End-January 2019 The Financial Times appointed its first head of diversity and inclusion, while in November 2018, The Telegraph hired its first head of diversity, inclusion and belonging.
No matter the words in the title, this relatively new role simply didn’t exist a decade ago.
The fact that corporates are actively working to increase responsibility in these areas is certainly a good thing, especially as this ‘silver bullet’ step often comes a step too late after a company has made headlines for all the wrong reasons:
It's about more than just meeting quotas and balancing scorecards, though.
Rachel Gascoigne, leadership consultant at Wickland Westcott, comments in Digiday that the role is usually focused on improving diversity and equality by decreasing the gender pay gap and aiming to attract and nurture a truly more diverse workforce, as follows:
There’s only so much you can do to increase diversity in the short term, but there’s much more [that can be done] to increase the sense of belonging in daily decision-making… Diversity is being invited to the party; inclusiveness is being asked to dance.Brands across the globe are taking note and doing what they can to improve on this in the ‘daily decision-making’ sense:
Among publishers, in particular, this can be tricky as newsrooms keep shrinking.
But shrinking newsrooms mean each member of the team is that much more skilled, effectively working as their own sub-editor and photographer, which becomes easier as technological advancements mean you can technically do it all on the go, from your phone.
Luckily, the prevailing 'woke' millennial mindset means there’s also been a concurrent shift away from glossing over hardship in writing of only the “bright, shiny things,” and focusing instead on the issues that affect people on a daily basis and telling their stories.
That’s what makes for more compelling reading, after all.
