Written by: on May 23, 2023
With a name like Don’t be Shy, you’re committing yourself to making an impact and lasting impression.
It echoes our mission and ambition at InnovateHer, so when we linked up with this digital B2B marketing agency in 2021, the scene was set for a close, promising partnership that would really move the dial on equity, diversity and inclusion (EDI) within their company and local Manchester communities.
We haven’t been disappointed. A couple of years on, we take a look at what we’ve achieved together so far, how we did it and what we’ve got lined up to take it even further.
Let’s get you up to speed. Don’t be Shy joined us with a strong track record for female and LGBTQ representation and socio-economic diversity. But they knew they had further to go in terms of racial diversity and diversifying their talent pipeline.
After signing up for our InspireHer package, we kicked things off with a health check to establish goals, priorities and the obstacles they’d need to overcome. It gave us a clear baseline – crucial for effective EDI work – that we could then compare to (more on that later!).
We then got stuck into activating all the social value ideas that came out of it. We paired them up with their sponsor school, Middleton Technology, where, before long, their creative team imparted some wise, inspiring words about getting into a really rewarding tech career. But it seemed one school wasn’t enough! When Whalley Range High School tweeted a call-out for work experience companies, Don’t be Shy jumped at the chance and organised two programmes.
Our monthly catch-ups with a few internal champions ensured this momentum didn’t slip, and we worked closely with Don’t be Shy to nurture company-wide engagement. When it came to our life skills explainers, their team volunteered authoritative but accessible videos on money management, leading with kindness and coding. They even put themselves through a gruelling 10k in some serious heat and hills to raise just shy of £1,000 for us.
We’ve guided them towards EDI value for their own company. A candid team survey took the pulse, kickstarted buy-in and illuminated clear strategic focuses. It targeted training on inclusive language, unconscious bias and allyship, which the team put together from our events and their own proactive research. They also centralised and formalised the number of progressive policies they already had in place into official HR documentation.
So how was it all looking when we repeated the health check 12 months after kick-off?
Progress was pretty meteoric. With many of the initiatives planned at the start now successfully implemented, their improvement score sat at a very healthy 76%. We moved straight into mapping next year’s work and are already underway with execution: a nationwide campaign to understand businesses’ perception of EDI and evaluate progress. Don’t be Shy is working with us on the planning and execution of this first-of-its-kind report. It’s a big deal! One you can be a part of…
You can now download the full report – and all its insight into EDI tensions and successes – as soon as it’s released!
April 22, 2024 - Lauren