Corporate Leaders Call on Businesses to Move the Diversity Conversation beyond Gender and Ethnicity.

We may come from different countries and different business sectors, but we are united in our strong belief that to address social injustice and move the needle on equity in the UK forward, we must widen our lens of diversity. That’s why we are inviting all companies to join us in creating a new initiative that will provide an expanded understanding of diversity and inclusion.

Movements such as Black Lives Matter and Me-Too and reviews including the Parker Review and Hampton Alexander Review have helped in valuable ways: to confront systematic racism forcefully, and to begin to pull back the curtain on the toxic culture women have experienced for far too long in far too many areas of society. The challenge for many leaders, and individual colleagues, is how to face their own biases, to identify the specific issues in their organisations, and once they do, how to get started tackling them.

The first step is measurement. Nearly all large organisations today measure representation of women and ethnic minorities within them. They look at rates from a recruitment, retention, and advancement perspective to identify where gaps exist. If they are committed to true equity, they go on to analyse and understand the reason for the gaps and then how to address them. And they keep measuring to see if the needle is moving. Yet we believe there is an opportunity now that we cannot miss to harness this momentum and take a broader, more holistic, and inclusive view of diversity. A view that focuses not only on ethnicity and gender, but also on age, nationality, mental health, sexual orientation, socioeconomic status, disability and neurodiversity, religion, and parenthood. Each of these facets represent populations that also face discrimination and barriers in their lives.

This autumn, we are taking a step to help broaden the awareness and understanding of visible and invisible segments of diversity with the launch of the McKenzie-Delis Review on Diversity and Inclusion for 2021. Following on from our inaugural report in 2020, this will be a comprehensive review of corporate practices against the above-mentioned 10 facets of workplace diversity and inclusion. We believe this will help provide a clearer understanding of how organisations are reporting, measuring, and acting across this comprehensive set of diversity facets. But even more important, we hope it will help organisations empower other organisations to take further action in all 10 areas.

We invite all companies to join with us and participate in the Review, which will open in October. An independent review committee of corporate and non-profit leaders will guide the report’s framework. Members include representatives from Verizon, KPMG, Walgreen Boots Alliance, Google, Intel, Microsoft, Motorola, Bridgestone, and other international companies. A complete list is available here. Together, let’s drive equity and inclusion, dismantle barriers, and empower growth and progress across society and business.

For more information and to learn how to participate, visit www.mckenziedelisfoundation.com The McKenzie Delis Review

Co authors: Tami Erwin, CEO of Verizon Business, John Standley, Executive Vice President Walgreens Boots Alliance & President of Walgreens, and Lord Simon Woolley, Founder of Operation Black Vote.