West Midlands Fire Service and Capgemini named top employers for inclusivity

West Midlands Fire Service, Capgemini and Touchstone have taken the top three spots on the 2022/2023 Inclusive Top 50 UK Employers list.

Compiled by Inclusive Companies for the seventh annual year, the list was created to benchmark the current state of equality, diversity and inclusion in UK workplaces. It is based on achievements among UK organisations, such as ethnicity pay gap reporting, measuring inclusion within the workplace and having a workforce that represents all types of employees.

The 2022/2023 report received its largest number of submissions to date, with the data reflecting more than 750,000 members of the UK workforce.

The Top 10 inclusive employers in 2022/2023 were:

1. West Midlands Fire Service
2. Capgemini
3. Touchstone Support
4. West Midlands Police
5. Bupa
6. UK Power Networks
7. Royal Orthopaedic Hospitals NHS Trust
8. Asos
9. Hastings Group
10. Yorkshire Building Society

Paul Sesay, chief executive officer (CEO) of Inclusive Companies, said: “What is evident is that, in current times of adversity, when external pressures could so easily divide a workforce, the best organisations understand the EDI agenda is more important than ever. To move things forwards, I would ask employers to look across their workforce and tell me can they hand-on-heart say different groups of people are represented? If not, why not?”

Tristan Dugdale-Pointon, diversity inclusion cohesion equality business partner at West Midlands Fire Service, said: “We are immensely proud of achieving first position and this recognition provides an external measure of our progress across all areas of diversity and challenges us to think differently and to constantly innovative to drive inclusion forward. The impact on our organisation has been considerable while externally we know it's having a positive impact on attracting the diverse talent we need to thrive as a modern organisation.”

Andrea Metherell, head of diversity, equity, inclusion and wellbeing at Capgemini UK, said: “Everyone has a role to play in achieving our purpose and that’s why embedding diversity and inclusion into daily work is on the agenda from the board room through to employee onboarding. We nurture, celebrate and harness the broad-ranging characteristics of our talented people and our inclusive culture to create an environment where everyone feels they belong, is valued for their contribution, and can develop, thrive and succeed at Capgemini.”

Arfan Hanif, CEO at Touchstone, added: “Being ranked as the third most inclusive employer in the UK in 2022/23 is an immense privilege and a true reflection of our workforce’s drive to make our charity one of the very best places to work in the UK. As Touchstone works with diverse communities across Yorkshire, we absolutely prioritise that our workforce is inclusive, supportive, thrives and is fully representative of those communities.”