Episode 4: Beyond Gender Mainstreaming and Inclusion

Podcast Series: Gender Mainstreaming, Episode 4

Sudipa Sarker, Lecturer in Logistics and Supply Chain Management and Programme Lead for MSc Global Logistics and Supply Chain Analytics interviews Cathy Earnshaw, Head of Diversity, Inclusion and Belonging at GXO Logistics Inc. 

In her current role, she leads a team of like-minded individuals across the UK and internationally to make the organization inclusive for all employees. 

Episode 1 I Episode 2 I Episode 3 I Episode 4 I Episode 5 

Transcript

[00:00:00] Thank you for tuning in to This podcast series on gender mainstreaming. We are recording five podcasts and today marks the fourth episode of this series.

In this episode, we will explore the topic of going beyond gender mainstreaming and inclusion. Our guest today is Cathy Balding. She is the head of diversity, inclusion and belonging at GXO Logistics. In her current role, she leads a team of like minded individuals across the UK and internationally to make the organization inclusive for all employees.

Kathy, thank you for joining us today. We appreciate you taking the time to share your insights and experiences with our listeners. First, because you have 20 years of experience as an HR professional, tell us what does equity, diversity, and inclusion mean to you? thank you for having me, Sudeepa. So for me, equity is about recognizing that we don't all start from the same place for whatever reason this might be. What's important is that we [00:01:00] recognize and we seek to understand and acknowledge this before looking to make adjustments to those imbalances wherever we possibly can.

I think diversity is about a range of differences that we all have as, as human beings. We are all each unique. So for me, it is important that we value what those differences are with mutual respect. And I. And I think taking it upon ourselves to understand, appreciate those differences and take them on board ourselves first.

And lastly, I guess inclusion is, is, is simply about creating an environment where everyone is appreciated for being the individuals that they are.

So in your job title, you also mentioned belonging. What does belonging stand for you? Why is it important? I think that's a really great question. It's quite unique in a lot of organizations to have the word belonging. But I think [00:02:00] actually people do recognize that and it means something different.

possibly in everybody else's head. So belonging here at GxO, this is about realizing its full potential people at its full potential. And I guess we do this by engaging and creating diversity and inclusion in leading practices, which is about providing an engaging experience for our colleagues on a, on a daily basis.

It's about, I guess, making infusion and inspirational inclusivity within our culture. And this is across all of our sites and also then to leave a positive and the most important thing is a meaningful legacy within communities around the UK and Ireland.

So tell us about some of the work GXO is doing in the landscape of diversity, inclusion and belonging. Okay. So this is a bit of honors. Where, where do we start with all of [00:03:00] this? As a business, we help our customers get the most out of their supply chains by improving things like the flow of goods from e commerce fulfillment and things like flexible distribution to warehouse automation.

And also we are into reverse logistics. So just to set the scene for you a little bit there, we've got over a 200 sites in the UK. Okay. And with that over 40, 000 employees, quite a large organization, and that's just the UK arm of things. We have a small team of, I would say, like minded individuals who've got a passion and commitment to diversity and inclusion and belonging.

And we get together on a regular basis to lead and develop our strategy. So within that strategy for DIMB, we've based that on six pillars and those six pillars are Women in Logistics, [00:04:00] Disability Confident, GXO with Pride, Fresh starts, cultures connected and generations. So if I may just explore those a little bit further and tell you about some of the areas that we get into within those pillars.

So within women logistics, we have another strap line, which is she is GXO. This is about empowering women within what's traditionally quite a male I guess, workforce. We have a sort of 70 30 split within our male female to male ratio, which is not uncommon in logistics and this type of sector.

But what we're wanting to do in is giving women the opportunity, and I guess going back to that equity part at the beginning, about bringing that Level playing field into into play. So we have events that we run and as part of those events where we look to develop females within the [00:05:00] business.

And that could be someone that just wants to, be the best that they can be. It might be an individual that wants to progress within the organization, or it might be someone that is wants to look and support others, or just know that they've got different avenues as well. We run things like a menopause cafes where we have a menopause cafe every quarter, and they're all online.

 we dial into those and uh, it's all done through, through teams. But what happens generally is that across our different sites, people will just block out a room and they'll have maybe a dozen people, maybe more in the rooms where they come together. They've probably have a biscuit and a and a, and a drink and they will listen into what it is that we're talking about.

And we take on a different subject every quarter. So it might be things like how to, to navigate the menopause in terms of what are the symptoms, what can be done in the [00:06:00] workplace to support that. It might be in different areas such as relationships or even into things like female cancers and the menopause.

