People in Law’s webinar on diversity and wellbeing in the legal sector featured Bola Gibson from Osborne Clarke. She told us about how the firm has evolved its approach to inclusion and wellbeing from something organic to a highly strategic approach.
Bola Gibson, Head of Inclusion and CSR at Osborne Clarke, joined the firm in 2020 just as it was evolving its approach to diversity and inclusion. As was the case with many organisations, events such as the murder of George Floyd in May 2020 and the impact of the pandemic had refocused minds on what inclusion should look like.
“The firm had been on a diversity journey since around 2014 when a new managing partner came in and identified a lack of women in partnership,” she explains. “Then in 2018/19 we felt we were making progress but it was still very organic in terms of how it was growing.” Osborne Clarke undertook the National Equality Standard to audit its progress, and Gibson’s role came out of this. “It was decided that if we want to go further, we need someone to look at how we build it into a strategic programme.”
Investing time and money
Since then, a number of things have changed in the firm’s approach – from how it embeds D&I into its wider business strategy to how it uses data to bring issues out into the open. There was a recognition that investment was needed so D&I wasn’t something being done “at the side of people’s desks” and that people were given not just the money but also the time and the training to make things happen.
Data has been “critical” to this shift in mindset, Gibson says. “Data peels away the layers that people might not want to look under – without that you can’t understand where you need to change. In the past, we might have made assumptions and been looking in the wrong place,” she explains.
The firm launched an employee census in 2021 that goes beyond collecting gender, disability and ethnicity data and enables HR systems to catch enhanced diversity data. This can then be aligned with engagement data so the business can see where different functions or groups may need more support. It also joined the Stonewall index to give itself a benchmark of how successful its LGBTQ policies were in comparison with other organisations.
Honest conversations
“Looking into the data has prompted conversations we might not have had before. It means we can be open and honest with leaders and say ‘this is the reality’,” she adds. “Sugarcoating messages for leaders is the worst thing you can do with D&I.”
To complement this there is a new governance structure which gives more accountability for D&I to leaders. Employment partner and executive board member Victoria Parry is head of the diversity champions forum at the firm and can raise issues at board meetings to strengthen accountability at the highest level. “Saying we’re all responsible for D&I can mean there’s a crowd mentality with no-one driving it, but leadership is critical in driving this forward,” says Gibson.
Data is also helping the firm understand its progress so far. Gibson noted some successes including increased engagement scores; more employee network engagement having received some training to boost their capability; an increase in the number of women in partnership and the recruitment of more diverse talent. She also identified some areas for improvement, such as the need to boost ethnic minority numbers at partner level, the diversity of new trainees, and a need for more active allyship.
The role of HR has been central to moving the dial in D&I, and the firm has invested in training for HR and recruitment professionals in some aspects of inclusion so they can better understand the issues. “It doesn’t matter what you do in HR, there’s a D&I element,” she adds. “You could be doing data analytics, you could be in recruitment, or you could be in charge of who is developed and gets promoted. The key is to think through a D&I lens whatever you’re doing.”
Role of HR
Gibson describes HR as the “second line of defence” when employees face issues around inclusion; if someone has a problem, they will often turn to HR for help, so the function needs to boost its capability around diversity issues. The firm has also learnt a few lessons during its shift in focus in the past two or three years – that infrastructure is more important than “food, flags and fun”, and that D&I teams should celebrate their successes. “Otherwise you can be like Eeyore and your tail is constantly falling off – take the wins when they come,” she laughs.
Looking to the future, Gibson wants to work on decentralising D&I activity further now that the infrastructure is in place. Gender and ethnicity remain priorities in the short term, with disability likely the next strand the firm will address. Embedding progress will be important: “It’s easy to roll out a programme and then move onto the next thing without thinking whether you’ve embedded it or not,” she concludes.
— Share
