As employees, you are asked to have an EDI objective in your PDR each year.  Essentially this is to help create fairer, more inclusive, and equitable working practices for all and move away from the notion that EDI is only practised by a few, well-intentioned individuals, to a place where ‘EDI is everybody’s business.’

The context for the EDI PDR Objectives

All employees must work within the parameters of UK Law.  In this instance, it is specifically the Equality Act (2010) and the Public Sector Equality Duty (PSED). The Duty requires all public bodies to proactively take steps to:

• Foster and promote good relations between those with protected characteristics and those who do not
• Eliminate discrimination, victimisation, and harassment
• Advance equality of opportunity between groups of people of diverse backgrounds and with diverse needs.

Loughborough University’s ‘Creating Better Futures. Together’ Strategy

Our University Strategy states: “We will prioritise activities that identify and remove systemic inequities, associated with protected characteristics and marginalised groups, as well as promote and progress equity and inclusion.”

Therefore, to make a conscious effort to ensure the above is at the forefront of planning and decision making we are asking for all colleagues to put EDI at the forefront of their day-to-day activities. By everyone having an EDI objective we stand a much greater chance of achieving the above ambitions.

Setting your EDI Objective

To set your EDI Objective, or to help team members set theirs, it helps some people to think about areas where protected and marginalised groups/individuals are either not thriving, succeeding, or represented in your area of work, for example. You may know this from individual disclosures of discontent, staff and student survey results or not being able to attract and retain diverse people/groups in your team/teams.  Once you have identified an area where EDI input is required, you are now ready to think about what you would like to achieve with respect to that area of work. Below are three real-life work examples to illustrate this point.

Example 1. A number of students have complained that you as their lecturer do not intervene when other students make jokes about groups from protected and marginalised backgrounds. You also do not enquire why people from these groups are not happy taking part in certain activities, namely ones with the ‘name callers’.  In the email to you, the students said they were confused as they had heard you state that “this is an inclusive institution where discrimination will not be tolerated.” You secretly acknowledge the students’ complaints are valid but often do not feel equipped to intervene. What objective can address this for the lecturer?

Example 2. A senior manager who frequently chairs interviews for grade 8 and 9 posts. A panel member stated Black candidates were overly scrutinised in an interview and judged on criteria that were not in the person specification. They reported this to the person in charge of recruitment in HR. When the senior manager and HR reviewed their recruitment data, it showed Black candidates at this level seldom made it past the interview stage and on the rare occasion they were offered the post they declined. The HR person agreed to investigate this practice. What objective can address this for the senior manager?

Example 3. A manager sent out an anonymous annual questionnaire for team members to complete regarding the extent to which they felt they could bring their true selves to work, in terms of the food they ate, the way they spoke, the clothes they wore and how able they were to admit to making mistakes. When the results came back and management analysed the data, it showed a significant number of people commented they did not feel they could bring their true selves to work due to their religious practices never being acknowledged, their hidden disabilities, being attributed to people ‘milking the system’ and comments such as, why can’t we have a straight Pride Month. What objective can address this for the management team?

Choosing your EDI Objectives

When you have identified areas where groups such as the above are not for whatever reason (reasons can be multi-varied and complex) thriving, succeeding or represented then you can decide what you want to achieve or change. The change will form the basis of your PDR Objective.

Below are examples of objectives you could set to address similar issues in your own practice.

Objective 1 – To improve my skill and confidence to challenge inappropriate behaviours in a teaching setting over the next 12 months.

Actions to ensure this objective is successful:

• Learn more about Bystander Intervention to understand how and when it is safe to intervene with discriminatory behaviours
• Have conversations about the bystander role and discriminatory behaviours with your team. Listen to how others have intervened in similar situations
• Attend the Inclusive Practitioner training and discuss and reflect on learning with your team
• Regularly remind yourself of this objective
• Ask your students if they feel your practices are fair and inclusive.

Objective 2 – All Interview panellists including the hiring/senior manager to undertake biases training and read discriminatory material relevant to recruitment processes before they sit on a grade 8 &9 recruitment panel.

Actions to ensure this objective is successful.

• Ensure all panellists have undergone HR recruitment training
• Make sure all panellists are educated about the ways anti-blackness presents in the hiring process and attend unconscious bias awareness training
• Complete the Belonging and Inclusion online resource
• Capture feedback, especially from Black candidates after the interview process to determine their perception of the process
• Regularly review recruitment data including offers to Black candidates and acceptance from Black candidates.

Objective 3 – To improve cultural competence and diversity awareness knowledge, as it relates to creating more diverse and inclusive work cultures and spaces by the next annual questionnaire.

Actions to ensure this objective is successful:

• For the manager and staff to complete anti-discriminatory Belonging and Inclusion online training
• Offer the manager and staff the opportunity to attend relevant Learning and Development workshops such as Disability Confidence
• The manager should provide colleagues with opportunities to discuss how valued they feel
• The manager should attend and allow staff to attend EDI events (advertised in University-wide communications) during work hours
• Consider hosting cultural awareness days
• Invite all managers in the Department to go on the Inclusive manager training session
• To find time to discuss questionnaire results with colleagues and decide on the next course of action with colleagues.

Summary

This blog has focused on the following to help ensure Loughborough University colleagues act in equitable ways, embrace and celebrate diversity, whilst creating an environment where people from diverse backgrounds are successful and represented in all aspects and areas of the University:

• Reason for setting EDI objectives
• The Equality Act (2010)
• The University Strategy
• Identifying objective areas
• How to set objectives
• Actions to take to ensure success

Appendix 1: Glossary of terms

Objectives – Something you plan to achieve
Equality Act – Anti-discriminatory legislation
Public Sector Duty – Makes sure public authorities and organisations promote equality in every aspect of their day-to-day business.
Systemic – Relates to a system eg that behaviour only exists because the system allows and upholds it.
Protected Groups – Groups that the law says it is unlawful to discriminate against.
Inequities – Lack of fairness or injustice.
Marginalised groups – Groups that experience discrimination and exclusion.

Appendix 2: Additional anti-discriminatory Resources