Kick-starting the JEDI MATTERS Collective
If you’re reading this, then you get it. We don’t need to chat about the moral compass of Justice, Equity, Diversity & Inclusion. You’re here with us. Hurrah!
I probably don’t need to mention the business case for JEDI either. But maybe I will, just because it’s that good. It’s that compelling.
Employee Engagement – a 2022 WorkBuzz survey showed that 81% of organisations with an EDI Plan had steady or increasing employee engagement scores where-as half of the organisations with no EDI Plan were decreasing.[i]
Recruitment – 73% of professionals say EDI policies are important when considering a new role and those numbers rise further with younger generations.[ii]
Business Productivity - When employees trust that they will be treated fairly, they are 9.8 times more likely to look forward to work and 6.3 times more likely to take pride in their job.[iii]
I could go on, but I don’t think you need me too. You get it. JEDI is good for people & good for business.
Yet you are also probably here and reading this because you realise just how much work there is still to be done, that really we are all still relatively early on the journey.
Although slowly declining, the UK gender pay gap in April 2023 stood at 7.7%.[iv] UK-born black employees earn 5.6% less than white employees and non-UK-born black employees earn 12% less than UK-born white workers.[v]
Only one in six autistic people in the UK have a full-time job.[vi]
Poor mental health among employees is estimated to cost UK employers between £42bn– £45bn each year in absenteeism, presenteeism & turnover.[vii]
A shocking total of 109,843 racially aggravated offences were recorded in 2021/22 – a terrifying increase of 19%. According to Stop Hate’s yearly reports, Racism is the highest reported motivation for Hate Crimes.[viii] The latest hate crime statistics revealed that England and Wales continues to become a less safe place for lesbian, gay, bi and trans people. Hate crimes against trans people increased by 11% in a year and by 186% in the last five years.[ix]
You get my gist. It’s not pretty out there. But I’m an optimist. I hope you are too. There is so much we can do. There are so many levers we can pull to improve things. That’s why I’m here and the JEDI MATTERS Founding Members Steve, Sacha, Simon & Pip too.
We’re up for getting comfortable with being uncomfortable. We’re up for change. We know it won’t be easy but we’re not prepared to be bystanders. This is a responsibility of all of us.
We know we are going to make mistakes. We’ll put our hands up and admit we’ve made a few just in getting to launch. We’re going to have to if we’re going to put ourselves out there and help make the change. So please bear with us. We wanted to get started. We wanted to get stuck in. So here we are. Wanting to improve our organisations and hopefully inspire and facilitate change beyond our doors as well.
Aside from our passion and determination, we all have in common SMEs (Small & Medium Sized Enterprises) – organisations with less than 250 employees. As the 4 Founders journeyed on JEDI, all realised that the toolbox available to SMEs felt smaller and a bit inflexible. Resource is a key barrier for SMEs in JEDI. Fewer employees means minority groups can be very small, too small to form an effective Employee Resource Group. Specialist training can feel more burdensome. We want to walk the talk on days of action through the year, but again, with limited resources, that feels really tough. We’d love to provide a mentoring scheme or even reverse mentoring scheme but again the dreaded R word gets in the way. This is how we came together. As a collective we saw the opportunity to build efficiency, scale and to bring more diversity to our teams.
“Find a group of people who challenge you and inspire you, spend a lot of time with them, and it will change your life.” Amy Poehler.
There are so many different terms used for JEDI. You might be more used to D&I, EDI or DEI or another such mix-match of letters. We chose JEDI for two key reasons. We are aligned with the inclusion of Justice. This feels incredibly important to the work to be done. So many injustices and inequalities have been done and still exist today. This must be part of our focus. We also chose JEDI to align with the B Lab terminology.
Where did ‘MATTERS’ come from? Simply because it really does ‘MATTER’!! And we liked the spin of ‘MATTERS’ into content, discussions, events and so on. This is about priorities & action.
Bear with us. We’re starting small and realistic. We didn’t want to bite off more than we could chew. We wanted to build some momentum from the grass roots up. But don’t get us wrong, we have big ambitions.
“None of us, including me, ever do great things. But we can do small things, with great love, and together we can do something wonderful.” Mother Theresa.
In Year One, each Founding member will lead at least one JEDI event for member organisations – an opportunity not just to engage employees and take action but also to start mixing across organisations and expanding our networks.
Secondly, we will launch our Connections Programme. This is a bit of a hybrid. We considered a Mentoring Programme but we knew this would be resource intensive and we were worried it would only reach a few. The Connections Programme will be open to everyone within our organisations and self-serve. The idea is for team members to come to the portal with one ask & one offer. It could be a technical question seeking different expert input or it could be seeking career or personal development. We’ll see how it goes. We hope lots of people will benefit from both giving and receiving and that this will bring our teams together, building stronger connections everywhere.
Anyway enough talk. Let’s get down to the action.
We want to prove to ourselves, our organisations, our teams, our peers & our industries that positive intent can create positive action inside our organisations and beyond. We hope that this will be part of an SME tidal wave of action on JEDI. Bring it on.
Ali Fisher is a Sustainability & Diversity Business Mentor & the Founder & Director of Plans With Purpose. She acts as chief convener & co-ordinator for the JEDI MATTERS Collective.
[i] https://www.hrmagazine.co.uk/content/news/strong-di-strategy-keeps-employees-engaged-and-motivated/
[ii] https://www.hrmagazine.co.uk/content/comment/recruitment-s-role-in-supporting-edi/
[iii] https://globisinsights.com/leadership/benefits-of-dei-in-the-workplace/
[iv]https://www.ons.gov.uk/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwork/earningsandworkinghours/bulletins/genderpaygapintheuk/2023#:~:text=The%20gender%20pay%20gap%20has,those%20aged%20under%2040%20years.
[v] https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/nov/29/absolutely-shameful-uk-ethnicity-pay-gap-persists-figures-show#:~:text=Among%20UK%2Dborn%20workers%2C%20black,the%20Office%20for%20National%20Statistics.
[vi] What is autism? National Autistic society. www.autism.org.uk
[vii] Deloitte ‘Mental Health and Employers: Refreshing the case for investment, January 2020’
[viii] https://www.stophateuk.org/about-hate-crime/racism-in-the-uk/#:~:text=A%20total%20of%20109%2C843%20racially,since%20our%20inception%20in%201995.
[ix] https://www.stonewall.org.uk/about-us/news/new-data-rise-hate-crime-against-lgbtq-people-continues-stonewall-slams-uk-gov-