Effective Staff Networks: Exploring Good Approaches

About CEMVO Scotland

CEMVO Scotland is a national intermediary organisation and a long-standing strategic partner to the Scottish Government’s Directorate for Equality, Inclusion and Human Rights. We aim to build the capacity of the ethnic minority voluntary sector and its communities. We have an established network of ethnic minority (EM) and public and third sector organisations throughout Scotland to which we deliver a wide range of capacity-building support programmes.

The Race for Human Rights programme (R4HR) funded through the Scottish Government’s Directorate for Equality, Inclusion and Human Rights and administered by Inspiring Scotland is designed to help public services increasingly embed equality and human rights in their strategic planning and day-to-day functions. We provide a platform to utilise the experience of people with protected characteristics to inform the policy and practice of public bodies. Sequentially, the programme supports diverse individuals and communities to increase their participation in public life.

For organisations looking to better understand how to integrate equality and human rights into their work, we offer the following services:

• Consultancy support for mainstream organisations
• Mediate engagement with EM communities
• Training and webinars
• Learning workshops

This session was part of a series of workshops CEMVO Scotland has delivered in partnership with the Scottish Government. This journey began following the Scottish Government’s Public Sector Leadership Summit in March 2021, which unveiled a pledge to take forward the recommendations from the Scottish Parliament Equality & Human Rights Committee’s recommendations from its inquiry into race equality, employment, and skills.

CEMVO Scotland have since co-delivered the National Conference on Race Employment, which took place online in December 2021 and the Data Collection workshop in April 2022.

Introduction

This collaborative event between the Scottish Government’s Fair Work and Labour Market Strategy Division (FWLMSD) and CEMVO Scotland’s Race for Human Rights (R4HR) programme was an online workshop to share effective approaches to developing ethnic minority (EM) staff networks.

The purpose of this workshop was to learn more about the value of staff networks as a way of supporting minority ethnic staff in the workplace.

This was achieved by:

• Sharing learning about effective approaches to establishing and maintaining staff networks.
• Understanding the different roles that senior leaders and human resource (HR) managers can play in implementing and improving practice.
• Exploring ways to address common practical challenges in setting up, supporting, and maintaining an effective staff network for ethnic minority staff.

CEMVO Scotland’s R4HR programme supports the Scottish Governments ambition for Scotland’s public sector to have “Scotland’s public sector has “improved capacity to tackle racial inequality and meet the needs of minority ethnic people” (Race Equality Framework, 2016-2030; p. 22), by engaging with senior public body leaders to promote race equality and diversity issues.

The Scottish Government’s FWLMSD has continued to engage with the public sector, and since then, has published its Anti-Racist Employment Strategy and refreshed Fair Work Action Plan.

The Anti-Racist Employment Strategy seeks to respond to the scale and prevalence of institutional racism, supporting and encouraging employers across the economy to embed an anti-racism approach to employment practice.

The strategy includes:

• Practical advice and case studies
• Ways employers can evaluate and improve their current practices across recruitment, retention, and progression of minority ethnic staff.
• Ways employers can support minority ethnic staff by taking an anti-racism and intersectional approach and building an inclusive workplace culture.

The strategy also includes actions for the Scottish Government to advance the agenda to address racial inequality. These are included in the Fair Work Action Plan, which takes an intersectional and joined-up approach to addressing workplace inequalities for women, racialised minorities, over 50s workers and disabled people.

This all supports the Scottish Government’s ambition to become a Fair Work Nation by 2025, with actions that include:

• The development of an anti-racism workplace training framework
• Updating the Fair Work First criteria for public sector grant funding to encourage action to address inequality for racialised minority ethnic staff.
• The development of a resource hub to support organisations to deliver Fair Work
• Work to facilitate better networking, peer support and the sharing and learning of practice across senior leaders and operational staff.

The workshop was partially recorded, and links to the segments are included at the end of the written section of the report. Please note that these are view only and not downloadable. Microsoft Office restrictions may also apply.

What learning was shared?

CEMVO Scotland’s R4HR consultancy sessions have identified the top three issues in developing and maintaining staff networks. These are:

1. Not enough ethnic minority staff (either in the organisation or part of a network)
2. Senior leadership involvement
3. Accountability

Therefore, the theme throughout the workshop was connected to CEMVO Scotland’s R4HR programme:

• The principles CEMVO Scotland promote.
• Developing staff networks and the models of how these are implemented.
• Case studies, understanding challenges and good approaches and applying a human rights-based approach.

Feedback from the previous session (data collection workshop) indicated a preference of shared learning through case studies. By structuring the workshop in this way, presenters were able to highlight flexible approaches taken in their respective organisations to overcome specific challenges around staff networks. Our guest speakers were:

• Priscilla Marongwe (Equality and Inclusion Network Coordinator, NHS Education Scotland)
• Sandra Deslandes-Clark (Director, SEMPER Scotland, Police Scotland)
• Chris Kimber (Equality and Diversity Advisor, NHS Lanarkshire).

