The challenge:
In January 2020, as the world’s leading recruitment business, we faced a significant challenge: only 27% of our UK and Ireland workforce (approximately 800 employees) had provided diversity metrics. Without a clear understanding of the diversity make-up or shape of our business, we couldn’t fully identify, understand, or address the barriers some employees faced. This transparency was crucial for our goal of fostering an inclusive workplace, especially given our position in the recruitment market.
How we overcame the challenge:
To address this, we made diversity data collection a strategic DE&I priority and developed an action plan to enhance engagement. As part of National Inclusion Week in 2020, we launched a campaign to educate and raise awareness about the importance of diversity data. We wanted the data for a really good reason – it was not about hitting targets, being nosy or singling anyone out. It was about making sure the culture we are shaping would help us achieve inclusion for everyone.
We created a video featuring employees sharing their stories about the importance of diversity data. The message was clear: we needed this data to understand the make-up of our business, enabling us to take meaningful action and ensuring Hays is a place where everyone is able to bring their whole self to work. The video included senior leadership and employee network members, explaining the importance, purpose and confidentiality of the data.
We also reviewed our diversity questions to make them as inclusive as possible and worked with our IT team to streamline survey access and data collection. This included automatically directing employees to the diversity data page upon logging in.
The results:
Our first national campaign in 2020 was really successful with 64% of our population submitting their diversity data. Each year we have seen an improvement in the disclosure percentage – we are now at 86% and it’s one of our UK&I diversity goals.
Given the success, we now run the same campaign twice a year – in September during National Inclusion Week, and in April. We also incorporate awareness campaigns into our new starter onboarding process.
The focus on collecting employee diversity data has opened many doors and enabled us to progress our DE&I journey further:
- We identified the need for specific employee resource groups (ERGs), particularly for our Black employees and those living with disabilities, to have a voice, share views and opinions and raise awareness to help shape better inclusion in the workplace.
- There was a growing appetite to set diversity goals across our UK&I business, to help us measure progress and ensure action was being taken – ‘what gets measured, gets done!’
- We wanted to demonstrate leadership in action. To achieve this, we create comprehensive Diversity Data Insight Regional Reports twice a year, which enables our leadership teams to have better visibility of the shape of their own regions and functions. This encourages us to challenge our thinking, capture some of the challenges with ‘getting in and getting on’ in Hays and have meaningful discussions around DE&I. Key questions include whether our office demographics reflect the communities outside and, if not, why.
We have conducted focus groups to understand the lived experiences of individuals at Hays. This has led to significant policy changes, including updates to our family-friendly policies and the introduction of paid carers’ leave. Additionally, we have facilitated meaningful and open conversations during challenging times, such as addressing the impacts of unrest in the UK during summer 2024.