Culture and engagement are moving up the agenda as a last-ditch attempt to drive growth and productivity. In our latest UC Voices interview, we caught up with Jennifer Thomas, Global Head of Diversity and Inclusion at the London Stock Exchange Group to find out how they are building a culture of belonging.
Where are you in your journey at the London Stock Exchange Group (LSEG)?
We have a clear vision of the culture we are looking to create at LSEG. And it’s important for us to be aware of the employee experience to work out what reinforces what we’re trying to achieve and what’s detracting from our goal.
With the one-year anniversary of the launch of our new values approaching, a big priority for us is to ensure they are embedded throughout the organisation. We’re also concentrating on having those values underpin our behaviours which ultimately everyone will be measured on – it’s not just about ‘what’ we do, but ‘how’ we do it is equally as important.
That allows us to focus our efforts on what will drive the right outcome for us.
Building an organisation that is inclusive, where people feel they genuinely belong takes effort, and focus. Where do you start and how do you really help people feel like they are included?
This is really all about culture.
If your culture isn’t a strong, positive one, then you probably don’t have the foundations you need to build a sense of belonging.
You need to define what you want your culture to be, and then you need to organically cultivate it. Businesses often underestimate how long it takes to do that successfully, and how what’s going on externally, especially geopolitically, impacts what happens internally and how people feel.
It’s a journey that changes and needs to adapt to internal and external factors.
You can’t launch culture. You need to take a systematic approach to make sure your aspirations are true at every touch point.
If you have that strong foundation, then you can look at how you dial that up and stretch it to include the underrepresented groups.
But you can’t create a sense of belonging if your culture isn’t positive or clear.
How do you re start healthy debate in organisations to drive inclusion?
Your approach to employee listening needs to be meaningful. People want to be part of something, not adjacent to it. There are three things you need to have in place to enable healthy and constructive debate:
Doing this before opening the opportunity for debate keeps everyone focussed. Giving your workforce skin in the game is critical if you want meaningful outcomes and change, and healthy debate is an important part of that.
What roles do affinity groups need to play?
Your networks can be critical advisors and a clear barometer into how people feel in your business. DE&I networks need to be positioned as more than just events and education.
They can be your eyes, ears and the voices of the communities you need to reach.
The learning needs to be both ways. Management needs to hear about and understand the lived experience of their people. And your people need to feel invited to help tackle the challenges a business is facing. That coming together will make for longer lasting impact.
Is there a role for activism in a corporate environment?
What’s starting to play out more today in large corporates is a reaction to what’s going on in the outside world.
We can't hide away from it.
There often isn’t a right and wrong answer to managing open conversations. Creating a safe space for all voices to be heard is essential, but you need to be clear on what outcome you are seeking to achieve. That gives a foundation and a parameter to the conversation you are about to start.
How can you support line managers to enable and facilitate better debate and challenge?
This is something that is very live for us right now.
We’ve designed an eight module ED&I training suite of bitesize learning. What we have really tried to do is base the training on what we are experiencing today so it feels practical, tangible and real.
The training covers everything from anti-racism and micro aggressions, to being disability aware and confident.
And the response has been phenomenal.
It’s a tactical action but it's foundational. If you don’t have understanding and awareness, you can't make change.
What it has started is curiosity and openness. People are feeling confident to ask questions and drive a different type of conversation.
How do you create the psychological safety that allows for open challenge and debate?
You need to have trust and openness first.
Then you can create safety around challenge and debate.
This isn’t so much about DE&I per se, it’s back to culture. Creating an environment that not only respects difference but actively seeks it.