Each presenter shared how the Networks are supported in their organisation, what role the Network has in the accountability process, how leadership was involved, and how they progress this channel of support and effective communication. These are presented as case studies below.

After an explorative question and answer session, breakout rooms were created as safe spaces for attendees, who were strategically split with those in their peer groups. This segment was designed as an active learning opportunity with solution-focused discussions. By encouraging participants to discuss how they can implement some of these principles, we noted an increase in shared learning and peer support.

Case Studies

• Created as a safe space for learning from each other – this is crucial for everyone because it is unfair to assume that as an ethnic minority, they know everything that is related to equality.

• There must be clear aims, such as:

1. To provide peer support​
2. To have a collective voice communicating with management​.
3. Operate within terms of reference​

• Support, commitment and value​:

1. at the top ​
2. operational ​

• Giving staff time for network activities​

• Environment​:

1. safe​
2. peer support time​
3. action plan​
4. allies​
5. intersectionality​

• Awareness raising​

1. self​
2. wider organisation​
3. networking​

Sandra shared notable achievements of SEMPER that influenced Police Scotland’s workforce policies such as:

• The overhaul and proprietary review of the Standard Entry Test for Police Officers.​
• HMICS Thematic Inspections to involve SEMPER Scotland.​
• Recommendations officially included in Dame Elish’s Independent Review of Complaints Handling, Investigations and Misconduct Issues in Policing.​
• Ground-breaking initiative involving Minority Ethnic officers seconded to Probationer Training as Tutors.​
• ​Introduction of the popular ‘Truth to Power’ Sessions that led to Police Scotland Action Plans.​

Some tips that were shared were:

• Elect the right people to lead.​
• Align your objectives to the Equality Outcomes of your organisation.
• Create alliances nationally and internationally.​
• Clear governance and Executive commitment.

The results from the questionnaire showed that 63% of the respondents rated their experience of working for NHSL as excellent/good​; 80% felt they were treated fairly & consistently ​and 36% experienced racism. Of those who did experience racism:

76% experienced racism from colleagues/team members ​
80% from Patients or their Carers ​
71% did not report the incident ​
Following a series of activities, the following were noted as contributions to the Network’s success:

Commitment from Board and Senior Management Team.
Highly motivated and well-connected Equality and Diversity Manager​
Equality and Diversity Advisor post created to support and develop staff networks​
Engaged and motivated Executive Committees (OD Half Day development session)​
Action Plan to highlight successes and plan future direction​
Regular newsletters ​
Active recruitment​ (regarding diverse workforce within the organisation).

Question and Answer session

Answer from Chris Kimber: “Employee Networks are for NHS Lanarkshire only, but the Network is open to HSCP staff as well. There is limited support if you are employed through social care and local authorities (LA), but there are internal communications that take place between the Employee Director and leaders in HSCP. Regarding responsibilities, NHS Lanarkshire identifies itself as an ‘anchor’ institution, which holds the responsibilities to improve [conditions] for a lot of the people we employ indirectly through NHS Lanarkshire and the culture, which they are part of. Anchor organisation means that they don’t move and have some of the power to change and address some of the inequalities of the communities in which we serve. The Active Bystander and cultural bullying activities will be offered to HSCP staff as well. A further comment from the participant noted that shaping actions are easier when there is membership involvement, and equally easier to ignore issues because of the lack of engagement. They drew comparison to NHS Tayside, who have included employees of social care and local authorities in their conversations. They highlighted if there was a possibility of the non-NHS staff in Lanarkshire being supported in the same way. Chris followed up by confirming that the second staff survey was completed, with far-reaching repercussions regarding underlying cultures behaviours, and how NHS Lanarkshire respond to bullying harassment racism and multiple levels of discrimination. This resource went out to health and social care and GP partners as well, which has highlighted several key actions to take back to the board.”

Summarised response from Priscilla Marongwe:

• Word of mouth.
• Be savvy about what you are offering and how it fits in with the staff members.
• There will be staff members who are more active that may not attend meetings etc. Perhaps, offering different options may encourage participation to suit their needs i.e., events, meetings, workshops.
• Acknowledge the barriers with hybrid working, such as the removal of interaction.
• Another tip was to send an all staff e-mail a day before a Network meeting to capture some people who either have recently joined the organisation or they are now at the stage where they feel they want to join the Network.
• To support raising the profile and publicising the Network, Priscilla shared that in NES they have developed a weekly bulletin from different leaders on different topics.
• Share information about staff networks during the induction process.

Answer from Priscilla Marongwe

Using the people, you have there, setting the environment and getting the right message across are all key factors in this conversation. Allies are a good source to begin the dialogue and raise awareness of the issues that need to be addressed. This would come across differently than someone from an ethnic minority background. Challenges Ethnic Minorities face is consultation fatigue; colleagues referring to them as though they know everything about race equality and anti-racism. Ethnic minorities have a right to help in other ways and not what is assumed of them. Sending the right message is crucial, that it is not just for ethnic minorities to ‘to carry the banner’.

Question and Answer session