WiHTL’s Founder & Chair Tea Colaianni talks to Rt Hon Justine Greening, the former Minister for Women & Equalities, about the impact of inclusion, its future in the workplace and how to create a level playing field for all. Greening is currently the Co-Founder of the Social Mobility Pledge, a UK business campaign encouraging leaders to put social mobility at the very heart of their operations.
QUESTION: What is your business/brand vision for Diversity and Inclusion (D&I) in the near future?
Rt Hon Justine Greening: Through the Social Mobility Pledge, we want to see all businesses making a real contribution and impact on levelling up our country; whether through extending opportunity to those it can make the biggest difference to, or working to remove the barriers that get in the way of people progressing in life. The Levelling Up Goals are a common architecture we can all use to set out our efforts.
QUESTION: How do you measure the positive impact that inclusive leadership has on your business and why is it important?
Rt Hon Justine Greening: Levelling Up is about all of us having the same chance to get on in life; not just some of us. That’s why D&I matters so much. Through our work on company purpose we can see it’s a journey to achieve success; but all the evidence is that empowered, diverse teams are better teams. Businesses need to be representative of the communities they serve, from entry point roles right up to the board room. That means starting diverse through recruitment and then staying diverse through progression. It means an end to dead end jobs.
QUESTION: What learning and understanding have you personally gained through implementing D&I policies in your business?
Rt Hon Justine Greening: Change isn’t easy, but role models really help, as does mentoring. It takes leadership from the top ultimately; and a genuine desire to be a different, more diverse organisation that thrives on having very different people as part of it. Levelling up is about tapping into the wider talent pool this country has; and sharing the best practice about how it’s done. It’s good for business and good for a wider country too; a real win-win.
QUESTION: What has the impact of the pandemic been on inclusive leadership?
Rt Hon Justine Greening: Covid-19 has been a watershed moment when we’ve seen many companies and their leaders really work out how they can support their wider communities through the pandemic. For many, that experience has been a really positive one, which is seeing many now reassess their next steps on D&I; and how they can play a role on the post-Covid challenge of levelling up. Hospitality has been in the eye of the pandemic’s storm in terms of its impact on opportunities; but as the country recovers it is also a massive part of the solution on how we can create pathways for great careers for many more people; and help Britain ‘build back better’.
FESTIVAL OF INCLUSION
Greening is joining WiHTL’s upcoming Festival of Inclusion to share her thoughts and experience on how to create a level playing field for all, along with her unique insight into the importance of D&I, given her former role as UK Secretary of State for Education and as Minister for Women & Equalities. She will be participating in the “Creating a Level Playing Field for All” discussion on 13th May at 1.15pm (BST).
Colaianni interviewed Greening ahead of the inaugural Festival of Inclusion. Click here for more information about the event. Check out her recent interviews with easyJet’s Independent Non-Executive Director Moni Mannings about the airline’s diversity initiatives, as well as the importance of board diversity by clicking here; and click here for the interview with Compass Group’s CEO Dominic Blakemore on how C-suite executives are uniquely positioned to create real change.
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