In the second of our 4 bite-sized event reports capturing the key takeaways from the panel event: D&I and Sustainability: Is it time to break down the silos? we focus on taking a human-first approach and enabling a two-way conversation.
To align with B Corp Month and its theme ‘This Way Forward’, Wilful Group and private equity firm, Future Business Partnership, convened an audience of over 50 sustainability and D&I professionals in the thoughtfully renovated Sustainable Ventures event space.
The panel featured representatives from four B Corps alongside workplace disability activist and campaigner, Valuable 500, to discuss whether closer collaboration between the business functions of diversity, equity & inclusion, and sustainability could help accelerate the transition to a fairer and more sustainable economy.
Valuable 500 CEO, Katy Talikowska landed a powerful idea, (which she credited to DEI expert Sam Philip, who was in the audience), that we need to ‘put good back on the agenda’. The many issues and poly-crises facing boards and CEOs have enabled corporate kindness to tumble down the board agenda. She insisted that if you take a human-first approach, it isn’t hard –applying it to sustainability and the climate challenge as much as managing supply chains and employee resources.
Beth Powell, Natura & Co & and Avon, VP People and Reward referenced Natura & Co’s key pillar of business, to be ‘Human Kind’ which has persisted from the founder of Natura & Co with an ethos that is baked into its operating model.
Beth emphasised the importance of two-way communication inside a business to find out how people are feeling about the company, and that in inclusion and diversity terms, she believes it is more important that people feel able to challenge than feel belonging. She explained that in a workforce that lacks diversity, people can feel they belong, because they share a lot of the same characteristics, but without the confidence to speak up, any potential value from different perspectives is lost to the business. Our perspective here at Wilful is that if a business is good at listening and responding to its people, it will usually be repaid by strong employee advocacy, which is valuable both as a positive force for building reputation, but also as a major defence if the company comes under attack.
Tracey Huggett, co-founder of Future Business Partnership, the UK’s highest scoring B Corp and world’s highest scoring private equity investor views internal communication and feedback as a lever for retention, welcoming opinions employees because even if it’s a criticism, it shows they care. She also pointed out her own experience in giving feedback over the course of her career and the need for a safe space to have those conversations without the need for anonymity.
Katy shared a progressive view that companies must serve their employees too and should give them a voice, reminding the audiences that while it is vitally important to listen, it has to be followed up with action.
In the next blog, we will be looking at the challenges for large, complex, established businesses in keeping pace with D&I and Sustainability of challenger brands where it has been baked in from the start.
