April is Diversity Month. In this first in a series of blogs to mark the month, we spoke with Nicky Lintott, Head of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion at Elysium to find out more about the organisation’s ambitions as it continues to embed DE&I.
“Diversity, equity and inclusion are so vital within an organisation
such as Elysium. Having a workplace which is inclusive helps ensure it is a place where the culture is respectful and people feel they belong, that they are valued. DE&I is important to Elysium because to help us offer the best care, our colleagues need to feel supported and included.
“A little over 18 months ago, Elysium launched #weareelysium, our DE&I programme, starting with the founding of a steering committee and a number of employee resource groups (ERGs). And what a journey we have been on since then. I’m delighted that there has been great appetite for all things DE&I and people have embraced their roles in helping create a more inclusive culture.
“We have a very active DE&I steering committee who represent the regions and functions across Elysium. It has evolved in terms of the individual members taking more responsibility for being advocates of DE&I in their own areas.
“From the steering group we developed five ERGs who have become more established and in most cases, have created their own identity. Our Women’s ERG is called WIN (Women’s Inclusion Network). Our Race and Ethnicity ERG is called Beyond Differences. The Disability ERG has chosen the name Hide and Seek and our LGBTQ+IA ERG call themselves Flying the Flag. We also have a Working Families and Group. All are very active.
“At a local level, we have had functions, hospitals and services who have set up their own local DE&I groups to help drive the diversity agenda within their own areas. And they have in turn run a series of localised initiatives to mark events such as Pride, International Women’s Day, Black History Month and many, many more. The ERGs have supported these by providing advice and resources for sites to use.
“There has also been an increased number of locally-led cultural celebration days where team members share, celebrate and educate others about their culture with the people we support and colleagues through food, dress, music and discussion.
“The ERGs have been able to influence policies and helped to develop training. WIN co-developed a menopause policy and menopause training, and the Working Families and Carers ERG have had input into updating our flexible working policy.
“A lot of our e-learning has had input from the ERGs including disability inclusion, menopause and LGBTQ+ awareness. We have developed a lot of DE&I training, both e-learning and workshops, and next step is to include inclusive leadership training to the organisation.
“In specific initiatives, an option to include our pronouns on email signatures has been rolled out and many people have chosen to adopt it. We have also embraced the #mynameis initiative. This is very helpful in assisting us in being respectful of people’s given names by allowing people to phonetically spell their name and make it easier to pronounce. To help support our overseas nurses, we are rolling out cultivating cultural intelligence workshops.
“We are currently working on a campaign to encourage our colleagues to input their diversity information so we have a better picture of our staff demographics. This understanding, based on people’s protected characteristic, can allow us to establish any disproportionate effects groups of people may be experiencing – either positively or negatively. That understanding, for example, if a group of people are particularly affected by policies or processes, then we are better able to understand and address it. That goes to developing a more inclusive workplace for us all.
“We are undertaking this region by region, and with 8,000 people across our organisation, we hope that as many colleagues as possible have the opportunity to input into the process.
“Of great importance to us is anti-racism. We want to be a visible anti-racist organisation and that is an on-going priority. We are developing resources to support our staff who are from ethnic minorities.
“This is an important area of focus for us for many reasons. Sadly a lot of our staff experience racism from patients and service users. We’re trying to establish a framework to look at how that can be addressed. We are looking closely at how racist behaviour in patients, both who have, and those who lack capacity, can be addressed, which interventions would be best and what support staff need when they experience this.
“We’re developing a video series to demonstrate people’s experiences of racism and how it impacts them personally. It will also explore what the role other people can play as being an active bystander and an ally.
“We have made a huge amount of progress over the course of the last 18 months, but there remains much to do. The enthusiasm and support diversity, equity and inclusion has had across Elysium and how warmly it has been embraced is hugely encouraging for the future.”