How did brands celebrate NationalInclusionWeek2021?

 

 Photo by Sora Shimazaki from Pexels

Inclusion Week in UK was held from 27th September to 3rd October, 2021. It is a week long celebration to promote everything inclusion. This initiative was started by Inclusive Employers and it was the 9th year of the celebration. This year's theme for the event was #UnitedForInclusion.

Inclusion leaders, companies, influencers, change makers used this hashtag to share best practices, webinars, posters, ideas to help create and foster a truly inclusive workplace culture & community.

So let us look at how companies celebrated this national event? Was it an "Inclusion" washing campaign planned in 5 mins or was it a result of months/years of practices/studies/research to drive real change in workplaces and communities? 

I have listed a few examples below which showcase how brands big and small participated in the National Inclusion Week in 2021.

1. Asking your colleagues what inclusion means to them

This was one of the most common ways of brands celebrating National Inclusion Week. They asked their staff what Inclusion means to them? As you can see in the examples below brands like Rock, Northern Ireland Water,  The National Workforce Skills Development Unit used this as a strategy to participate and join in the conversation for National Inclusion Week. Some brands used real employee photos, converted them into video, shared their thoughts as quotes on graphics. All great examples of displaying the same form of content, but used a different format. This strategy was well received because it was good to see new faces on brand's social channels, get a real perspective from employees on what Inclusion means to them and why it matters to them.

Source: Rock Co Twitter

Source: Northern Ireland Water Twitter

Source: Matt Myszkowski/ Twitter

Source: The National Workers Skills Development Unit

2.  Many brands shared their progress

These are the brands who have definitely not spent 5 min to create a graphic and post on social to participate in this campaign. These are brands who have taken up the challenge of posting "real" progress in the diversity, equality & inclusion space within their companies. Aster Group UK below shares their inclusion journey so far and accepts the fact that they have made some amazing progress, but more work still needs to be done. The supporting graphic with this post, list of all the activities & initiatives they are running within their company to help embed DE&I in their culture.

Source: Aster Group UK Twitter

3. Sharing experiences via blogs

This technique of sharing long form content as blogs works exceptionally well, when you, your brand and people have a story to share. So many brands worldwide have staff members who all have been on a journey and would like to share their story.  In the example below Jasmine one of the interns at UK Civil Service shares her experience of how an internship helped her to speak up for herself.

These blogs are personal, can either be in form of question/answer format or just one pager on a topic or experience. It covers various aspects of the experience of what challenges the employees face, how it impacted them and how the initiatives helped them. 

Source: Ambitious About Autism

4. Launch Surveys

Has it been a really long time since you have spoken to your employees, suppliers, students, members about Inclusion?  Or are you looking to collect some diversity & inclusion data to map out your strategy? Then why not utilise the National Inclusion Week to launch a survey. The Wigan Council in the example below have used strategies of sharing real employee stories on the topic of living with disabilities, but what they have also done which is quite unique is to launch the "Big Listening Festival on Equality". Which is quite a unique and creative way to launch a survey to ask borough members on their experiences and priorities.  There is always a brilliant way to simple tasks like a survey and this one does meet the mark.

Source: Wigan Council Twitter

Source: Wigan Council Twitter

5. Share real, meaningful images

Please do tell me, that it is not just me who is fed up of seeing the same multicultural stock images taking over  social media posts on National Inclusion Week. Why not be brave enough like FMS Diversity and share images of real people, in real environment bringing about real changes to the real world. What a breath of relief, optimism and positivity these images have in the midst of all the smiling, photoshopped stock photos. This strategy is a must try to bring any campaign to life.

Source: FMS Diversity Twitter

6. Inclusion Selfie Frame

Now that many colleagues are following a hybrid work model and going back into offices, why not use that opportunity to create some real like fun, interactive experiences. Novus Property Solutions celebrated National Inclusion Week by sending selfie frames across their branches and staff members had an opportunity to take photos with them and share their experiences. Things like a "selfie frame" might sound cheesy to a few, but it does help create a buzz, brings people together, is fun and helps generate a lot of user generated content which sparks engagement.

Source: Novus Property Solutions Twitter

7. Share basics

Just because all brands are celebrating National Inclusion Week, it does not mean all your audiences and communities know all about it? Every individual, brand, team, company is on a diversity, equality and inclusion journey and each have their own understanding on topics. So why not take the opportunity to cover some basic fundamentals to participate in a campaign. By doing so you are not only producing educating, relevant and useful content for your community but also all those other individuals and brands, who are yet to start their inclusion journey or just want to learn more. A must try strategy to help your brand grow and be seen as an expert in the field and OP Resourcing in the example below have done a great job.

Source: OP Resourcing

8. Share a fun, interesting illustration

Why not go all out and create a beautiful illustration which shares what Inclusion means or a stat about Inclusion & diversity. Or best share illustrations created by talented designers in the creative space. The example below shows that you can share other's illustration, give them due credit and spark conversations with your brand followers. A win-win for all.

Source: Rubina Begum Twitter

I hope you enjoyed reading this blog and feel inspired by the examples shared. Did you see any brand inclusion campaign which was innovative, real and inspiring? Do share those in the comments below.