Let’s talk about D&I – March 2021 (with André Flemmings)

Setting the Scene

I support clients across legal, financial and professional services, recruiting HR and D&I professionals.

Alongside our traditional recruitment services here at The Stephen James Partnership we also have our own Diversity Initiatives Black Interns Matter (BIM)and Black Vacation Scheme (BVS), which are spearheaded by our founder Sam Clague.

With that in mind I wanted to look at how I could broaden the value I add to my network. The most obvious way is to share some of the conversations I have daily, talking about D&I from many perspectives - sharing views, raising questions and speaking with experts and passionate individuals in the field.

An Introduction to André Flemmings

Andre is a D&I specialist with a decade of experience, trying to make D&I less intellectual and more instinctual for businesses. He mentors and supports individuals, helping them to thrive and make more informed behavioural and career choices.

Most recently, André has acted as a consultant to a major city law firm and FTSE 250 company on their wider D&I strategies and approaches whilst continuing his trustee role with the Bridge Group, Advisory Board membership of the Sutton Trust Pathways programmes, and being an Opinion Leader on equality and inclusion for People in Law.

With a background in financial communications, André started focusing on D&I 10 years ago. Initially, his focus was on early careers, mentoring young people from underrepresented backgrounds into investment banking and strategy consulting roles. Having been part of the team that devised the leading Contextual Recruitment System at diversity specialists, Rare, he moved into in-house roles at Deutsche Bank before moving into commercial law at Linklaters as a global D&I specialist focusing on Recruitment and Resourcing. 

Over time André has become more involved in inclusion work. “You cannot be a D&I specialist in recruitment without having a particular interest in where candidates come from and going to. He has always been interested both in organisations consolidating their diversity ‘gains’ and making the most of the diversity of thought that the new perspectives bring. His dual approach is to help leaders to better manage difference, support new recruits and to inspire change rather than cope in the existing culture. As a result he has been involved in data collection efforts, led research projects, policy drafting, development programme design, and awareness campaigns (see Making Links). André has also collaborated with other functions to create structured support programmes, evolve employer brands and communication strategies, analyse pay and performance metrics, get the most out of employee resource groups, and improve governance structures to strengthen accountability. 

Why is D&I important to you?

"Now more than ever as we emerge from a global pandemic, leave the relative safety of a major trading block, and potentially enter a period of significant social, environmental and climatic upheaval, there is an urgent need to harness the energy, dynamism, and ingenuity of all employees. Only in this way will we be able to reshape our relationships globally, create new markets, products and ways of doing things, and grow businesses.

Many of the old and established ways of doing things are no longer sustainable or fit for purpose given the realities we now face and better D&I can contribute to increasing the likelihood of surviving those disruptions, whilst reducing risk.

A good understanding and application of D&I principles is important for individuals as much as for institutions. At its core it is about improving relationships and behaving more inclusively and mindfully. This can be achieved through greater mutual understanding, respect, and self-reflection and discovery. Some of that relies on individual social skill, emotional dexterity and curiosity about the world, but a lot also relies on operating in a culture and using systems that encourage greater connectivity, empathetic behaviour, continuous learning (and greater tolerance for mistake-making which is an integral part of the learning process). 

Historically a lot of professional services has not needed to address either aspect particularly seriously in order to remain commercially successful and attract the best talent. As dynamics change globally, this continued success cannot be guaranteed. I am committed to helping all people including leadership be more inquisitive about other people, be willing to make mistakes and learn from them, have more honest conversations, and not just be the best they can be, but make it their business to support those around them to be the same."

"Lots of reports show the impact of proper D&I on organisations’ economic performance, but the degree of effort required to achieve and maintain it is significant." - André Flemmings

A recent article by Korn Ferry highlighted than ethnically diverse executive teams are 70% more likely to capture new markets than their less-diverse peers and generate 38% more in revenue from innovative products and services

Why should the employee experience be part any D&I strategy?

"Until very recently, how people feel has not really been a concern for a lot of professional services firms. In actual fact, the need to address people’s feelings and offer emotional support in the workplace has always been an important issue – especially one in which the intellectual and mental capacity of its workforce is the asset. The pandemic has uncovered underinvestment in this area, and sharpened minds but there is more employers can do by examining their employee experience as a whole – particularly through the lens of diversity. In most cases mere compliance with law does not constitute employee satisfaction.

Understanding the employee journey and experience is central to embedding meaningful change. As a former graduate recruiter, having mentored young people from underrepresented backgrounds in the UK and abroad, and having come from a socially mobile background myself, I am perhaps more attuned to the importance of clarity, psychological safety, and emotional support for individuals coming into organisations than most. In many respects, these individuals are encountering strange processes for the time, and are being confronted by different expectations and challenged by new ways of working in unfamiliar cultures. Whether looking at recruitment or the inclusion challenge, these factors remain the same, and vital to bridge. How leaders and those in positions of power and influence choose to act can have a significant impact on the progression, performance and retention of all staff and especially those from underrepresented backgrounds.

It is for this reason that I think cultural and social dexterity is so key within organisations. This is because recognising the different ways talent can be expressed, and learning how to encourage and nurture it is a skill that ought to be taught rather than assumed based on intellectual ability or professional nous."

