We are immensely proud of the group of female colleagues who, having participated in our first Women in Leadership (WIL) development programme, have emerged as champions of diversity and inclusion.  Their work and recommendations following the WIL programme along with the needless and tragic death of George Floyd and the worldwide Black Lives Matter protests have added extra focus on Scott Bader’s responsibility to Diversity & Inclusion (D&I). We are now working with renewed vigour to propel diversity and inclusion forward at all Scott Bader sites, and have outlined our ambitions in our updated Diversity & Inclusion mission statement:

Our mission is to build an inclusive work environment through our diverse communities across the world. We aim to attract, develop, and inspire talent that unleashes innovation and allows us to perform at our very best and create a culture in which everyone feels they have an equal opportunity to participate and belong.

Our D&I past

Diversity & Inclusion is rooted in Scott Bader’s history. As one of the UK’s first employee owned businesses, Scott Bader’s founder Ernest Bader believed that to make the world a better place; “a socially responsible undertaking cannot exist merely in its own interests. It is part of the whole national and international community and as such it has responsibilities which extend far beyond its factory walls”.  Scott Bader has Quaker principles at its core that are as applicable today as they were 70 years ago:

• the development of individuals (to achieve their full potential);
• equal opportunities (workplace benefits available to everyone);
• involvement and participation (everyone having a voice);
• the chance to be involved in social/ community activities;
• responsibility for one’s own actions; leading by example and resolving conflicts non-violently through dialogue.

These principles are the cornerstone of Scott Bader’s culture, and together with our company values steer our way of thinking and working.

Our D&I present and future

We know that we cannot be complacent and almost 70 years on we have vowed to promote and improve diversity and inclusion at Scott Bader.

Last year, we wanted to better understand and improve gender equality so we ran an inaugural ‘Women in Leadership’ (WIL) Programme. This aimed at supporting, developing, and empowering a group of 12 female colleagues on their future career journey. This programme has recently finished with a presentation from the WIL participants to the Group Leadership Team and Group Board about their experiences and recommendations to improve our approach, policies and procedures on diversity and inclusion. We also supported a further twenty female colleagues on a virtual leadership programme to aid their individual development.

It has been largely thanks to the constructive feedback from the WIL and virtual women groups that we have been able to shape our future Diversity & Inclusion goals and actions.

These actions include the formation of Diversity & Inclusion groups at Scott Bader sites, more training to all colleagues on Diversity & Inclusion topics, capturing and reporting of data through the new HR system which is being implemented. We are also going to start working towards achieving the BSI’s British Standard for Diversity & Inclusion – BS 76005 (valuing people through diversity and inclusion).

Scott Bader is committed to Diversity & Inclusion, Scott Bader embraces Diversity & Inclusion and Scott Bader celebrates Diversity & Inclusion!