Implementation support programme

Greater London Authority

Greater London Authority (GLA) is a strategic, regional governance body of Greater London, England.

Overview

GLA collaborated with FabricShift for the implementation support programme of their Workplace Integration Network (WIN) Inclusive Employer Toolkits.

The objectives of this project included:

Raising awareness of the existing Toolkits, which were specific to five priority sectors: Green Economy, Health, Digital, Hospitality and Creative
Providing organisations tools and strategies to better understand how to implement these toolkits within their contexts
Overall, improve the workforce Equity, Diversity & Inclusion of organisations across London operating in the sectors
Engage organisations through sessions, events, knowledge hub, and more
Enhance empowerment and career progression for underrepresented groups in London’s workforce, specifically Black men (16-24 and 50+), Black women, Pakistani women, and Bangladeshi women.

FabricShift reached out to and engaged organisations in these priority sectors to raise awareness of the toolkits, conducted a series of sessions to help organisations implement the Inclusive Employer toolkits, and it also provided employers with communication pieces, coaching and other content to ultimately help them tackle their most pressing ED&I challenges.

Approach

As part of the programme, we undertook the following activities:

Reach out and awareness building: created and disseminated communications to raise awareness for the Toolkits and the programme through social media platforms and direct email marketing.
Built a webpage for information and registration that streamlined the process of registering for the event along with ease in dissemination of session details.
Sent out a pre programme survey to understand the kind of support the participants required for the sessions. It even helped in getting an insight into their awareness about the Toolkits and how the programme could help them in their ED&I journey.
Designed and facilitated a series of sessions for the participants:
1. Session 1: An introduction to the Toolkits, giving an insight into what the participants were expecting from the rest of the programme, their awareness regarding the Toolkits and what they would want help with.
2. Session 2: took a sector-specific approach, with a deeper dive into how the organisations could benefit from implementing the Toolkits efficiently, along with a 1:1 consulting session with Johanna Beresford.
3. Session 3: Implementing the WIN Toolkits, followed by a series of sessions focusing on a single pillar in each of the sessions.
Created sector specific research documents that comprise of statistics and data relevant to each of the sectors and the target audience and would be relevant to use in the future.
Designed a Virtual Knowledge Hub for the participants which included multiple video series. We filmed people of various groups, …, and edited raw videos to a visually appealing, informative series of videos to sit on the hub. To gain a wider perspective on the topic, we even filmed Deputy Mayor Debbie Weekes Bernard along with other professionals and leaders.
Created post session surveys to get an insight into the level of understanding the participants had for the Toolkits. They were even helpful in evaluating what their key takeaways were.
Compiled an end of project report that included the kind of engagement the programme had in terms of participants and reach, feedback on the WIN Toolkits by IDC, our clients and network, our feedback on the WIN Toolkit webpages, insights and feedback from the participants on each of the sessions, future recommendations for GLA and a list of all the assets created by IDC for the programme.

Results and Impact

40 companies attended at least one session of the programme
FabricShift had a 1:1 conversation with over 50 companies on the WIN Toolkit, leading them to think about the most pressing EDI issue their organisation was facing. The participants left the sessions with an action plan along with a network of peers facing similar challenges in their organisations.
Via FabricShift’s network, we directly reached out to over 390 companies.
Created in-depth sector-specific information sheets, with research
Filmed the journeys and perspectives of a total of 11 people, giving insights into the experiences of individuals from underrepresented groups, employers and policy makers.
Compiled the Virtual Knowledge Hub comprising of videos, resource materials for the audience.
FabricShift created comprehensive summaries for the sessions that were held distributed to the participants as well as those who could not attend the sessions.

40 companies attended at least one session of the programme

Designed a Virtual Knowledge Hub for the participants which included rich media content

Testimonials:

“Thank you please continue to run and offer this out to others for personal development, and growth and to better those conversations and strengths needed to make HEE the best place to work”

“The session was helpful for me to identify my strengths that I can bring to the mentoring relationship, an area I am weak in.

“I really enjoyed the session. It made me feel positive afterwards in taking part in the reciprocal mentoring scheme.”

Next Steps

Following the project, a comprehensive report was published and can be accessed here.

I was really enjoying the sessions. The presenters are so inspiring.