We also have a something that we started last year was a female development program and I know lots of organizations have development programs and probably have female development programs as well. We Within that area that we, what we wanted to do was just enable people to be the best they can be.

So this is not about someone that is necessarily at the top end of their career and they're in that director level position and they want to be the next CEO or the next director even. It might be someone that's at real grassroots level but just wants to explore about becoming better and working in a cohort of them.

probably another 15 colleagues who are at all different stages of their career. There's no entry level for this program, so it really does help support anyone that just wants [00:07:00] to explore getting, I guess, getting better if I want to have a better word, but helps build confidence. Even with things like Moving from one site to another, that was a real big thing about getting in a car and, or getting on a train or using public transport to be able to go from one site to another was a real big blocker for some individuals.

So it's a lot of it's about understanding those personal blockers, not necessarily something that someone else puts in place. If I move on to our next pillar, which is a talking about disability and we call it disability confident. We're an organization that is a disability confident level three which is a government funded I guess the certification and a lot of organizations will work their way through level one, which is a self assessment.

Then coming up to level three, where you all become a leader in dis, in, in disability confident and for that [00:08:00] assessment then you have to submit a lot of evidence to say how you are working in those particular areas. So it's all questions and evidence based, but then another organization that's already achieved level three will mark your work for you.

And actually, it was a really cathartic thing to do as much as anything else, but just see the work that does take place within our organization in these areas, and you've not got to be there, whatever there is, you can be on a journey to get into where you want to be and where you want your organization to get to. We also work with different organizations such as WorkFit, which is a charitable organization that works with people with Down syndrome. And we, we ensure that we place them into our business, into paid, meaningful employment. So these are not made up jobs. They are, they are roles that we already have, but what we will do is adapt [00:09:00] them for the individuals.

So an individual may come to us and want to work. five hours a week. They may want to work 30 hours a week. So we will work with them as individuals and their carers or their parents to ensure that they get the best from this particular placement. We're hoping to get to our 50th candidate shortly which will be a real achievement.

We are, we are the biggest organization in terms of the amount of people that we have with Down Syndrome in an organization in the UK. It was something that we're extremely proud of, and we continue to work on that relationship. We also have a GXO with, with Pride. And that's all about the LGBTQ plus community and ensuring that we were supportive and it's not just about doing things in June or changing a logo on LinkedIn, but ensuring how we live and breathe.

This is part of our values right way through 365 days a year. [00:10:00] We we we've just introduced last year, a trans policy and we'll, and we've also, whenever we introduce a policy. We also look at things like, have we got a toolkit or have we got a workbook or have we got a guide into helping employees with that.

Policies can be very good and important for organizations, but I also feel that they can be quite black and white sometimes. And for an individual to understand, well, what does that mean to me to have some guidelines and some supporting documents that fit around that? It's not Just a one stop, here we go.

Here's the policy around that, but really trying to bring that policy to life to ensure that the person going through that particular area of their life or whatever that looks like that they can really live and breathe that. And this year we're sponsoring some Pride events, but we tend to do quite local ones, actually.

So like Northampton Pride, Bristol Pride, where we have sites [00:11:00] local and nearby so that they can take part. And one of the ones that we are doing is, is is Pride in Northampton, which is near our head office, but we're also doing a parade there this year. So if anyone is in the area, then look out for all the GXO t shirts, which we will be we will have a team of about 40 people.

I think there are that are signed up for that event going through Northampton quite shortly. Our fourth pillar is around fresh start. So this is about supporting individuals who, they may need a second chance. They may need a new start in life. They may be experienced, have experienced difficulties. So we look for people and we work with the justice system.

So we work with people who have been in prison, who are still in prison. And we. Look to get them into the workplace and support them while they're going through their sentence. So there, it's what we call ROTL and it's Release on Temporary License. [00:12:00] So that's where people will come out to work in the day and on an evening they will go back to prison.

But we've, we've found that that's been extremely successful. We've had about 400 placements in the last few years that we've been running this scheme. But also it's about trying to help individuals that when they come out of the justice system, that they have got an avenue. And hopefully workplace to go to, even if it just gives someone some experience in a different sector that they may not have considered before, and it might give them some courage and some confidence, even if they don't come and work for us, they go and go and work elsewhere, but it gives them that sense of what it's like to belong into an organization.

