easyJet’s Moni Mannings shares her passion for fairness & Board diversity

WiHTL’s Founder & Chair Tea Colaianni talks to easyJet’s Independent Non-Executive Director Moni Mannings about the airline’s diversity initiatives, as well as the importance of board diversity ahead of the upcoming Festival of Inclusion.

QUESTION: What aspect of D&I are you most passionate about and why?

Moni Mannings: I am passionate about equality and fairness whether within society and within business or public organisations. My focus has been on race and gender. However, I tend not to look for the game changer or silver bullet. There are so many structural and historic inequalities baked into our familiar ways of doing things that, even with great intent, it can seem like an impossible task to level the playing field. As a result, people and organisations are often quickly disheartened or disillusioned by not having arrived at the desired destination quickly. Instead, I insist on taking each individual step, no matter how small – and keep going. There is no excuse not to do what little you can do, even if it doesn’t complete the whole journey or solve the whole problem in one go.

QUESTION: When and why does diversity improve a Board’s performance?

Moni Mannings: Having a diverse set of perspectives in any team, including a Board’s, means you will have the best opportunities to design innovative solutions, ensure your customer offerings reflect the breadth of different customer needs; as well as inspire people to want to be part of your business. Diversity can only thrive when an inclusive environment is created. As the famous saying goes: “Diversity is having a seat at the table, inclusion is having a voice, and belonging is having that voice be heard”.

QUESTION: How do you measure the positive impact that inclusive leadership has on your business and why is it important?

Moni Mannings: We complete functional engagement sessions across the business with our internal engagement measure for inclusion remaining consistently strong; and ensuring our people feel they can be themselves at easyJet. We’ve also been recognised in the UK Glassdoor Employees’ Choice Awards amongst the Best Places to Work; as well as winning Britain’s Most Admired Companies for Diversity and Inclusion in the Transport sector for two years running.

QUESTION: What learning have you personally gained through implementing D&I policies in your business?

Moni Mannings: Creating an open and inclusive culture where everyone can be themselves, speak up and bring their best to the business, not only results in higher productivity and performance, but creates an energising and engaging place to be. Our Orange Spirit at easyJet is renowned; our passion and determination not only brings excellence to our customers, but creates an invisible glue of belonging and sense of ‘in it together’.

QUESTION: What is easyJet’s vision for D&I in the near future?

Moni Mannings: Our Inclusion and Wellbeing Strategy has five pillars of focus:

• Developing Leaders – who care about the importance of the inclusion and wellness of our people, and understand that how people feel at work is the biggest predictor of performance.
• Creating Firm Foundations – data-led design of best practice, policy and process; and embedding a passion for inclusion and wellness at easyJet.
• Open and Honest Communication – engaging campaigns and supporting materials; designed utilising feedback from our listening channels; articulating what we mean by inclusion and wellness at easyJet, and creating a safe space and open culture that we all can learn from together.
• Increase confidence and capability – we upskill our people to instigate cultural change, creating an employee sense of belonging, an environment of inclusion and of supporting wellness needs at easyJet.
• Ensure we have strong partnerships – we focus on expert input and support for our resources, tools and services. Reflecting the different needs across our communities.

Mannings will be participating in WiHTL’s upcoming Festival of Inclusion in Hospitality, Travel and Leisure. She is a panelist in the session entitled: ‘Diversifying the Board, when and why diversity improves your board’s performance’ on Thursday 13th May at 3pm (BST). Colaianni interviewed Mannings ahead of the inaugural Festival of Inclusion. Click here for more information about the event.