You are viewing 1 of your 1 free articles
Time for some self-scrutiny on diversity
As we publish the results of Inside Housing’s first ever diversity audit of our coverage, Martin Hilditch explains the thinking behind the project
Inside Housing’s Inclusive Futures campaign aims to promote diversity and inclusion among housing’s leadership teams
When Inside Housing launched the Inclusive Futures campaign in January this year, we made a pledge that we wouldn’t just be scrutinising diversity in the sector but our own actions, too.
In the campaign’s launch issue, our editor Emma Maier stated that Inside Housing has a responsibility not just to reflect the sector and its leadership, but to champion the breadth of diversity across the sector and the leaders of tomorrow.
In order to hold ourselves to account and guide our own thinking, we committed to publishing diversity audits of our coverage.
This week, it’s the moment of truth.
We’ve spent the past few weeks looking back over the entire year, scrutinising everything from who we quoted in articles and who wrote comment pieces for us, to every single picture and illustration we have used in print.
So what have we learned?
"We committed to publishing diversity audits of our coverage"
In terms of the cold, hard stats, there are mixed results.
If a reader flicked through the average issue of Inside Housing this year, 46% of the pictures would be of women, 54% would be of men and 16% of people from BME backgrounds.
If you read one of our long-form pieces then 44% of those quoted would be women, 56% men and at least 13% from BME backgrounds.
In print, there was a precise 50/50 gender split when it came to who writes comment pieces for us, although only 38% of our 393 opinion pieces online were written by women and 7% by people from BME backgrounds.
There are detailed breakdowns exploring the stats elsewhere, so check them out to get the full picture.
READ MORE
As a comparator, at senior levels in the housing sector women make up 39% of executives, and 4.5% of members of executive teams come from BME backgrounds, according to an Inside Housing survey earlier this year.
Those are the stats then, but where do they leave us? While the results are encouraging in some areas, clearly there is still room for improvement, such as when it comes to BME representation.
In truth, however, what the audit does is raise questions and flag additional areas for investigation. In fact this, perhaps, is the central point.
For the past few years I have been involved in judging the Excellence in Diversity Awards, and one thing that has been obvious from housing providers’ entries is that not everyone is good at measuring what they are doing.
Without a starting point, and open discussion, it is difficult for those testing questions to emerge and a journey to improving performance to begin.
How can organisations begin a process of challenge and improvement if they aren’t looking particularly hard in the first place?
There is work to do in terms of improving representation within Inside Housing.
The results will also prompt us to look in more detail at issues like who is pitching comment pieces to us, whether there are some subjects or patches in which our coverage is less balanced than others, and representation of LGBT and disabled people.
The audit has been an extremely useful and eye-opening exercise for Inside Housing – but it is just the starting point in making change happen. In six months’ time our next audit will reveal our progress.
Martin Hilditch, managing editor, Inside Housing
Click here to read the full findings from the Inside Housing Diversity Audit
The Inclusive Futures Summit
Inside Housing is launching the Inclusive Futures Summit
Our high-level summit will bring together respected people leaders and exemplars from the across sector and wider business to debate, discuss and learn how to embed diversity and inclusion in your organisations and harness the myriad benefits that this creates and to ensure that your workplace is reflective of the diverse communities you serve.
Themes being discussed include why being an inclusive organisation can help you be more successful, how to make inclusion visible in your organisation and the best approaches to encourage diversity at board level.
Discussions will also focus on how to future-proof your recruitment processes, promote inclusion through talent management, build working environments safe from prejudice and tackle unconscious bias.
The summit will take place on October 11 at the Emirates Old Trafford, Manchester.
Inclusive Futures
Inside Housing’s Inclusive Futures campaign aims to promote and celebrate diversity and inclusion.
We are pledging to publish diversity audits of our own coverage.
We are also committed to proactively promoting positive role models.
We will do this through the pages of Inside Housing. But we will also seek to support other publications and events organisations to be more inclusive.
