Institution news
Earlier this year, we launched a new strategy to embed equity, diversity and inclusion into all our activities and to be a key driver in our aspirations going forward.
The strategy is a five-year plan and follows a wider review of the Institution’s governance, which highlighted the need to change culture. One of the main goals is to ensure that our organisation is “visibly more inclusive to all”.
Within the Institution, we need to do more to support broader recruitment of members and also encourage members from all backgrounds to become more involved in our activities. In May’s trustee and council elections, of the 18 candidates just two were women and three from a non-white background.
Combining members and employees from different backgrounds, ethnicities and experiences brings huge benefits to an organisation and creates a more productive and innovative environment. By sharing and appreciating our differences we create a better culture that encourages fairness, trust and transparency, and ensures that everyone feels that they belong.
Diversity is not only about gender and ethnicity but also about differences between us that can be less visible, such as disability, sexual orientation, social background and life experiences.
Not all people’s experiences as engineers match their expectations or are as fulfilling as they should be. The profession also does not always get the most from the people it attracts, and some leave too early in their careers.
In the UK, around 90% of engineers are male and tend to come from a relatively narrow social background, a situation that is similar in many other countries. To change this, more needs to be done to change how engineering is portrayed.
Promoting a more inclusive culture will, we hope, make engineering attractive to a wider pool of talent and help improve recruitment and retention.
We are planning to launch a bespoke learning programme to take employees and members on a learning journey through education and empowerment, allowing individuals in the IMechE world to create a visibly more inclusive environment for everyone. The programme will raise awareness, explore differences, highlight personal impact and equip everyone at the Institution to create tangible action plans and activities to enable our strategy to succeed.
We have also appointed a diversity and inclusion officer who will work closely with the leadership team, employees, members and external partners, with the aim of building and maintaining an inclusive culture.
We encourage you to consider equity, diversity and inclusion in all your decisions and projects. Do cast a diversity lens over everything you do and support us by tackling barriers to inclusion, encouraging the right culture, and be our champions to promote the message to become “visibly more inclusive”.
You can find information about the committee and the strategy in the Governance section of the website. If you have any questions about the strategy or need support in this area, please contact me at diversity@imeche.org