EDI Strategy Case Study

Boosting women’s representation in a frontline service

In this project, we worked with a major frontline public service. It needed to recruit more diverse workers, particularly women, in order to be more representative of the community. The organisation also needed to reduce staff turnover and increase the progression of a wider mix of people to senior positions.

This vision could only be achieved by adjusting the whole model of employment. Flexibility needed to be incorporated in ways that would make a real difference for employees.

Approach

Drawing on our specialist expertise in gender equality, we partnered with a large consultancy to design and deliver a process that would bring about change at scale.

We worked with the client team to examine things like hours, schedules and locations of work. Guided by our 5DFlex framework, we used workshops to develop new ideas and options which were turned into pilot programmes. These tested what kinds of flexibility in jobs and working practices would bring greatest benefits for both staff and operational performance.

Impact

The result was a radical shift in the people management process that began to open up opportunities for under-represented people.

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