When creating an EDI strategy, data is crucial. If you don’t know information such as the demographics of your staff, your retention levels, or how employees feel about working with you, then you’ll be trying to make changes in the dark. When it comes to inclusion, you need to know where you are to figure out how to get to where you want to be.

However, it is easy to get bogged down in the numbers and assume that equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI) can function like an equation: if we do X for Y number of months, then Z will happen. Unfortunately, things are not always this logical, for the simple reason that EDI inclusion initiatives at their core are intended to deal with people.

This means that in addition to making sure you have concrete data in place to inform your initial decisions, you need to be building and maintaining productive two-way relationships with your employees. You should not only be speaking to them about their thoughts and suggestions, but actively listening as well – and, ideally, acting on what they tell you.

There are a number of ways to start being EDI inclusive and building these all-important relationships with your staff, including:

• Encouraging networking groups for people with shared experiences or characteristics (e.g. an LGBTQ+ committee), and making sure to engage with them on a regular basis.
  
  Some organisations find that having a member from management and/or senior leadership directly involved or even spearheading groups like these can be helpful in ensuring that concerns and suggestions are taken seriously; but this will depend on your individual company culture and size.
  
  
• Establishing a variety of feedback processes to measure the impact of any changes you make and gain regular insights into the opinions and wellbeing of your staff. For example, you might do annual staff surveys, all-hands meetings with topics or questions agreed ahead of time, or more frequent pulse surveys.
  
  
• Setting up opportunities for socialising with colleagues, if you don’t have these in place already, to help people feel more at ease and to encourage them to create new relationships with people they may not have interacted with before. These could include a regular social event after work, clubs based around hobbies (e.g. a book club or a sport), or coffee mornings.

Here at Diversiti UK, we understand that tackling EDI inclusion challenges will look different for every organisation, so we offer a range of training that can be tailored to your specific needs. Take a look at the topics we cover here: