.
