Remember that building an inclusive culture and driving culture change is an ongoing process that takes time.
Many businesses choose to sign up to ED&I-related charters or seek out accreditation from different awarding bodies. The ones you choose might depend on this size of your business, how much funding and resources you have available, the sector you’re in, and the ED&I priorities for your business, but a few common ones are:
We wanted to become accredited but it was difficult to know where to start with so many accreditations available, all at different costs. We work closely with the job centres and DWP so chose to start with their Disability Confident Scheme. This is scheme is free to join but is nationally recognised, so we felt it was a good fit for our first inclusion accreditation.
Step one was making a commitment. As Head of HR for the group I ensured I understood the commitment and was confident we could commit to it. I then recommended this to our executive team who agreed with the commitment and we signed up. Job done.
All I then had to do was set a reminder to periodically check that we’re still doing what we said we would and consider any additional steps or improvements we could make. This actually then led me naturally onto steps two and three.
Core Highways is now a level three Disability Confident Leader accredited business. We can therefore support any business that’s looking to join or progress through this scheme and we would be happy to do so.
