The Unmistakables named in Campaign Best Places to Work 2022 award winners list

Over the last few years business award entries across the board have doubled down on their focus on equity, diversity and inclusion (ED&I). What we’ve found fascinating when considering entering a number of them, though, is how ED&I is so frequently siloed as a single question: For example, “How diverse and inclusive is your business?”

Earlier this year, we wrote an article about the future of ED&I that made this isolated line of enquiry seem out of step with where businesses should be in their ED&I journeys. TikTok EMEA’s Priscilla Baffour said, “ED&I can no longer sit in a HR silo, it has to be embedded in everything we do from people and policies, to systems, practices and ways of working.”

She’s right. It really wasn’t that long ago that ED&I was almost invariably seen as the responsibility of one or two people in the HR function of any given organisation. But this is changing rapidly. Just as the word ‘digital’ began to suffix a growing number of job titles across organisations and sectors a decade or so ago, we’re seeing the word ‘inclusive’ or ‘inclusion’ being added to roles of people right across the workplace as ED&I becomes increasingly ‘baked in’ across divisions.

So would a business award entry form ask: How digital is your business? It seems unlikely. It’s this comparison that gives us a focus when considering the future of ED&I.

Building a business that is inclusive by design has just seen us named as a winner on the Campaign Best Places to Work 2022 list - a process that saw all non fixed term employees independently assessed against a number of working satisfaction criteria. And working towards a future that sees organisations shift towards a more collective conscientiousness, capability and responsibility for ED&I is the reason we need to continue to attract talent with additive skills and ‘lived expertise’ - which is why we are announcing a recruitment drive from today.

But what do we actually do?

Our trademarked inside out inclusion® ED&I framework covers internal and external indicators that run across any organisation and live across multiple teams.

On the inside, we help organisations build inclusive cultures, structures and behaviours. On the outside, we focus on translating these externally through inclusive marketing and communications. Inspired by the slogan “Nothing about us without us”, our inside out inclusion® framework is underpinned by insights to ensure that representative voices are always involved in any decision-making, which in turn helps all involved grow in cultural confidence (the ability to navigate modern society and make necessary structural business change).

We are currently building inclusion capability and cultural confidence for client partners' leaders and teams across leadership, people, marketing and communications teams. These include Unilever, Cannes Lions, HSBC, Penguin Random House, Shelter, Macmillan and Tech Nation amongst many others. Our team of trusted advisors - all of whom deliver deep diversity & inclusion expertise - consists of consultants with backgrounds in strategy & insights, senior talent development, leadership, HR and marcomms.

And what’s it like working with us?

The Unmistakables is made up of individuals with diverse 'lived expertise', i.e. multi-discipline professional expertise and wide-ranging personal experiences, covering the many different identities and intersectionalities that make up modern society.

As a consultancy business, we are collaborative, caring and inclusive by design, aiming to set an example for other businesses - and being named on the Campaign Best Places to Work 2022 award winners list is a great indicator of this.

While winning awards is always nice, the most important aspect of this accolade is the acknowledgement that we are getting it right on the inside of our own organisation, demonstrating inclusion at every touchpoint of the award entry rather than in a silo. This, we believe, is essential if we are to be an example to others.

Do you want to help accelerate inclusion?

What makes somewhere a great place to work will be very personal to each individual. We’re very open about our approach. We stay true to five core values: individuality, inclusivity, initiative, integrity and inspiration, building a culture that offers the flexibility, support and safe spaces everyone needs to be themselves and maintain a healthy work-life balance. If you think that this might make us one of the best places to work, and want to work with our client partners to accelerate inclusion, then look out for our recruitment drive on our website and LinkedIn over the coming weeks.