To mark National Inclusion Week 2023, STEP’s Chief Executive, Mark Walley, is sharing an update on equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI) at STEP.

EDI can be a daunting topic. It can be difficult to know where to start.

At STEP, we knew we had to take action. While it was clear that we have a hugely geographically dispersed membership, with 21,000 members in around 100 countries, we did not have a full picture of demographics beyond location, gender and age.

Furthermore, we had no information on whether members felt welcome and included. A look around the room was enough to identify that Council and Board were dominated by white men, and lacked younger representation.

STEP’s Council and Board recognised the importance of EDI. However, they were concerned about appearing inauthentic or as if STEP was jumping on the ‘EDI bandwagon’. They were clear that we needed to take meaningful action.

We decided to prioritise EDI within our membership governance and volunteering structures to ensure a diverse range of perspectives contributing to decision-making. Our aim is to ensure the right mix of people to support good governance and performance, while creating a welcoming and inclusive environment for all members.

What has STEP done?

A wide consultation, starting with our Council in March 2021, led to a four-point action plan:

Leadership

STEP’s Chair issued a clear policy in support of EDI. At the same time, we published our EDI Guiding Principles, which underpin all our work in this area. We ran EDI workshops for those serving on STEP’s Board and Council, with members actively participating. In addition, we set up an EDI Working Group to lead our efforts. This has subsequently been formally established as a permanent committee of the Board, demonstrating STEP’s commitment to ongoing work in this area.

Recruitment

STEP has also made changes to recruitment, both in relation to volunteer recruitment and paid staff recruitment. These changes ensure all vacancies use inclusive language and encourage diverse applicants. Invitations and adverts explicitly state that applications/participation from all are welcome, regardless of their background or identity. We have also developed videos encouraging members to volunteer, featuring a wide range of members talking about their experiences. These have been posted on our social media channels and website.

Culture

As part of creating a more inclusive culture at STEP, we:

• Published a rolling diary of ‘festival/holiday’ dates to consider when planning events
• Actively celebrate major festivals/holidays through our social media channels
• Updated the Branch Handbook and Conference Guidelines to include our EDI commitment and expectations around events logistics and speakers.

We also developed a Living our Values EDI resources hub, aimed particularly at volunteers which:

• Demonstrates how STEP’s values of community, collaboration, integrity and continuous learning can be implemented on a daily basis with the help of eight inclusive behaviours.
• Shows examples of how to behave inclusively in a STEP context, using real examples from volunteer experiences.
• Gives each person concrete actions on how to develop behaviours to be more inclusive and truly embrace our values.
• Shows how inclusive behaviours help shift mindsets to embed and value EDI throughout the organisation.

Data/reporting

We commissioned an anonymous survey of members to establish:

• A demographic profile of members – age group, gender, ethnicity, religion, location (country) and sexual orientation.
• Attitudes and perceptions related to STEP’s EDI pledge, goals and guiding principles.
• The extent of any perceived barriers to engagement with STEP.

A total of 2,005 members participated: a response rate of 12%.

The survey told us that:

• The vast majority of our members (82 per cent) believe our EDI work to be important and that we are progressing at about the right pace.
• 11% of members report barriers to inclusion, citing lack of role models, lack of diversity and not feeling welcome at meetings.
• A very small but vocal minority don’t think we should be getting into EDI issues.

What has the impact been?

The 2022 Council and Board elections saw us appoint our first Board member aged under 40. Five Council members commenced their term aged under 40. There was a huge shift in attitudes, both in relation to candidates feeling able to put themselves forward and in the electorate supporting them. The 2023 Council elections saw the percentage of women on Council increase to 43%. Change is happening.

Awareness of EDI has increased massively. Board and Council are much more mindful that they are setting a strategy that affects future generations and need to be better connected to and hear underrepresented groups more. The decision to establish the EDI Committee as a permanent Board Committee demonstrates their commitment.

Branches are actively seeking support on how best to implement EDI principles in their regular business and activities.

We have done all this without creating new ‘EDI’ roles and with limited expenditure. We wanted simple, implementable, everyday changes for lasting impact.

It’s great that this start has been recognised by Memcom, the senior leadership network for the professional membership sector, who awarded STEP the EDI award in their 2023 Excellence Awards.

We are making fabulous progress. However, we remain mindful that this is a long journey to which we are fully committed for the long-term.

You can find STEP’s Living Our Values resources on our website.

Mark Walley is Chief Executive of STEP