How does your DEI strategy stack up?

Chris Allan - Founder of Your D+I

We catch up with Chris Allan, openly gay Founder and Director of Your D+I, looking to help organisations improve their diversity and inclusion strategy. 

What do you think most companies are still getting wrong when it comes to their DEI strategy?

Ownership. I think a lot of companies still use D+I as a buzz term or as a way of gaining likes and followers. You need someone within the business actively driving real change and action, and ideally that person needs to sit quite senior in the business.

But you also have to ensure that it is not just left to just one person. Create a D+I resource group that can be held accountable with the help of the SLT to make your strategy a reality. And set a range of realistic objectives over both the long and short term . More often than not, we see companies setting 5-year objectives. Then there are changes in the business that move priorities and those longer terms objectives fall to the wayside.

Tell us a little about the journey to starting your own agency, and what drove this.

14 years ago I was fired for being gay, which had a significant impact on my career. I went back in the closet when it came to future roles until I secured a job at a university where it was more accepting. During my time there I worked on supporting businesses on how to support students from underrepresented groups through internship and graduate recruitment.

With a lot of companies, there can be a lot of red tape in the way which can stunt progression so I made the decision to leave. I joined a D+I consultancy, however it was short lived due to Covid. During my time throughout the pandemic, I decided to start a business that was led with lived experience and speaks to people in a way they will understand and really get. So in September 2020, Your D+I was formed!

It’s Pride month in the UK, what is your sage advice to companies trying to get into the Pride spirit?

Be authentic. If you can't back it up then, honestly, perhaps don't change your logo to the pride flag.

Use the time to learn how to better support your LGBT+ colleagues and if you don't have any then use the time to look at how you can attract diverse candidates and how you can make your policies more inclusive.

Of course, sexual preference and gender identity are only a part of a holistic DEI strategy – where else should businesses focus on to ensure their efforts aren’t seen as “xxxx-washing”?

Race and disability for sure. It is great to see we are having better conversations about this but more still needs to be done. Most boards and C suites lack racial diversity through lack of progression, so take the time to start to look at how we can change this. We still see time and time again companies saying how inclusive they are on social media but won't use Camel Case on their hashtags or Alt text for their image descriptions. These are really small but impactful things that can show support to people with disabilities.