I lead Equality, Diversity and Inclusion in my organisation and I often talk about the importance of co-production and engaging staff when setting organisational strategic objectives. If you want sustainability and buy in from stakeholders to change then it is vital that you involve those stakeholder who it directly affects, no matter how challenging.
There in lies the first barrier often encountered, that it is challenging to get staff to attend and show engagement in strategic planning and the strategic direction of the organisation. This is an issue of trust between employee and organisation and requires some ground work to build up that trust – however it is staff engagement activities like this that can help build that trust, albeit over time. In reality, what you do with the information gathered at these events is vital as it is this that builds trust, a demonstration of how you have used the information, ideas and suggestions from staff previously to make a positive impact on the organisation, staff and or customer.
Recently, I did just that and co-facilitated a morning workshop with over ninety NHS patients, service users, carers and staff with the purpose of setting the organisations equality, diversity and inclusion priorities for the next 12 months.
We invited a wide range of stakeholders from across the area including; patients, carers, service users, staff and partner organisations so that we could have conversations about what our equality, diversity and inclusion priorities should look like for the next year.
The event was an enormous success where patients, service users, carers and staff held topical and emotive discussions around the subject of equality, diversity and inclusion.
The room was divided into eight tables, four for staff and four for patients, service users and carers. Each and every idea was committed to post it notes before tables discussed in more depth the themes emerging from their conversations before narrowing down their ideas into three key themes, which they then fedback to the whole room.
This produced a wealth of information from our patients, service users, carers and staff which was collected and from it the organisation can produce a range of equality, diversity and inclusion priorities confident in the knowledge that these have not been produced in isolation. In doing so, we can ensure that our equality agenda is truly co-produced in collaboration with our primary stakeholders and that our key drivers for improvement are the experiences of our valued patients, service users, carers and staff.
Senior buy in is important for these events because it demonstrates their own commitment to equality, diversity and inclusion to stakeholders. The event was well supported by our board with the event opened by the Chair of the Board and closing remarks provided by our Chief Executive.
Our next step will be to analyse the key priorities identified and put together a coherent and robust strategy to deliver on these priorities over the coming 12 months as well as ensuring we communicate our progress over the year.
So, when considering setting equality actions for the year ahead, ensure you involve the primary stakeholders who will be impacted the most by your actions – they are the best guides as to whether what you are doing will have any positive and lasting impact.
JD
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