A group of passionate Renishaw employees have set up a new Diversity and Inclusion (D&I) Group, which will launch internally during National Inclusion Week (NIW) on September 28th, 2020. The Group hopes to make Renishaw’s employees more aware of D&I and encourage them to share their stories and experiences to create positive change.
During the launch, the Group will be reaching out to all of Renishaw’s employees to encourage them to become more aware of D&I and get involved in a range of activities. The Group’s initial priorities will be to create a better understanding of the true meaning of D&I, its importance in the workplace and to support women in engineering. The latter aims to build on the work of the company’s science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM) ambassadors, who have worked in local communities to encourage girls to consider STEM careers.
The Group consists of eight volunteers who all have a passion for D&I based on their own personal experiences, including work to address the gender and ethnicity imbalance in engineering, membership of a D&I committee in a previous organisation, and prejudice that they themselves have faced due to personal circumstances.
“Supported by Renishaw, my colleagues and I have created this new Group to drive forward the understanding for a greater awareness of how D&I can benefit the business,” explained Lily Joyce, Senior Project Manager at Renishaw and member of the D&I Group. “Our first events will be a series of videos and activities for employees, featuring guest speakers from regional offices, who will share their cultural perspectives.”
“Renishaw is a global company with over 4,000 employees from a wide range of backgrounds and we can learn a great deal from each other’s experiences, so as to create a more inclusive workforce,” explained Chris Pockett, Head of Communications at Renishaw. “There is much evidence to suggest that a diverse workforce is a more productive one and this is something Renishaw is wholeheartedly behind. The D&I Group will encourage collaboration between employees from all backgrounds and help drive the company’s D&I work across the business.”
The Group chose to align the launch with National Inclusion Week, which is run by Inclusive Employers to celebrate all forms of diversity and inclusion. The theme for the 2020 week is ‘Each One, Reach One’, which Renishaw hopes to implement internally as its employees share their own experiences and stories with each other.
To find out more about Renishaw, visit www.renishaw.com.
