UK 
United States
Topics such as L&D, culture and employee wellbeing are all priorities for HR teams to manage within an organisation, and the same can be said for diversity and inclusion (D&I). For some time, D&I has been a focal point on the HR agenda, with leaders all looking for new and innovative ways to promote better diversity within an organisation.
But it’s not just crucial for employers, a plethora of research has also shown that employees care a great deal about D&I. For example, previous Glassdoor research found that more than half of employees think their company should be doing more to increase diversity among its workforce. Similarly, jobseekers are also concerned about diversity, as Glassdoor’s data also found that 67% believe a diverse workforce is an important factor when evaluating companies and job offers.
It’s due to this demand that D&I is now a top priority for many organisations, which has also led to a significant growth in D&I roles. In fact, new data from LinkedIn has discovered that D&I roles have spiked by 58% in the UK over the past five years, with one-fifth (20%) of these roles being in leadership positions. According to the research, the UK is the second country on a global scale with the highest number of D&I professionals, behind the US, and employs almost twice as many D&I professionals per 10,000 employees than any other country. D&I roles in the UK have also grown four times faster than HR positions in the past five years, and there was a 33% increase in D&I jobs posted in June 2020 compared to the previous year.
Diversity | BBC misses BAME leadership target
This growth can be attributed to the increase in awareness when it comes to unconscious bias, Adam Hodgkinson, Global Head of People Development, Talent & Communication at consumer healthcare firm HRA Pharma, told HR Grapevine. “Over the past few years, people have become much more aware of unconscious bias in the workplace, the negative effects of it and an understanding that unconscious bias should be eradicated. Because of this awareness, there is more appreciation of the need for diversity and inclusion in order to reach the desired outcome of conscious inclusion,” he explained.
