Grace Ingham is Head of People Support at Chess and she's been with the business for over 12 years. In her role, she is responsible for performance management, payroll and benefits. Together with her team, she helps to create and maintain the culture that has kept Chess in ‘The Sunday Times Top 100 companies To Work For’ list for over 10 years.
Grace Ingham, Head of People Support at Chess, explains what we are doing at Chess to promote diversity, equality and inclusion. She covers:
- Jump to Diversity, Equality & Inclusion (DEI) at Chess >
- Jump to What is Chess doing? >
- Jump to DEI - Pride week at Chess >
Diversity, Equality & Inclusion (DEI) at Chess
At Chess, we feel passionate about celebrating the differences that make us all unique. Promoting and supporting workplace diversity is an important aspect of good people management. It’s about valuing all people as individuals. To reap the benefits of a diverse workforce, you need to have an inclusive environment where everyone feels able to participate and achieve their full potential. Diversity and Inclusion often go hand in hand, but they are different from one another:
Inclusion is where people’s differences are valued and used to enable everyone to thrive at work. An inclusive working environment is one in which everyone feels that they belong without having to conform, that their contribution matters and they can perform to their full potential, no matter their background, identity or circumstances. An inclusive workplace has fair policies and practices and enables a diverse range of people to work together effectively.
Diversity is about recognising the difference. It’s acknowledging the benefit of having a range of perspectives in decision-making and a workforce representative of the organisation’s customers.
Diversity, Equality and Inclusion Week at Chess
What is Chess doing?
- In our Gender Pay report, you’ll find details on our figures, what this means for us and what we’re doing to do to improve gender balance within our organisation.
- We offer a safe haven for minority groups to talk openly and express concerns/ideas to increase the feeling of inclusiveness and having a voice.
- We do an annual Equality, Diversity & Inclusion (DEI) monitoring to help get an overview of our people and their diverse characteristics so we can ensure fair and just representation and support.
- We celebrate weeks during the cultural calendar to help promote certain groups, improve our understanding, and raise awareness.
Wellbeing Week at Chess
DEI - Pride week at Chess
In August, we celebrated Manchester Pride Week to show our support for our LGBT People and embrace diversity in the workplace. This week was run by our newly reformed Diversity and Inclusion team. At Chess, we understand that everyone has their own identity, but all of us follow similar paths and have varying opinions and beliefs, which makes us all unique.
If you want to run a similar event we would be delighted to help – please feel free to drop us an email at workfromanywhere@chessict.co.uk.
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Grace Ingham