Celebrating Inclusion - Work Better Together
Watch This Sp_ce
We guide you on your inclusion journey. Inclusive teams work better together for happiness, ideas, and creativity.
It's National Inclusion Week! So for this week's newsletter, we want to help you celebrate inclusion in your own workplace.
In this week's newsletter we'll be taking a look at:
?? The importance of celebrating your journey
?? Making celebrations inclusive
?? Top tips - how to celebrate inclusion
?? Inclusion insights - learnings from the latest news
The Inclusion Journey on tour
We're going on tour! And there's still tickets left for our London book launch event at the Canal Museum.... don't miss your chance!
Hear from our Co-Creators at Watch This Sp_ce themselves, and get the chance to network with like-minded professionals!
The Inclusion Journey is your practical guide to developing, implementing and measuring an inclusion strategy. We are so thrilled by the reception that it's received in its first few weeks on sale, and we can't wait to take it on the road to meet you all.
In our book launch events we'll talk you through where to start with diversity and inclusion, and how to build your own route map. Plus there will be exciting guest speakers at each event.
Tickets are selling fast, but you can still join us at:
See you there?
The importance of celebrating your journey
Did you know that employees who are recognised for their work are 3.7 times more likely to be engaged in their roles, and almost half as likely to experience burnout compared to those who aren't recognised for their work?
This is because showing your employees that you appreciate them and their work will encourage them to move forward, stay motivated, and continue working on the company's inclusion efforts. This is a major stage in the inclusion journey that many people miss out, and we're here to remind you why it's one of the most important! If you're a leader of a company or organisation, think to yourself... how would someone celebrating your efforts make you feel? Wouldn't it make you want to work harder and isn't this something you want for your employees?
Making celebrations inclusive
When thinking about how you're going to celebrate the company's inclusion efforts and the progress your team has made so far, you need to make sure the ways in which you are celebrating are inclusive of everyone. Everyone has different preferences on how they like to celebrate, and by considering different needs you are actively progressing things like allyship in the workplace. After all, it would be a poor celebration of inclusion that left some people out!
If you want to understand more on creating a culture of support and respect in the workplace, then look no further... one of our advanced courses that we offer at Watch This Sp_ce is 'Allyship in the Workplace'. If you're wanting to celebrate inclusion efforts, we're assuming you've already got the basics nailed down, so this course is for those who are a little further along in their journey. This training looks at what allyship is, how to a be powerful ally to challenge discrimination, and how individuals and organisations can drive change. Click the link below for more information ??
Top tips - how to celebrate inclusion
So we've reminded you about the importance of celebrating inclusion efforts and showing appreciation for your all your employees' hard work, but we also want to give you some tips on how to go about doing this, and in the most sensitive way possible, to ensure everyone is kept happy....
Book a free workshop
If you're ready to get to grips with the basics when it comes to inclusion, and put solid foundations in place for your strategy, then book a FREE Inclusion Insights workshop with our team. In this 30-minute session, we'll explore your needs and aims for inclusion, how these relate to your overall business goals and your core values, and what the next steps are that will drive meaningful impact.
Email [email protected] to book.
Inclusion Insights
In each LinkedIn newsletter, we pick out a few of the top diversity and inclusion stories to have made the news recently, and assess what learnings can be taken from them.
If you'd like a shorter round-up of a wider variety of news headlines, you can subscribe to our email newsletter .
Teachers in England offered lie-ins to make job more appealing
Teachers in England are being offered two free periods off a week to allow them a lie-in , a nine-day fortnight, and more planning time at home to help with work-life balance. This comes after an escalating crisis in teacher recruitment and retention, meaning academy trusts are urging that teachers need more flexibility. A survey of more than 3,000 16-24-year-olds found that, although 73% regard teaching as a job with purpose, they also perceive it as stressful (42%) and poorly paid (36%) in a sector with inadequate funding (36%). Therefore, teaching work and pay conditions need to be rectified in order to make teaching a more attractive job for graduates.
What can you do differently?
Although this focuses on schools, we can see how this mirrored in any workplace. If you are a leader of a business or organisation, you need to be making sure you are providing the same flexibility and autonomy for your employees as those needed for teachers. With hybrid working on the rise, this is something worth considering for you and your employees. In some circumstances, this is a more difficult option, but the face to face contact in the office a few days a week combined with the convenience of working at home can be substantial for employee motivation and wellbeing. You could create a survey for your employees, asking them how they feel on working conditions and their mental wellbeing in the workplace. This can help you as a leader come up with new ideas for making sure your workers are comfortable and happy with their working environment.
The key learnings to take from this story are:
Deloitte UK equalises paid parenting leave
Deloitte UK has announced a new policy of 26 weeks' fully paid family leave for all its new parents, which will come into effect on 1 January 2025. This comes as new YouGov research, commissioned by Deloitte, shows that family leave is a crucial consideration for employees, with nine out of ten (87%) saying it is a major factor when choosing an employer and 85% saying it is key for staying put. Over half of working mothers (54%) say that if their partner had more parenting leave, it would help them to progress in their career. The Deloitte-commissioned research also revealed that 50% of working parents find it challenging to access information about paternity and maternity leave during the job-hunting process. This means they often end up in a job that doesn't offer equitable leave rights.
What can you do differently?
If you're a leader or manager of a company or organisation, it is vital that you implement equitable paid parenting leave in your workplace. As parenting roles rightfully equalise, the need for maternity and paternity leave to match up is increasingly important. The longer amount of time mothers are allowed to take off compared to the shorter amount fathers can take off has a negative impact on their co-parenting strategies. One ends up working more, the other has to reduce their hours, communication becomes more difficult, and everything becomes more stressful for the parents as well as their children. You need to be helping as much as possible with parents' ability to co-parent their children, and make a positive impact on their work-life balance. When advertising jobs and introducing new employees, make sure you inform them about your paid parenting leave before they sign the contract - this will give you a big advantage over competitors that the candidate may be considering!
The key learnings to take from this story are:
That's it from us for now! If you have any questions on your inclusion journey, you can always reach out to us at [email protected] .
Alternatively, you can head to our website https://www.watchthisspace.uk for information on information on everything we have to offer!
After reading this week's newsletter, we hope you understand the importance of celebrating key milestones in the workplace and the ways in which you can do this sensitively. For more information and if you forget, you can purchase our book 'The Inclusion Journey'!
The Inclusion Journey is out now!
Your practical guide to developing, implementing and measuring a workplace inclusion strategy that drives meaningful results and increases employee engagement.
"a game-changing book" - Tony Robinson
"jam-packed with practical tools and advice" - Nadia Finer
"I love how practical and easy to read this book is." - Matt Phelan
"a masterclass in transforming inclusion from an abstract ideal into actionable, quantifiable progress." - Dan Sodergren