At Essex County Council, building a workforce that’s representative of the community it serves – and fostering a culture where staff feel supported to celebrate their diversity and “bring their whole selves to work” – are at the heart of the local authority’s agenda.
A newly launched equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI) strategy sets out ambitious targets and the means to achieve them, including improved use of data to track what is and isn’t working on increasing diversity among the workforce, and prompt new interventions. There’s a strong focus on increasing the numbers of employees who declare protected characteristics such as disability (where the current identified proportion of employees is lower than in the county as a whole), and a “women in leadership” programme to tackle the underrepresentation of women in senior roles, given that across the organisation as a whole, it is predominantly female. Meanwhile, pay gap reporting will be expanded to include ethnicity and disability.
Essex County Council plans to give leaders and managers formal cultural intelligence and emotional intelligence training as part of the plan to promote an open and inclusive culture, and allyship programmes are being introduced. “We know that if you have a more diverse workforce, whether that’s diversity of thought or diversity of background, you get better outcomes,” says Alison Woods, the council’s director, people business partnering and employment practice, of the drivers for the EDI strategy.
“We’re very focused on the outcomes that we’re delivering for our community. And if we can better reflect the communities that we’re serving, we can better understand them and give them even better services.” She adds: “And, of course, it’s just the right thing to do, isn’t it? It’s about allowing people to be themselves – embracing that.”
Consultation with Essex’s nine employee networks, which include groups for carers, disabled employees and LGBTQ+ staff, as well as an interfaith forum, was crucial in the process of developing the EDI strategy. “What’s really changing with the networks is their connection back to the organisation,” says Woods. “So rather than them just meeting as a support group, or a group where people can share their frustrations and their experiences among themselves, there are now far more of us going to the networks and saying: ‘Give us some feedback on that, tell us what you think.’”
The benefit of that approach was especially apparent when the council was creating new “ways of working” content during the pandemic, and consulted the networks about how the split between working from home and attending the office would affect them. Feedback from the LGBTQ+ network highlighted that some members who lived with family were struggling to be at home all the time, especially if they hadn’t come out, or their home life was abusive – leading the council to change its approach and encourage employees to attend the workplace if they felt the need to do so.
An independent review of Essex’s EDI work recommended the local authority appoint a dedicated EDI lead. Faizal Hakim, who took up the role last year, was instrumental in the development of the new strategy. “EDI for me is really personal,” he says. “As an individual of an ethnic minority background, I’ve felt throughout my career that my ethnicity has been a strength, in terms of being able to rely on my cultural background to bring in a different perspective – I really do see the value of that.” He has managed teams in the past that were very diverse and adds: “I’d say that when you bring the best out of people, you can really do things innovatively and differently.”
In the process of creating the strategy, Hakim worked closely with key specialist areas within the organisation, such as the resourcing team – where understanding the recruitment journey from the moment a job advert goes out means inclusion is now embedded in the process. The reaction to the strategy has been “very, very positive”. “It’s something that the workforce wanted to see and wanted to get involved in,” says Hakim.
Since its launch, he has been running interactive webinars for the whole council on topics such as intersectionality, where panel discussions are followed by discussions in breakout rooms that allow anyone to take part. “We’re making sure that it’s something for everyone,” he says. “EDI is now an organisational priority for us. We are having that inclusion lens on everything that we are trying to do; that’s the kind of cultural change we want to bring to Essex.”
Woods’ message to anyone considering applying for a role with the council is simple: “If you haven’t considered us up until now as an employer that would support your career and your ambitions, then come and try us out, come and talk to us – and give us some feedback on the process. The commitment is right from the top, genuinely.
“People can see what we’re doing in the community we serve; it would be great for them to see what we’re doing as an organisation, and be part of that.”
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