Inclusive culture is key to diversity

Creating a sense of belonging.

At Barclays, we’re committed to continuing to build a diverse, equitable, and inclusive workplace. We believe that when we make our organisation inclusive and equitable, we can make the most of the different backgrounds, perspectives, and experiences of our colleagues and better serve our customers and clients.

Roland Pearce

Head of Charities, Barclays Corporate Banking

Looking for unity

What’s the best way to increase diversity within charities to better represent the communities they serve? The ability of an organisation to draw on different life experiences among employees has been shown to foster innovation and enhance an organisation’s ability to deliver on its purpose.

It’s a bit like building with Lego, with every brick being a different colour – we can build organisations that look different with each appointment we make.

Kai Adams

Managing Partner, Green Park

Steps to consider

A better understanding of the needs of the people they serve are among the clear benefits for charities that continue to make progress in improving diversity, equity and inclusion (DE&I) in their organisations. You may wish to consider the following to help build DE&I within your charity.

If you don't belong, it's wrong

Delivering diversity starts with creating a culture of inclusion within your organisation. That means an environment where people from all backgrounds feel like they belong.

Listen to views

You can’t expect one person to know or represent the views of a whole minority group. At the same time, it’s pointless to hire people from diverse backgrounds and then not listen to their views.

Post appointment

Putting together a recruitment process to improve diversity isn’t enough in itself. Think about what happens after you appoint someone – do you have a culture that allows them to thrive?

Understand the role

Some organisations want diverse candidates but make the proviso that they have to be ‘good’. This reveals an unfortunate bias – why are these two things separate?

Intentional inclusion

Inclusivity should be a catalyst for diversity of thought and ‘difficult’ conversations that challenge the status quo – make sure your organisation embraces this as part of what it is aiming to achieve when recruiting new talent.

We tried but no one applied

If this is your organisation’s excuse for failing to encourage diversity in recruitment, it often means you’re looking in the wrong places. If you want to be truly diverse, you need to look outside your usual talent pools.

Fit isn't it

Simply trying to find someone who fits your existing culture isn’t going to work from a diversity point of view. Think about ‘cultural add’ rather than cultural fit – new recruits who will expand your boundaries. Look for a counterweight – someone who is equal and opposite to what you already have.

Debate must be allowed

An inclusive culture needs to create safe spaces for challenging conversations – or ‘zones of uncomfortable debate’ (ZOUD). Diversity may cause tension and friction on the way to producing more innovative and creative outcomes.

Reflect and learn

If your organisation doesn’t listen to feedback from its people, you’ll struggle to retain talent. So, be ready to listen to different points of view and accept that they may be right – even if they’re wrong you should always welcome new ideas to help your organisation learn and innovate.

One and done?

Making a single appointment and then sitting back thinking the job’s done is not a sustainable approach to diversity.

Getting the best from recruitment

There is still work to be done to tackle bias in recruitment. Enhancing your talent acquisition, nurturing and retaining diverse talent and fostering an inclusive culture can help your diversity journey.

At Barclays we are committed to developing diverse talent pipelines and providing all colleagues with the tools and support they need to succeed and progress, including through employee resource groups, apprenticeships and a range of development programmes for all employees. We are always happy to share our experiences with our charity clients.

More insights from our National Charities Day