Equality Diversity and Inclusion (EDI)

Equality ensures everyone has equal opportunities and is free from discrimination. Diversity acknowledges and values the differences in people’s backgrounds, beliefs, and abilities. Inclusion means that everyone is included, visible, heard and considered.

Why EDI is a core component of any resilience and business continuity programme

We believe that EDI should be a core component of any resilience and business continuity programme and here’s why:

Firstly, ensuring that your team is diverse and that you create a culture of inclusion in your organization and within your resilience team makes good business sense. A McKinsey report, entitled “Diversity Matters Even More” concludes that diverse leadership teams continue to be associated with higher financial returns and a 2021 study commissioned by the Financial Reporting Council, a UK regulator, finds that “Higher levels of gender diversity of FTSE 350 boards positively correlate with better future financial performance.”

Secondly, with talent shortages all around the world, workforce planning is critical which means attracting and retaining talent from the widest pool possible.

Thirdly, your people must be resilient which means wellbeing and psychological safety are critical for employees to be fully engaged. And the most important reason is that it is the right thing to do.

Our EDI Commitments & Actions

The BCI is committed to transparency, learning and continuous improvements; we are on a journey. Our progress is underpinned with six commitments:

Taking proactive, positive action to tackle and eliminate discrimination and bias. This commitment extends to reviewing all our employment and membership practices and procedures, products, and services to ensure equal access, outcomes, and impact.
Promoting and championing EDI and actively valuing and celebrating differences. Fostering a psychologically safe environment and taking positive action to promote dignity, fairness, and transparency for all in the workplace.
Monitoring workforce and membership, setting targets where appropriate and using data to help inform and improve our EDI strategy.
Providing EDI training to all stakeholders to help influence, educate and create positive and sustained behaviours.
Reinforcing EDI as a good management practice and embedding it into governance at all levels in the organization including the board, executive leadership, workforce, members, and suppliers.
Investigating and taking prompt, appropriate action in relation to complaints or breaches of our EDI policy. For example, bullying, harassment, victimisation and discrimination by fellow employees, customers, members, suppliers, visitors, the public and any others during the organization’s work activities.

Get involved

Special Interest Groups

Events

Resources

World Population Day: Underlining the importance of inclusivity

Diversity & inclusion (D&I): Levers for post lockdown recovery

A great example of diversity from the BCI Spanish Chapter

Integrating EDI within business continuity planning to build resilience

Share your story

Everyone has a role to play, whether in society, your community, or your organization. Please share your best practices and learnings as to how you are addressing bias and driving meaningful change by embedding EDI to drive positive outcomes.