Everyone Economy: Everyone Economy:

It stresses that unless UK employers “raise their game”, the public will pay the price in terms of lost growth, productivity, innovation and quality of public services.

Ann Francke CEO of CMI says: “The report is a wake up call for companies to drive change and invest deeply in all aspects of diversity, equality, and inclusion. A lack of diversity in leadership will only hamper business and public services. We need all employers and the government to step up and accelerate the pace of change, especially as growth is faltering and thousands of employers see skills shortages.”

The CMI revealed that potential gains of a full-participation economy are huge. But, importantly, it stresses that organisations are wasting talent, just when they need it most. The Everyone Economy research examined just how inclusive UK workplaces are by looking at manager and employee perceptions of inclusivity, and how these are linked to organisational behaviours.

A briefing paper submitted by CMI’s Head of Policy and Innovation, Daisy Hooper, revealed that over half (52%) of respondents had at some point in their career been overlooked for a workplace opportunity because of their identity.

Daisy will be taking part in the Flexible and Hybrid Working Panel Discussion at the Hr NETWORK Conference on 11 May at BT Murrayfield, revealing some of the findings from the Everyone Economy report.

For HR, the CMI stresses that flexible and hybrid working must be a “default work policy” while reducing the list of reasons for rejecting flexible working requests. Furthermore, the report identifies the pandemic as proving that it’s possible for employers to adapt to flexible working.

Although managers overwhelmingly see their organisation as inclusive, very few can point to specific actions that deliver an inclusive workplace. For example, there is a lack of data collection - which is critical for transparency and uncovering barriers to inclusion, the report found.

Importantly, an inclusive world of work where all employees can thrive is not just the responsibility of Diversity and Inclusion experts or HR professionals; it requires a proactive and conscious effort from everyone, the CMI recommends.

The Everyone Economy outlines actions that managers and HR leaders can take and it centres around five themes: addressing assumptions and building awareness; gathering meaningful data and insight, identifying and attracting talent and realising people’s full potential. These are seen as everyday actions to build an ‘Everyone Organisation’.

Prof David Grayson CBE, and Chair of the Institute of Business Ethics, says: “Organisations need to make the most of diversity and become genuinely inclusive. They must ask themselves what they need to do to maximise the talent available to them. This is not just the ethical thing to do, it is the smart thing to do.”

CMI analysis found that to achieve balance in the UK working population, employers should have 560,000 more female managers, 420,000 more managers from lower socioeconomic backgrounds, 290,000 more disabled managers and 100,000 from diverse ethnic backgrounds.

In Scotland, productivity has outperformed all UK regions between 1999 to 2019, but its productivity growth has slowed in recent years, still below the national average and the median in OECD countries.

Scotland’s National Strategy for Economic Transformation (NSET) sets out the country’s priorities for economic growth and development: boosting productivity, addressing regional inequalities, developing a workforce with a diverse skill set, and improving infrastructure to make a successful transition to a greener economy.

To close this productivity gap and make the NSET a success, Scotland needs to make sure it is utilising all the talent and perspectives in the workforce, the CMI highlighted.

Last year, the CMI held an event in Edinburgh to raise awareness of the Everyone Economy and learn more about how to overcome barriers to inclusion in the context of Scotland.

On a broader level, the CMI believes that equality, diversity and inclusion is not just “a nice to have”, and employers should not treat this as a “tick box” exercise. The Everyone Economy highlights a solid body of evidence outlining the clear business benefits such as improved profitability, innovation and productivity.

Adam Marshall, CMI Senior Advisor, summed up by saying: “The report is a call to action for businesses that simply cannot be ignored. The gap between what we say and what we do in making the most of the UK’s diverse talent is still far too large. CMI has set out a route map that any company or organisation, whatever its size, can follow. Those that do will reap the benefits of better decision-making, higher productivity and a stronger future.”

CMI research shows that organisations who invest in management and leadership development programmes see on average a 23% increase in organisational performance, and a 32% increase in people performance.

The Chartered Management Institute (CMI) is the only organisation that can award Chartered Manager status, the highest accolade for managers and leaders. For 75 years, they have inspired modern managers to become successful, confident leaders.

Everyone-Strong

• Wake up call for companies to drive change and invest deeply in all aspects of diversity, equality and inclusion.

• The potential gains of a full-participation economy are huge.

• CMI stresses that flexible and hybrid working must be a “default work policy”

• Scottish productivity outperformed all UK regions between 1999 to 2019, but growth has slowed.

• Scotland needs to make sure it utilises all the talent and perspectives in the workforce.

• The clear business benefits are improved profitability, innovation and productivity.