Our Inclusive Futures Bureau will provide a database of speakers and commentators from all backgrounds, for use by all media organisations.
We are also challenging readers to take five clear steps to promote diversity, informed by the Chartered Institute of Housing’s diversity commission and the Leadership 2025 project.
THE CASE FOR CHANGE
34%
of housing association chief executives are female
1%
of housing association executives have a disability
1.6%
of housing association board members are LGBT
Women make up 46% of the UK workforce, but Inside Housing research found that they are under-represented on housing association boards (36%), executive teams (39%) and among chief executives (34%).
Almost a fifth of working-age adults have a disability (18%), yet associations reported only 1% of executives and 4.5% of board members with a disability. Many were unable to provide details.
Nationwide, 14% of the working-age population come from a BME background, climbing to 40% in London and Birmingham. Yet our research found that 6.8% of board members identified as BME, compared with 4.5% of executives.
Statistics on representation of LGBT people in the workforce are in short supply, but official statistics suggest that 2% of the total UK population identify as lesbian, gay or bisexual, rising to 4.1% for 16 to 24-year-olds. Our survey found that 1.6% of board members and 10 executives were LGBT – but most organisations were unable to provide figures.
THE INCLUSIVE FUTURES CHALLENGE
Inside Housing calls on organisations to sign up to an inclusive future by taking five steps:
Prioritise diversity and inclusion at the top: commitment and persistence from chief executives, directors and chairs in setting goals and monitoring progress.
Collect data on the diversity of your board, leadership and total workforce and publish annually with your annual report. Consider gender, ethnicity, disability, sexuality, age, and representation of tenants on the board.
Set aspirational targets for recruitment to the executive team, board and committees from under-represented groups.
Challenge recruiting staff and agencies to ensure that all shortlists include candidates from under-represented groups.
Make diversity and inclusion a core theme in your talent management strategy to ensure you support people from under-represented groups to progress their careers.
A LIST OF USEFUL READING MATERIAL/RESOURCES ON DIVERSITY
Leading Diversity by 2020: CIH presidential commission report, blogs and challenges: www.cih.org/leadingdiversityby2020
Leadership 2025: leadership development programme for senior leaders from BME backgrounds www.leadership2025.co.uk
How to get ethnic minority employment data, Department for Work and Pensions www.gov.uk/guidance/how-to-get-ethnic-minority-employment-data
Race in the workplace: The McGregor-Smith Review gov.uk/government/publications/race-in-the-workplace
Women in the workforce: Business in the Community factsheet: gender.bitc.org.uk/all-resources/factsheets/women-and-work-facts#
Diversity and Inclusion, NHS Employers www.nhsemployers.org/your-workforce/plan/building-a-diverse-workforce
Building diversity in senior leadership: Civil Service civilservice.blog.gov.uk/2017/06/13/
Building a truly inclusive organisation: HR Magazine www.hrmagazine.co.uk/article-details/building-a-truly-inclusive-organisation
Futures Forum futuresforum.org/community
Diverse Futures diversefutures.org.uk/
INSIDE HOUSING’S PLEDGES
We will take proactive steps to promote positive role models from under-represented groups and provide information to support change.
We pledge to:
Publish diversity audits: We will audit the diversity of the commentators we feature. We will formalise this process and publish the results for future audits twice a year.
Promote role models: We will work to highlight leading lights from specific under-represented groups, starting in early 2018 with our new BME Leaders List.
Launch Inclusive Futures Bureau: We will work with the sector to compile a database of speakers, commentators and experts from under-represented groups. The bureau will be available to events organisers, media outlets and publications to support them to better represent the talent in the sector.
Take forward the Women in Housing Awards: Inside Housing has taken on these successful awards and will work to grow and develop them.
Convene Inclusive Futures Summit: Our new high-level event will support organisations to develop and implement strategies to become more diverse and inclusive.
