Case Study - Leeds Metropolitan University

Background

Championing Diversity was a West Yorkshire wide programme offered to employers to help them develop their management of diversity. This included an assessment of the company’s progress to date and extensive help over 18 months to move them in the direction they wanted to be in the future.

The Organisation

Shaping the companies into ‘Champions of Diversity’ in their industry, the programme worked with Sue North, Equality & Diversity Manager at Leeds Metropolitan University to develop their approach to diversity. One of the largest and most popular universities in the UK with a lively international student community and staff from countries across the globe, Leeds Metropolitan University is a truly internationalised place to learn and work.

Impact “It highlighted key issues which informed our action planning for 08/09. It also provided an opportunity within the organisation for a cross section of staff to discuss equality and diversity issues in depth and to have a voice in what is normally a bureaucratic, hierarchical structure in which the majority of staff feel distant. I was challenged as 'over-enthusiastic' and also asked to produce an impact report of how the Equality and Diversity Team's activities add value to the student experience or improve the working lives of staff.”

What did we do?

• We produced an extensive annual report which will make out a business case for diversity and describe future actions which need to happen to convert it into reality. • We have introduced a Kaleidoscope focus group of representatives from our staff equality forums to review policies under development for impact assessment purposes. The first meeting included a senior manager from HR, who was visibly nervous at joining the meeting and asked for the door to be left open in case he needed to make a speedy exit. Moral— this is what needs to happen so Human Resources Managers can work collaboratively with colleagues to promote inclusion and equality and not operate in an adversarial and combative way! • We have also introduced a new training session 'Respect - give it to get it', which should be an organisational motto.

What did we learn?

The value of a diverse group of our staff looking afresh at our policies has demonstrated the value of difference to managers within our organisation. What will stay with us is our understanding of power dynamics and how an appreciation of difference unites in an ethical and humanistic way. In a bureaucratic organisation respect has to earned and not assumed.