roundtable


The Business Magazine and Solent 250 sponsors HSBC, KPMG, and Irwin Mitchell invited senior business leaders to the Hotel TerraVina in the New Forest for this discussion, which highlighted that while .....


Diversity is a worldwide fact; inclusion is a human act


Participants


Nick Buckingham: UK MD, environment control experts Colt International Paula Claisse: South Coast partner, KPMG David Clayden: Recruitment solutions director, aap3 Hannah Clipston: Partner, lawyers Irwin Mitchell Sue Coatham: FD, health and beauty products distributor Paul Murray plc Andy Farmer: Deputy area director, HSBC Kelly Hector: Head of human resources, Churchill Retirement Living Adrian Went: MD, Griffon Hoverwork Neil Wilson: Business development director, Hotel TerraVina


Lined up to debate: the Roundtable team


Tamsin Napier-Munn: Campaigns manager of The Business Magazine, chaired the discussion


Journalist John Burbedge reports the roundtable highlights The objective


Respect and appreciation of different ethnicity, gender, age, nationality, disability, sexual orientation, education and religion.


“I prefer the word ‘inclusion’ to ‘diversity’; D&I is about having an open mind and sharing ideas,” said David Clayden.


“Diversity is inevitable today, but we have to choose consciously to be inclusive in the workplace,” noted Paula Claisse.


Past and present progress


When Nick Buckingham started his 30-year career in the UK construction sector it was “a white male-dominated, macho and aggressive culture.” After working overseas and in various sectors he has now returned


to construction. “It still has some of that culture, but things are getting massively better, albeit with an inordinate way to go.” Colt International is currently updating its D&I policies and sharing best practice within the industry.


Kelly Hector, from the housebuilding sector, revealed that 60% of Churchill Retirement Living’s workforce today is female. “Diversity comes in many forms and there is still a lot of D&I work to be done. I am passionate about workplace D&I, and learning how others embrace and improve it.”


Hannah Clipston highlighted a seeming complacency in her legal sector where diversity is now evident within junior levels, but not so apparent at higher and leadership levels.


Business THE TM MAGAZINE 56 businessmag.co.uk


As a former director of Southampton’s Rose Road Association, Neil Wilson is keen to resolve situations where personal disabilities are still seen as barriers to meaningful employment. “There are many obstacles and difficulties that families and individuals already have to overcome. Things are changing in the business world, but that needs to carry on.”


Current D&I awareness and engagement


Recruitment specialist Clayden pointed out that D&I engagement was still an issue in some industries.


Having worked within “bastions of non- inclusiveness”, Adrian Went, admitted he had been relatively unsuccessful in introducing D&I into such sectors. He mentioned professionals so entrenched they didn’t recognise their bigotry or discrimination. Based on experience and pragmatism, he questioned “... how much a society will break in reality, in order to achieve greater diversity in its organisations?”


Companies often like to promote their D&I policies when recruiting, said Clayden. “But some go about it the wrong way, treating them like an ISO scenario – ‘We’ve got that policy, that accreditation’ – and then they just carry on as normal.”


HSBC has well communicated D&I policies and guidelines, noted Andy Farmer, but any policies within modern workplaces and workstyles still require people to implement them correctly. Staff engagement was essential.


THE BUSINESS MAGAZINE – SOLENT & SOUTH COAST – JULY/AUGUST 2017


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