There’s no doubt that DEI & Wellbeing are intrinsically linked and there is much crossover between disciplines. But does this mean it would be more effective to have professionals who have responsibilities for both, rather than separate them?
Rebecca Ormond, whose job title spans both – EMEA Head of Diversity, Inclusion & Wellbeing at Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation – talks to us about the pros and cons of each approach.
Ormond has been invited to Chair a session at the DE&I Summit at MAD World on 17th October. If you haven’t got your ticket yet, you can register and see the full agenda here.
Over to Ormond…
You have both Diversity & Inclusion and Wellbeing in your remit. How do you ensure that Wellbeing is part of your Inclusion agenda, and vice versa?
I’ve always had that question and challenge! My first role at PwC also included D&I and Wellbeing. But as both the DEI and Wellbeing industries have grown, we’ve seen lots of people responsible for just one or the other.
The first thing I would say is that if you don’t feel a sense of wellbeing at work, you’re unlikely to feel like you really belong there and, on some level, you’re definitely not going to be thriving. The two are really interconnected. That’s why I find it helpful to have both in my remit even though, in theory, if you have two separate roles they can collaborate together to have the same outcomes.
What are the potential challenges of having both disciplines in one role?
Not every organisation I have worked with, or in, is always at the same stage on both agendas, which can make it really challenging. Another aspect that makes it challenging is that sometimes something that is going on will thrust one of them to the fore, so the challenge is not letting go of the other discipline while this is happening. So it’s a constant case of prioritisation and balance.
Would you argue the case for putting them together in one role?
They are both big jobs, even in small organisations because you don’t have less aspects of diversity or wellbeing with less staff. You have to have enough resources for both.
We’re a team of four and other than my role, Wellbeing and D&I responsibilities are split between us, and that’s to cover 3,000 employees across Europe. But we don’t see Wellbeing and D&I as being just our job; we see it as building the right capability in others and so we work closely with other functions and teams so they are embedded in the organisation.
But the reason I find they work better together is because it means that whenever we do anything around wellbeing, we start from the point of view ‘how do we make it inclusive?’ and that diversity lens is always there from the start.
Can you give me an example of when the two disciplines worked really well together?
Yes. During the Covid pandemic. Both agendas are really connected to the external environment but that was highlighted in Covid.
I was really conscious that we were already having conversations about the disproportionate effect of Covid on certain groups, and then the murder of George Floyd during that time put a specific focus on racial equity. It surfaced stories about the experience of black colleagues and was an incredibly relentless time for them with so much trauma being surfaced. It meant we needed to make sure that our wellbeing support was inclusive and would specifically support black colleagues in the right way.
Were you able to point them in the direction of help from someone who could relate to and understand their experiences?
That’s a good question. The short answer is that we tried to do this, and I hope that colleagues felt better supported as a result.
Your question highlights an interesting emerging trend. What I have heard a lot more about over the last few years is people valuing lived experience in professional support. For example, if I phone our EAP helpline, can I speak to someone who I feel I can trust and will not amplify trauma I am experiencing?
The good news is that EAP providers are much more alert to this – I’ve been having a similar conversation recently in relation to neurodifference and colleagues being able to express a preference for specialist expertise in this area and/or lived experience in their counselling options.
It’s been great that our provider has been proactive, as I think sometimes Employee Resource Groups end up trying to fill a gap.
Do you have other examples where having this dual remit of D&I and Wellbeing worked particularly well?
Yes. We were looking at new benefits to add to our women’s and men’s health offering around menopause and fertility. Because of the dual remit, we could easily make sure we had a diverse range of participants testing it out to give us specific feedback on how these changes could support a member of their community.
I know from experience of launching support around fertility, for example, that the LGBT community sometimes do not find the language inclusive. The way that it’s often talked about comes at the issue from an infertility perspective and the need for IVF. But same-sex couples may not be looking at fertility from an infertility standpoint, but they do need support with conception.
The feedback I’ve had in the past is that the way it was presented felt very heteronormative appearing to make the assumption it’s aimed at heterosexual couples.
In a previous role we were able to go back to a provider and explain this and they took that feedback on board and changed it.
How do you work with the Learning & Development team to build capacity in line managers?
There’s an enormous amount of commonality around the behaviours you need from a manager for success whether supporting teams’ wellbeing or supporting a culture of inclusion.
I talk alot about the need to be curious and empathetic and the humility to accept you haven’t got all the answers, and the bravery to try new things and be wrong.
When it comes to building capability, I always talk about role-based capability. There are particular things you need to know for Wellbeing and D&I in a particular role, for example, you know how to do inclusive recruitment.
