British Standards Institute publishes new code of practice on workplace diversity, equity and inclus

The Code makes the business case for DEI and its link to performance. It uses practical guidance and tools to encourage, promote, and support DEI in the workplace. The document advises your business to select the most appropriate guidance for you and to adopt a phased approach so that you can measure progress and results.

Five-step approach

Principles

Your policies and practices should help promote, support and manage DEI in your business.

	Policy	Process	Procedure	Performance
Purpose	Define the organisation's position. What are we doing? Why are we doing it? Who does it apply to?	Define roles and responsibilities. Who is doing it? What are they doing?	Define actions and outcomes. When are they doing it? How are they doing it?	Definitions and measures of success. How will we check the policy is being adhered to? How will we check the policy is effective?
Ownership	Organisation	Individual(s) described in the policy.	Individual(s) described in the policy.	Organisation
Key information	1 Aim and objectives. 2 Compliance. 3 Consequences	​Steps required to implement the policy.	Breakdown of steps required to implement the process.	What do we want to measure? When will we measure it? Who will measure it? How will we measure it?
Communication	Organisation.	Individuals.	Individuals.	Organisation and individuals.

Five-step plan

The Code gives an example of a simple five-step plan.

Commitment

Secure the engagement and support of the right individuals in the organisation or leadership team.

Action

Agree action points that are realistic, achievable and appropriate to your business. Each action should have clear answers to the question: What? Why? Who? How? When?

Responsibility

Assign clear roles and responsibilities to individuals and teams responsible for results.

Measure

Tracking progress confirms that agreed actions are being implemented. Effective measurement needs a starting point and an endpoint: What do things look like now vs what you want them to look like?

Success

What does success look like? It is important to acknowledge success. Success could be completing all of the agreed actions, or it could be completing each individual action in its own right.

Source: BSI: Diversity, Equality and Inclusion Code of Practice, 20 June 2023