Um, and hopefully that people come back to us after they've been through that process and we settled them somewhere else within GXO. Within the Fresh Starts pillar as well we have military, so we've got [00:13:00] the silver covenant at the minute and we've just applied for our well the beginning of the year we applied for our gold covenant so we're hoping that we will have achieved that relatively quickly and that's about supporting people in the military now whether that's to do with our reservists that we have that are continuing to be reservists and we do allow Time off for those individuals and it's paid time off and the script is to ensure that people, if they're going back into and having that training that they all have to do each year, that often that's unpaid by organizations and that can lead into families, holiday time, etc.

So something that we've done is ensure that we pay our individuals if they are reservists and have to go back and have that training. And also we've recently signed up to a homelessness, charity crisis. So we all know how difficult times are at this moment in time and ensuring people that are [00:14:00] homeless or on the verge of homelessness, that we're supporting them through the charity and helping them.

Helping them again, get into that paid employment, helping them through the process of what that looks like. And we're just working through our, our charter at the minute and ensuring that we can help as many people as possible. So our next pillar is around cultures. This is all about connecting our cultures and therefore we call it cultures connected.

So this might be, it's not just about. Ethnicity and race and beliefs, though it is all of those things, but it's also about connecting the cultures within GXO. We take on board a lot of new customers and we also have done quite a few big acquisitions over the past couple of years. So we may be bringing people in there, thousands into our business.

The last one we did, we brought almost 10, 000 people in and are going through a process at the minute. So how do we ensure that we take Beth [00:15:00] of all those cultures and bring them together that live and breathe the values of, of GXO. So it's all about exploring that type of thing and being able to, again, going back to that, being able to bring your whole self to work.

So a few of the things that we've done in that area is we've designed a recipe book. So all from different cultures. It might be something taken from what grandma used to give us when we were younger, or that we smell of that homemade. cooking when you got home from school. It might be just something that just really inspires you and is part of your general culture that really means a lot to you and gets cooked on even on a daily basis, for example, that we've put all those recipes together in a book to share with our GXO colleagues.

And also things like in each area, actually, but we have an employee action group. So the action groups are made up of employees from across the business, from different areas. And they basically an individual [00:16:00] will may take an interest and say, I would like to be part of that. So this is helping us develop our strategy and develop our pillars within each of the areas to be able to tell us, okay, so we might think that.

People are interested in X, Y, Z, and really they're interested in A, B, C. So how do we ensure that we bring the things that mean something to individuals to life and start to embed them within G-X-O-G-X-O? And things like having a simple thing, like having a, a cultural calendar of events. So we'll publish a, a cultural calendar that.

Individuals that fights can sign up for and say, I want to take part in uh, one of them that springs to mind is, is Tuesday where that talks in the big, in the Polish community. And we bring in doughnuts to work. And it's just help celebrating those different cultures that we have throughout our organization.

And the last pillar to talk about is generations, so a fairly [00:17:00] relatively new pillar for us, but this encompasses anybody from starting off their career within our organization right the way through to someone where maybe thinking about retirement or even changing paths, changing lanes into doing something else, though, and how we bring these generations together.

One of the things that we do within this area is, is reverse mentoring. So this is about individuals that can help others that may come from a different organization. So it might be someone that's really high tech, helping someone who wasn't necessarily brought into the workplace in that way and, and used to many more, you know, maybe go to paper designed activities.

So ensuring that. Also attitudes change and mentalities change and individuals want to ensure that they've got a work life balance. So how do we bring all of that to life and bring all those things together? And also again, we've got [00:18:00] an action group within this area to understand the different the different generations that we have, but we believe it's not just about people in an older generation, educating the younger generation, but I think everybody can learn from everybody.

So we take on people that are going through apprenticeship programs and apprenticeship programs at all levels. You don't have to be 16 to do an apprenticeship program. You can be 50, you can be as old as you want to be, or as young as you want to be. But how do we ensure we support that through the working environment?

And also to capture if someone is at that latter end of the career and they may be thinking about retirement, how do you extract that knowledge that they have and make that tastic knowledge really explicit so they don't take Really great stuff and the learnings that they've had with them. So a very long worded answer I think there, but hopefully it gives you an understanding of what it is that we do in GXO.

Great answer and great initiatives as well. [00:19:00] So what are the main challenges you face to build a more inclusive environment? So I think one of the biggest challenges that we have is being able to put everything that we want into practice. Our organization actually is very supportive of diversity, inclusion and belonging.

So it's very receptive to new ideas to new initiatives and, and updates to our current working practices. But I think, you know, We've also got to remember that we work for a business and that we've got to be able to balance all these initiatives that we want to do with current workload and other important areas, such as health and safety.

