Luxury retailer Brown Thomas Arnotts, global insurance firm Aon, and Laya Healthcare are amongst the latest companies to receive accreditation from the Irish Centre for Diversity for their commitment to equality, diversity and inclusion in the workplace.
Based in Waterford, The Irish Centre for Diversity aims to improve diversity, inclusion and equality within organisations throughout Ireland.
In 2019, the centre launched the ‘Investors in Diversity Ireland’ initiative, Ireland’s first and only all-encompassing equality, diversity and inclusion mark.
Companies that join the initiative are provided with a framework that offers tools to measure and improve their diversity and inclusion (D&I) policies and practices, whilst also recognising their efforts through accreditation at Bronze, Silver and Gold levels.
In a press release today, the centre announced acreditation for several Irish companies.
Brown Thomas Arnotts received Bronze accreditation in recent weeks, having successfully demonstrated it has effective D&I policies in place; effectively communicates these policies to all staff; and provides D&I training for all company leaders.
Donald McDonald, Managing Director of Brown Thomas Arnotts expressed his pride in receiving the accreditation from the Irish Centre for Diversity.
"We pride ourselves on being an inclusive and dynamic workplace. We know that – by embracing different perspectives, welcoming different voices, and leveraging our collective strengths – we will become the best workplace we can be.”
Meanwhile, Laya Healthcare and Aon have been awarded Silver accreditation, which – on top of the requirements for the Bronze level – involves a staff-wide survey to measure the culture and embedding of best-practice D&I measures in the workplace.
Brown Thomas Arnotts, Laya Healthcare and Aon are joined by the likes of AIB, Matheson, Bank of Ireland, Enterprise Ireland, Pramerica, Irish Rail, the HSE and Three as participants in the ‘Investors in Diversity Ireland’ initiative.
Caroline Tyler is the Director of the Irish Centre for Diversity based in Waterford.
“We launched ‘Investors in Diversity Ireland’ in 2019, and we now have companies across a wide range of industries participating in the initiative, with demand from interested organisations growing month by month.
"Participants range from well-known consumer brands to state agencies, and from SMEs to global firms.
“They are all at different levels of their D&I journey.
"Some are just starting out, and are working towards achieving our Bronze accreditation, while others have deeply embedded and effective D&I strategies in place, and are working with us to measure the effectiveness of those strategies, and to truly embed D&I within their business.
"Laya Healthcare was one of our first corporate partners, for example, and has worked with us in a very proactive way over the past 18 months.
"In addition to advancing diversity and inclusion in their own organisation they are also offering our diversity and inclusion training to their corporate clients", Tyler added.
Tyler explains that 2020 has been an interesting year for the Centre, facing the Covid-19 pandemic as well as the growing prominence of the Black Lives Matter movement across the world.
“2020 has been a particularly interesting year for our work. It has been good to see that, even in the face of Covid-19, companies are continuing to devote time and resources to ensuring they promote and embed diversity and inclusion.
" These global trends are, of course, impacting on Irish workplaces – employers are increasingly conscious of the need to meaningfully embed D&I in their organisations.
"Companies are being held accountable by their staff; they are asking the question, ‘What are we doing to ensure fairness for all in our organisation?’.
"Embedding best-practice D&I policies and actions is not just the right thing to do; it’s also expected by customers, suppliers and employees.”
The month of September is Diversity month on Beat. Both on-air and online we look to shine a spotlight on diversity in Ireland. If you would like to get invloved in Diversity month, see here.