How has your role grown over the years?

"I have introduced initiatives that address all aspects of diversity, health and well-being that have had tangible impacts on recruitment, engagement and retention metrics. Whilst I have particular experiences in race and ethnicity, gender and social mobility, I have worked across all strands of diversity with an additional overlay of international and cultural understanding, having worked in global roles. I am hot on data collection and interpretation, having been a member of the team that helped to develop Contextual Recruitment tools. As a trustee of the social equality charity, the Bridge Group and independent advisory board member of the Bridge Group, intersectionality, collaboration, and promoting better data and governance approaches are mainstays of my approach.

Having been a D&I specialist that works directly within functions, I am both strategic and deeply practical. Whilst I appreciate fairness and responsible business arguments resonate to some at particular levels, I also recognise that those implementing strategy require more tangible support and direction. My data-driven and highly practical approach means I take individuals and organisations as they are and nudge them along the path towards being more inclusive day-to-day. No one wants or has the time for more work so the intention is for D&I to be integral rather than supplemental."

What is your background?

"I am a second of three boys to my single-parent mother who was a midwife. She emigrated from Jamaica to complete her nursing and midwifery training and join her parents who were part of the Windrush Generation.

I grew up on a council estate in South London and attended a pretty normal state primary (albeit in retrospect in one of the most diverse classes ever - religiously, socially, ethnically, gender and disability-wise). 

My education then changed as I secured both a scholarship and bursary to a local independent school. My education then became middle class relative to my social outlook and economic means still remaining very much working class. At school, School Captain (one of their first black ones, I believe), I set up a peer guilt at the sacrifices my family were making to keep me there as much as ability helped me to excel in sports, music and academics. In my final year, in which I was appointed mentoring scheme to help new pupils find their feet quicker, help prefects be more empathetic when doing their duties. It was my legacy and something that is now an integral part of the school’s pastoral system even now.

I read German and Philosophy at Brasenose College, Oxford, and spent my spare time playing sport and being the Business Manager of an all-male a cappella group called Out of the Blue. It was a lot of fun as we arranged tours to the US, sang to dignitaries, made TV appearances and sold out at the Edinburgh Fringe in our first year there.

 I currently live in Essex with my partner and our two children aged 1 and 5."

What is the biggest impact or impacts you have made?

""I think some of the biggest impacts have been with individuals but from a company-wide perspective they have been to link D&I more closely to company strategy, and to translate strategy into what it means for everyday behaviour.

I have introduced policies around informal work experience from a risk and responsible business perspective, supported the design of specific diversity talent programmes that also include line manager elements, made incremental changes to application, selection, onboarding and early career support mechanisms to improve talent retention. I have also helped one organisation to map its employer journey from a data perspective to help it to make better use of all its management data. Finally, a lot of the incremental changes I have made or influenced in processes have contributed to five-fold increases in both socially mobile and black heritage candidate hiring, as well as significant increases in retention rates of underrepresented group members. 

I think my proudest achievements still remain helping several students make it into Oxbridge as a mentor on the Target Oxbridge programme. Equally, seeing candidates from my various programmes or who I have helped to mentor lead change in their organisations has also been really gratifying. At Rare we used to expect every candidate to pay it forward, so in that respect I feel gratified to know that my passing on my privilege has contributed in some small part to others doing the same.

"Personally, my motivation has always been to plant trees under whose shade I know I may not sit. It was an adage I used in my application to uni and it still drives me today." - André Flemmings

From your work - what are your hopes and vision of the future landscape in Law and Financial Services?

""D&I much like Corporate Social Responsibility can often be treated as a collection of ever-positive, very PR-able programmes and initiatives that show that the organisation is not all about profit. That view (thankfully) is changing.

Competition and disruption is making both sectors much more mindful about their people. Law and financial services are already experiencing significant disruption from technology, climate change, more interventionist governments and regulators, changes in generational expectations, and the impact of the pandemic.. The need to be excellent, flexible AND responsible has become less esoteric and intellectual, and much more practical and existential . The more progressive firms have realised that D&I is a strategic issue is not just a PR, CSR and even HR matter. In truth, it is all these things and more: what the business is, how it does business, and why. 

Clients, regulators and prospective talent are beginning to ask more searching questions of companies and I have seen more collaboration across functions and between firms - whether in their sector or along the supply chain. Improvements in data collection and the convergence of ESG (Environmental Social and Governance) reporting principles have led to the professionalisation of D&I. It is much less of a field for well-intentioned action, and has instead become much more of a discipline and home for commercially and data-driven action that assesses measurable outcomes and incentivises certain desired behaviours. Concepts such as Social Impact, everyday inclusion, candidate experience, feedback, company purpose and working culture all feed into this and I am looking forward to firms being more purposeful in their action, clear and honest in their intent, and socially and environmentally responsible in their behaviour."

Please do comment any thoughts or views - if you would like to know more about anything mentioned or reach out to have a conversation, you can contact me at - [email protected]

A big thankyou to André for putting this together as there are some really interesting insights into how D&I is a data driven function and is in the DNA of any successful business and not a just a compliance exercise!

Being compliant regarding D&I means you don't get sued - it does not mean you actually include! - Atif Choudhary