Sheffield are proud to be Gold Sponsors of the first Regional Diversity and Inclusion Survey (RDIS).
The RDIS was undertaken to benchmark diversity and inclusion in New Zealand organisations and asked specific questions about ages, ethnicities and genders of those working at board and senior leadership level in Canterbury organisations. Previous studies have taken a national view of diversity.
Christchurch organisations represented 91% of responses, with Selwyn, Waimakariri and Ashburton making up the remainder. The survey collected responses from a range of industries varying from government to technical, IT to charity.
Organisations were asked to indicate where on the diversity and inclusion journey they thought their organisations were. Only 21% of organisations reported having a ‘formal diversity and inclusion policy in place’ with the overwhelming majority elsewhere on the journey. Discussions around workplace diversity indicated that this was a topic of interest with only 11% of organisation indicating this was not discussed at all.
Other anecdotal feedback indicated that several organisations were conducting a diversity and inclusion audit to understand and assess next steps, while those already on the journey indicated that there was a need to formalise policies around this topic or develop strategies to support the organisation long term. One larger employer is actively seeking to develop an advisory board to support and tweak their current diversity and inclusion policies. One respondent indicated that while their company lacked in this area, they were not at the right position to bring this conversation to the fore, and two companies felt that they were too small / constrained to address this yet.
For more information on the survey and to interact with the data, visit the RDIS website: www.rdis.co.nz Information on boards, senior leadership and other comparative data can also be found on the site.