EDI has broken my business

Increasingly we are seeing situations where the implementation of well meaning Equality/Equity, Diversity and Inclusivity policies and training is destroying workplace harmony and the relationships necessary to run any successful employer. This is a particularly serious situation in small businesses (SMEs in the UK so under 250 employees) where a single activist employee can cause huge problems for the business.

We’ve come across situations where employees have refused to work because they disagree politically with the owner. Where demands to fire colleagues have been made because they are deemed to be racists, homophobes, transphobes or ‘far right’. We have seen large employers appease these mobs and terminate staff for simply expressing opinions they have a legal right to hold and express.

In a small business this can be catastrophic, so, how do you make sure that this doesn’t happen to yours, and, if it does, what do you do about it?

Fair Job UK is an accreditation scheme and HR consultancy. Our members agree to a Pledge and a Code. A Pledge that they will treat their employees in a fair way within the law and a Code of Conduct that employees will agree to honour the pledge and in return, stick to the job and keep the politics out of the workplace. We also have suites of policies to allow you to bake this into your workplace paperwork.

But what do you do if relations have completely broken down? Well, we are here to help, our experts have a lot of experience in managing these sorts of situations and depending how far things have gone, it may be a simple matter of advice. However, should you need legal or specialist HR support we can put you in touch.

Another method we would recommend is Dr Dina McMillan’s video courses Dina is a Social Psychologist specialising in rewinding some of the misconceptions your employees may have about EDI. She does this through easy to absorb video sessions but can also provide bespoke remedial sessions when required.

Access to Dina’s material is part of a Fair Job UK Membership and Pledged Members will get access to a suite of quick videos to help you. Higher level support and training is available for Accredited Members and Dina can also provide bespoke support on request. We cannot recommend here enough.