When it comes to building capability, I always talk about role-based capability. It’s not about everyone becoming a D&I or Wellbeing expert. There are particular things you may need to know for Wellbeing and D&I in a particular role. For example, if you recruit people, you should know how to do inclusive recruitment. But you don’t have to have all the answers – the most important thing for people to know is where to go for help and guidance.
Do you mandate training?
I tend to think it’s not always helpful to mandate anything as then people don’t always turn up with a learning attitude.
Do you work closely with the benefits team?
Yes, we have great conversations with the benefits team and they provide a lot of support with wellbeing. In fact, they are getting better at spotting ideas before I do, or coming to me with products to talk about, or benefits for under-represented groups.
Any tips for working better with benefits teams?
I cannot be in every conversation so the way I’m going to have the biggest impact is to upskill other people. In both my current role, and my former role at PwC, I have been very fortunate to work with great benefits teams who are really open to, and supportive of, this agenda.
A tip would be not to look to the benefits team to solve your problems and rather value their expertise. For instance, I would not go to our team and say ‘we are failing this group and we need to do more for them’. I would say ‘we’ve got some feedback from this group about how what we currently offer doesn’t fit their needs, what other options do we have?’
I’m not a benefits experts, so I’m always looking for their perspective and expertise.
Which is trickier? Wellbeing or DEI?
They are tricky for different reasons. You have to understand the business driver. The reality is, DEI and Wellbeing may be the right thing to do but you need to demonstrate why they matter from a business perspective. You will always have stakeholders that say ‘but why should this matter to me?’. Ultimately the business needs to be successful to support these agendas. Get your drivers wrong, and you’re not going to support anyone.
In financial services, there’s a high level of interest currently from our regulators in relation to DEI which, in some ways, makes my job easy because the spotlight is on it. It drives engagement.
Quite a few firms in finance are returning to the office and being quite vocal about the need for their employees to do this. What are your thoughts post Covid on hybrid working?
The evidence is incredibly clear; a hybrid approach is better for Wellbeing and Inclusion because the traditional office based work is better for some groups than others for a variety of reasons.
But we are seeing a large number of businesses who think hybrid working stifles creativity and collaboration. My personal view is that we haven’t learnt how to do hybrid effectively yet and it’s easier for firms to return to what they are familiar with. Alot of decisions are being made by people for whom traditional models worked.
We know, for example, that good flexible working options were, before Covid, one of the best ways to support female career progression. In a hybrid work environment, we still need to make sure that lack of visibility doesn’t create a new challenge as people make different choices about how to use it and people working more from home don’t become invisible.
Historically very few organisations truly reward behaviours that support sustainable high performance, we just look at performance outcome and don’t really know how people got there, whether it was a sustainable way or not. That’s a real mismatch in terms of creating a culture where everyone can truly thrive.
But I’m interested in more recent models of leadership that focus on empowering people working for you for collective success. I think the increased focus on the ‘S’ in ESG is a really interesting development because there’s a growing requirement for organisations to demonstrate how they are creating healthy work environments, and that’s a really positive step.
The DE&I Summit at MAD World is an event driving excellence in building equitable, inclusive, thriving workplaces. Speakers include Pernille Hagild, Global Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Lead, IKEA, Dr Patrick Ismon, Head of EDI, RSPCA and Sharlene John, Head of DEI, Recruitment & Onboarding, Selfridges.
MAD World is on 17th October 2024, and will bring together speakers and attendees from across sectors and with a range of job titles for five tracks of leading-edge content that showcase best practice and provide insights and inspiration for all those looking to achieve maximum engagement with initiatives, optimise investment, stay one step ahead and really make a difference.
The stellar lineup of speakers includes: Professor Dame Carol Black GBE FRCP FMed Sci; Peter Cheese, CEO, CIPD, Vanessa Harwood-Whitcher, Chief Executive, The Institute of Occupational Safety & Health (IOSH), Dhavani Bishop, Head of Group Colleague Health & Wellbeing, Tesco, Kirstin Furber, People Director, Channel 4, Dr Clare Fernandes, Chief Medical Officer, BBC, Christian van Stolk, Executive Vice President, RAND Europe, Andrew Gibbons, Group Head of Wellbeing, Recognition and Hybrid Working, HSBC, Karen Brookes, Chief People Officer, Sir Robert McAlpine, Jaimy Fairclough, Wellbeing Specialist – People Division, Sainsbury’s, Dr Femi Oduneye, Vice President Health, Shell International B.V. and many more. You can find out more and register to attend here.
