Intercultural cities programme

Purpose: Bradford Council champions inclusive business practices

Stimulus/Rationale:

Process:

In Bradford (United Kingdom), the accountancy and consulting firm Grant Thornton have developed an Inclusive Employers Toolkit in partnership with the local authority. This aims to help local employers to become more inclusive by providing them with a method for self-evaluation, including clear instructions for how to collect data on current levels of diversity and established practice within the business, set targets and then implement a plan to achieve these. It also provides guidance for evaluating progress and updating targets based on this new information.

It does this based on five inclusion factors, relating to: talent attraction; talent development; strategic development, which assesses the quality of the inclusion strategy itself; organisational culture; and external impact, relating to the effect on customers, suppliers and the wider community.

The toolkit can be used by small to large businesses.

The toolkit provides links in the Resources section to numerous best practice

guidance, templates and organisation that can support a business on their journey.

In this way, the council is providing leadership for the local business community, in partnership with a leading champion of inclusive business practices.

Impact:

The toolkit itself can be used to assess how inclusive an employer a business is and to evaluate progress.

Key reference documents: Inclusive Employers Toolkit