So, and I think if you try and throw too much at people, then it becomes just noise and people don't really want. To engage, or if there's something that's coming out every week, then people can't adapt their diaries to be able to take part in everything, or even take on all that learning that we, that we offer.

So I think that's really important [00:20:00] to be making sure that we do focus on certain on certain areas and what you want to do. But another area would also be around education. I think that's the a real main challenge for everybody to ensure that. We have the opportunity for everyone to feel and be involved in what we do.

A lot of our colleagues are what we would call either shop floor based or warehouse based, so they don't always have access to emails or have an online presence either, so that can make things quite difficult for us. So say a bit about how do you overcome those challenges that you have spoken about? Okay, so as an organization, we work on a calendar. So as a business, there's a central calendar that's got initiatives in there, projects in there, and workload that's planned in. Of course, things sometimes happen that you can't plan for, but generally speaking, we've got a good idea of what is happening in the workplace.[00:21:00] 

So each area of the business then knows what's coming up and they can prepare their site or their function accordingly. A lot of our events in diversity, inclusion and belonging, we're lucky in this area because they're at the same time each year for things like International Women's Day, Men's Health and Pride events all take place at the same time.

So that really helps us to plan. What we, where we want to focus our time and where we want to put our focuses. So that, that's really helpful for us, I think, to help overcome some of these challenges. I guess in relation to the area mentioned above on education and ensuring everyone has access, that's probably a little bit more challenging, but we hold events in, in meeting rooms, as I mentioned with the menopause cafe, and we'll invite colleagues from All areas of the site to be involved that takes a little bit more planning with that, but we'll do things like recording the event so that they can be viewed at a convenient time for the [00:22:00] individuals because as well they also work different shifts, have different days off, work early, work late, so trying to get to as wide an audience as we possibly can doing that.

So some days we know we're not as good as other days. Mondays, everybody's coming back from the weekend and probably quite ingrained in what they're doing and focusing about what they've got planned for the week. So we tend to avoid Mondays with the different initiatives that we have. Line managers also have daily briefings.

So as part of, of their briefings, we develop materials for them to use and be able to communicate that with the wider teams. Cause I mentioned, you know, not everybody's got an email address. So. As well as having areas quite traditional really, I suppose, but putting posters up, showing things on TV monitors, wherever possible, and being present and driven by the line managers themselves.

So there might be a conception that inclusion is costly. Are there any economic disadvantages of making an [00:23:00] organization more diverse and inclusive? In my opinion, truthfully, not at all. I think having a diverse workforce only enriches a business. We've all got unconscious bias within us, which means we gravitate towards people like ourselves.

So we have a tendency as hiring managers to recruit people that look and behave like us. Having teams that represent the whole areas of diversity widens our perspectives and challenges to think differently about what we believe and what we think. It's really, it's really easy, isn't it, to think, oh, yes, my opinions are the ones that count, or I know this works because of.

But to have that critical friend, to have someone that's challenging, to think about things differently to what you do can be really helpful and encourage organizations to grow in different ways. I think diverse teams, in my experience, come up with different ideas and different initiatives that could really help take an [00:24:00] organization forward and things that you might not have thought about before.

So It's not just about employing people, though, just because they are diverse or including them in a project or initiatives because they're from a different background to what you are. I believe it's always about the best person for the job, but what it is about is broadening your window and that enables you to see things from all perspectives, which leads to, therefore, enhancers of employee engagement and commitment from individuals as well.

So what are the benefits that you have kind of had being more diverse and inclusive organization? Okay, so I think it's things like um, improved engagement. We all recognize that people who are happier at work have become much more engaged in what they want to do and bring themselves, I guess, you know.

They feel that they can bring their whole selves to work. It's not about leaving yourself at the door [00:25:00] and just bringing part of you in there. I don't believe in that. I believe in being able to bring your whole self into that working environment. But having the choice to do that is what I would caveat that with.

Not to say that you have to be so explicit and share everything with everybody. But I think that's the difference of where people can feel that they do that. What to, what to share is up to them as an individual. So it also gives things an increase in output, as I've said, you know, people are much happier in the roles they want to stay with an organization really lives and breathes the right cultural values for them.

And that's what it's about. It's about them as individuals. I guess also what we're doing is helping people who are from all backgrounds and differences. So, Going back to what I was saying earlier about creating opportunities for people who may not have had that chance before And it might be with people within the prison service or [00:26:00] the military because they're changing their roles, they're coming back into civil life, working with our work fit partners, crisis, people who are deaf, people who from neurodiverse environments as well, who may just want to have a little more extra support into what they do and, and for them to feel like that they could go and work for an organization and truly belong.

