75% of employers do not have formal diversity and inclusion framework

Polling by pension consultants Barnett Waddingham has revealed more than three-quarters of respondents do not yet have a formal framework in place for diversity and inclusion (D&I).

The research was compiled at Barnett Waddingham's latest conference, The DNA Experience, where attendees were surveyed in order to understand the sentiment of UK business towards D&I. It found more than one in 10 respondents felt uncomfortable capturing employee sentiment or experience, and only 18% have created a communications strategy around culture and D&I.

Furthermore, 88% of respondents plan to report their ethnicity pay gap in 2022, with just over half also planning to report on disability and CEO pay ratio, and 16% having already ascertained why they had a pay gap.

The research also revealed just over half of respondents stated they were confident their employee benefits package is not biased, while 2:1 were not in favour of positive discrimination to accelerate the journey to equality.

Melissa Blissett, senior consultant for pay gaps and financial wellbeing at Barnett Waddingham, said: “Diversity and inclusion is more important than ever for UK businesses. Not only to benefit organisational culture, but also because time and time again statistics show a diverse organisation is more likely to flourish."

She added: “While one in 10 were uncomfortable capturing employee sentiment, overlaying data analytics with employee insights gives real strength to both enhance the organisations narrative, and also drive an actionable plan and tangible outcomes for its culture. Basing insight and action planning around perception is dangerous, as there is often a sizeable gap between perception and reality, particularly between employers and their employees.”