Q + A With Claire Williams
What was the inspiration behind Inclusive Employers?
Inclusive Employers was established nearly 12 years ago. The inspiration stemmed from a belief that inclusive workplaces are better for business; people thrive, innovate, and achieve a balance in their lives, making them happy and committed to working hard on shared goals. Cultures like this are attractive to a broad and diverse society, enhancing recruitment, retention, innovation and customer awareness. We also wanted to establish a business that delivers meaningful outcomes and enhances society and the workplace.
How will the investment from the Palatine Impact Fund support the growth of Inclusive Employers?
Inclusive Employers has been a very successful family business. My brother Richard McKenna, his husband Rupert Moyne, and I have worked incredibly hard, along with our fantastic team, to create this amazing company with a hugely positive social and employment impact. We successfully adapted our business model when the pandemic hit and have experienced significant growth. We realised that we needed to add something to the mix in terms of business acumen to support the next phase of development, and coupled with the social drivers at the heart of what we do, the impact fund is a perfect fit. The team at Palatine have been incredibly helpful and practical in their approach to us as a business
How will the investment from the Palatine Impact Fund support the growth of Inclusive Employers?
Inclusive Employers has been a very successful family business. However, we realised that we needed to add something to the mix in terms of business acumen to support the next phase of development, and coupled with the social drivers at the heart of what we do, the impact fund is a perfect fit. The team at Palatine have been incredibly helpful and practical in their approach to us as a business.
How do you see I&D developing over the next few years?
We see massive growth in relation to Inclusion and diversity issues for employers in the UK and globally. Candidates will check out a potential employer’s Inclusion credentials as a matter of course, and they look for depth and evidence, not just a few lines on a website. How an organisation presents itself to consumers and stakeholders is also critical – advertising and products must appeal to the broadest section of society. If you aren’t involved in their discussion, you aren’t just standing still; you’re going backwards compared to your competitors.
What makes you stand out from your competitors?
Inclusive Employers offers a magical combination of expertise and warmth – it’s not just what we do ( and we do a lot in this space!), it’s how you do it. We have close relationships with and support our members on their inclusion journeys. We deliver training which offers impact, relevance and engagement, practical solutions and expertise in our consultancy and Inclusive Employer’s standard and high success rates in our qualification programme. Finally, for the past ten years, we have run the one and only National Inclusion Week – a free source campaign which gives every employer, large and small, local or global, access to free resources to help them on their inclusion journey.
What has been the most challenging and enjoyable part of your career?
I would say that the most challenging part of my career has been in a large, unionised public sector organisation where there was a huge amount of conflict, and it often felt that any employment problems that no – one else could solve landed on my desk! I loved the challenge and the people, though. Inclusive Employers is definitely the most enjoyable, and this is the period in my working life that I will reflect on with a sense of doing something deeply worthwhile