I think It also becomes rewarding for individuals. It does, I guess, create that warmth and that glow for individuals where they feel like they're adding something. It's not just about adding to the bottom line, though we know in business that's extremely important, but people will stay for organizations that are making that difference.

I think more and more we're just doing a good job. A graduate recruitment and we've just some recruitment last week. The amount of graduates that talk about amongst other things, but what is your diversity and inclusion policy and your processes and how do you ensure that [00:27:00] you live that throughout your organization is becoming much more prevalent.

And the other thing that I think that it also benefits is local communities. So having a workforce that is reflective of that local community whether that's the work that you do in, in that local area, but also about bringing that business there ensuring that people feel like they belong inside work and also outside of work as well.

So if an organization is thinking about being more inclusive, where and how should it start? I think the awareness of diversity, inclusion, belonging is, is thankfully growing, but it can be quite overwhelming to think about where to start with all of this. For me, the trick is not to take on too much all at once.

Decide on what is important to you as an organization. What would you like people in your business to be talking about in the next 12 months in relation to this [00:28:00] subject? So what's important to you, but thinking about? what would really be important to them. I think it's important it's important, should I say, to have an awareness of your culture and even more important to talk to your people, because it's about what matters to them.

So if you do things like engagement surveys, that measure areas of diverse inclusion and belonging, then I think that's a good place to start. We all know that that's just a moment in time, but it can give you some data to start with. What's that information telling you? Who's responding to that? And also equally importantly, who isn't responding to it, it's an easy one, but say saying it's easier, but to form a realistic action plan.

And I'm only talking about possibly three to five stretching, but achievable point. If you have data, then absolutely use it. And one of the important things I think of [00:29:00] certainly from my perspective is remembering that you can't do this on your own. One person or, or, or a team, it's not HR's responsibility to embed this.

It's, we don't own this area or this subject. We may be guardians of it. We may be supporters of it, but it's up to each individual. And, and this is from the CEO down, but it's also from the shop floor up. Everyone has to do their bit. And. This will only happen if you are then able to then shape a culture that everyone wants to be part of.

If you've got parts of that puzzle missing, if your CEO is not, or your managing director, or whoever they are, is not, doesn't take this seriously, then it becomes quite a really difficult challenge. But likewise, you've got to be able to take your people and going back to that listening to, to what your organization, what your people in your organization are saying to you.

So the last question, what are the minimum initiatives and an [00:30:00] organization can do to be more inclusive? So this is about understanding your people demographics and the data. So know what your starting point is. It may be in the first instance, knowing how your people identify themselves, understanding what their backgrounds are from a social perspective and ethnicity perspective, understanding sexual orientations, but that's just a few of them.

It's understanding your people and also understanding your people satisfaction data. Where do you sit on an engagement survey? How satisfied are people? And it might be just snap surveys that you do, or you might, if you've not got surveys, just understanding and going back and talking to people. And what's the culture of your organization?

I keep saying this, I guess, throughout all of this podcast, but it's about listening to your people. What are they [00:31:00] telling you, but really listen to them. When they do tell you that, Intently listen and then do something about it. There's nothing more in disengaging than people who have their voice, but, but then you don't act on that.

Tell people what you were aiming to achieve and why you're going to do that. So when you have done what you've said you're going to do, then go back to them and tell them that you've done it, but also review that. and build on this for me then becomes that next initiative. Again that engaging with your senior team, tell them what your strategy is and how you need their help and their support to achieve it.

One way you could do this is to have senior members of the team as sponsors. A few different initiatives. It's something that we started at the beginning of this year, this year. So for each of the pillars that we have, we now have one of the senior executive team that sponsors each of those pillars.

And, and again, don't assume that they are subject [00:32:00] matter experts in this area. They won't be. Help them to understand what and why You want to do what you want to do because they might be embarrassed actually because they're a senior member of the organization and they might think well I can't really say anything I've got to I've got to be seen to be doing something but help them understand educate them in this area.

No one expects anyone to be perfect or to have all the knowledge themselves that's the great part of this. If you do all of this, then you will start to create an environment where people feel they can be as much of them as themselves, as I said, as they want to be in the workplace, helping people to feel included and having that voice to express how they feel and getting them to become more involved in the activities and their work and building a good connection with your organization.

For me, It really makes it not just a good place to work, but a really great place for people to [00:33:00] work and grow within that organization too.

So thank you, Cathy, once again uh, for sharing your valuable insights with us. We truly appreciate your time.