This is why everyone should have the opportunity to thrive and succeed

Read the full interview below – you can also find the full video at the end of this article.

Why is diversity and inclusion important to you, as a business leader?

Diversity and inclusion is something that I've always been passionate about. I firmly believe that everyone should have the opportunity to thrive and succeed. When I was standing for election as Senior Partner, I stood on a platform of the importance of diversity and inclusion. 

Today, you are still 60% more likely to be in a professional job if you were from a privileged background rather than a working-class background. When the pandemic hit in March 2020, only 51% of households earning £6-10k have home Internet access, compared with 99% of households with an income over £40,000. And those statistics just seem to me to be so dreadful, so unfair. I think it's incumbent on all of us to do something about that. 

What are the benefits of taking action to advance the D&I agenda?

McKinsey reports that ethnically and culturally diverse companies are 36% more likely to be profitable than the least diverse companies. We've seen improved innovation in our business because of greater diversity. And obviously, that can only help as we as we grow our business. 

In our latest Trainee cohort, 75% of our offers have gone to students who, prior to 2016, would not have been eligible to apply. The first junior lawyers recruited under this process have gone on to qualify as solicitors and they are as bright and able as those who met our previous occupational requirements. Of those students, over 70% have achieved an exceptional rating in their end of year review. They've got passion and determination to succeed. Why wouldn't you want those people in your business? The other benefit that we see from greater diversity and inclusion is diversity of thought. If everybody comes from the same background, you're just not going to have that same diversity. 

What do you think the role of senior leaders are in the process of embedding D&I across the business and making it a strategic priority?

I think it's really important that you don't treat D&I as just an HR manager matter. If you do that, there's a real danger that you won't embed it throughout your business. And as I said, I stood on a platform of diversity and inclusion. It was something that I felt was so important, that I needed to lead on it. And I think senior leaders need to step up and lead. 

If you had to pick one, what is the big risk of not pushing this forward in your business?

I’ll struggle to give you just one actually, because not doing it will damage your business. I think your recruitment will suffer. We're seeing the young generation, who really want to know what businesses are doing about diversity and inclusion and are making a choice to join us on the back of the work we've done. Also, your clients will look for businesses that are more representative. I think you'll find your clients and customers go elsewhere. 

What are your three top tips to businesses who don't know where to start?

We're all learning. I think the starting point is to listen to your workforce and then let them help you devise a plan that works for your business. It's not something where you can just dictate from the top down. I think you need to involve everybody. 

Something that’s really important: don't treat qualifications as the only measure of ability. You know, if you've had a difficult start in life, you may not have the ‘right’ qualifications. But that doesn't mean that you're not able to do the job, and we often see very able people without the usual qualifications. 

You have to be prepared to try. Not everything is going to work, but I think so long as you are open and honest about what you're trying to achieve. Don't be afraid to say if something goes wrong because you will get things going wrong. 

Also, don't just focus on outreach and recruitment – retention is equally as important. If you bring people into the business, you have a duty to ensure that they’re able to thrive and succeed once they're within your business. 

What lessons have you learnt as a business leader when approaching diversity, inclusion? Have you done things that didn’t work?

The first point I’d make is that you constantly learn. I read widely, but you also learn so much from listening to people, to the experience of people in your own organisation. 

We introduced courageous conversations where we have a topic and people will speak about it. We had one session on the menopause and another on social mobility. It is incredibly powerful and relatable if someone talks about their experience. Certainly, from my perspective, the social mobility piece, listening to the stories about the barriers that you overcome to succeed was pretty momentous. 

Yes, of course not everything is going to work. But you learn from the things that don’t go well and move on. When I was elected, I was pretty clear about what I wanted to achieve on diversity and inclusion. But what's been amazing is the way that that vision has been taken on and translated by so many people in the organisation. Brilliant ideas have come from a whole range of people, and those are making a real difference.

One of our young lawyers came up with an idea about a black mentoring scheme, and that’s been tremendously successful, and I'm so grateful that he came up with that idea because it really enables us to make a difference to people who would otherwise not be able to enter the profession.