In addition to the difficult economic circumstances, many of our clients have been describing to us the challenge of securing skilled and experienced Equality and Diversity practitioners who can deliver a challenging equality and diversity agenda within tight budget constraints.
The E&D role can be a complex one, and the practitioner needs to:
- Influence and negotiate at strategic level with internal and external stakeholders
- Apply high level analysis skills to monitoring data and prioritise often competing areas for action
- Coach and support managers and staff to deal with issues of professional conduct, harassment and discrimination
- Engage a broad range of stakeholders through the consultation process
At the same time practitioners need to maintain a high level of knowledge about contemporary E&D legislation, industry focussed regulation and a sound understanding of the business operations.
We are aware that for some organisations it may be difficult to maintain an internal E&D specialism at this level, but the E&D work commitments still need to be undertaken effectively.
At Equality Works we have developed a series of support packages for clients in this situation. While we can, for example, provide professional supervision to your internal E&D team, our ability to deliver a complete Equality and Diversity Service will provide a significantly greater return than a similar internal investment in a single role or small team.
If you would like more information or are interested in discussing these opportunities please contact
Jane Farrell