Announced: Our Summer Event!

Remember when flags, pronouns, staff groups and awareness days seemed like risk-free, feelgood ‘inclusion’ initiatives? When publicly supporting MeToo and BLM was not only fashionable but essential? When DEI focused on expanding your talent pool and retaining the best people – and ESG was about maximising the financial benefits of being a socially and environmentally responsible organisation?

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If that memory has faded fast in the last two years, you’re not alone. The smartest employers have found out the hard way that well-intentioned policies, training and targets are inherently political, and loaded with negative unintended consequences.

Far from creating peaceful, happy workplaces, and boosting productivity and profit, employers now admit that some of these practices are doing more harm than good – dividing teams, creating conflict and producing unnecessary legal, commercial and reputational risk for their organisation. Meanwhile, they result in negligible meaningful or measurable business benefits.

In the most extreme cases, they have backfired badly, leaving a mess that today’s leaders need to clear up, fast.

Unfortunately, undoing the damage is proving to be a challenge for employers. Some of the worst ideas are baked into businesses (from procurement to board-level recruitment), leaving exasperated business professionals with a task akin to removing the eggs from a cake.

And even rethinking surface-level manifestations – such as activist-led staff groups, and pronouns in email signatures – is likely to provoke a backlash among employees who view them as vital displays of an organisation’s values and ‘allyship’ for marginalised groups and urgent geopolitical causes.

This evening of discussion will include contributions from senior professionals across the business world, as well as experts, academics and authors with a valuable external perspective.

We will discuss the areas where change is needed, and evaluate the best strategies to take forward from here.

Is depoliticising the workplace an inherently political thing to do? What strategies are the most likely to be successful? And how can switched-on employers prepare for the fall-out from employees who are unhappy about this change of direction, including those at a very senior level?

Don’t miss out – join us for this essential discussion.

Buy your ticket now!

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TIMINGS
Doors open: 6.30pm
Discussion starts: 7pm
Event ends: 9.30pm

LOCATION
The venue for this event is in central London, a five-minute walk from a Zone 1 Tube station. For security reasons, final details will be emailed to all attendees nearer the time.

REFRESHMENTS
Plentiful food and drinks will be provided throughout the evening, included in the ticket price. There will be time for networking before and after the main discussion, and during the break.

WHO IS THIS FOR?
Places are strictly limited to business professionals whose experience provides insights or expertise around this topic – think business owners, senior managers, employment lawyers and professionals with board-level experience. This is not for members of the public.

Well-behaved suppliers (including consultants and coaches) are welcome but we ask you to:
1) Buy a ‘Supplier + Guest’ ticket and bring a client (employer) with you
2) Refrain from pitching your products or services to guests on the night.
Those who ignore these rules will not be welcome to attend again. You have been warned!

Buy your ticket now!