Diversity and inclusion at Climalife
Climalife UK
Laura McKeown, Business Support Manager at Climalife is passionate about keeping Diversity and Inclusion high on the agenda at Climalife.
EDI, or DEI, or EDIB… whichever term you prefer to use, equality, diversity, inclusion and belonging is a hot topic in HR and business right now. And rightly so.
When writing this, Pride month had just finished with a flurry of rainbow flags, and a whole host of events were being held up and down the country to celebrate diversity, equity and inclusion showing that it is at the forefront of the country’s mind.
At Climalife we wanted to be better at inclusivity and have been making positive changes to improve our language, policies and procedures, and ensure they’re fit for everyone – regardless of gender, ethnicity, sexuality or disability.
Recruitment
The first change we made was to our recruitment process where we now provide hiring managers with blind CVs. Blind CVs remove all identifying information before they are passed on to be reviewed by hiring managers. This includes removing names, gender, ethnicity and educational background, as well as dates and any other information which could identify the age or background of the person applying. This should eliminate unconscious bias and allows recruiting managers to focus on the skills and qualifications of the candidates. It’s not a perfect solution but it’s a step in the right direction.
We also made changes to our interview process. We ensure consistent questions are prepared for all candidates, answers captured, scored and assessed by the recruiting manager and one other. Selection decisions are made according to the highest scoring candidate which has proven to be a fair and successful process.
Allyship
In 2023 we delivered Allyship training to the whole team. Lean In’s Allyship at Work programme was delivered over two workshops followed by three follow up sessions and tackled privilege and positional power and then specific actions we can all take to show up as an ally (leanin.org/allyship-at-work).
It can sometimes be a difficult subject to talk about, so ensuring everyone felt heard and seen was important in delivering the sessions. We created a safe space for everyone to share their thoughts and feelings and encouraged one another to challenge others’ views and potential biases.
The conversations that have come out of this training have been eye-opening. There are conversations happening over lunch, in team meetings and in other training sessions that would never have been approached before. People are more aware of the diversity in the world around us, and how we can be more inclusive of everyone.
Disability Awareness / Support
We wanted to do more to support disabled employees and candidates and so signed up to be Disability Confident Committed. We are working towards the next level accreditation, which has included ensuring our application process can be adapted for those who might need adjustments and offering those adjustments rather than waiting for candidates to ask for them.
Neurodiversity & Empowerment
In 2023, our Future Leaders group also delivered Neurodiversity awareness sessions to increase awareness of various conditions including dyslexia, Tourette’s, autism and dyspraxia, among others. We’re also delivering #IAmRemarkable which aims to empower everyone to celebrate their achievements in the workplace while challenging the social perception around self-promotion (https://www.rmrkblty.org/iamremarkable) – top tip: it’s not bragging if it’s based on fact! These training sessions will all help us become better allies, and more aware of others different challenges, and be comfortable to share our own successes.
I believe that allyship is everyone’s responsibility and not just for those with less privilege to take forward. Equity is the way forward. Equality has been talked about for so long, but it’s not enough. It’s important we ensure everyone has what they need to put them on equal footing.
As a business we recognise the importance of championing equity and supporting change within the refrigeration industry.
"At Climalife I’ve always thought we’ve employed people based on their ability to do the job and their competency. As a result, it means we have a very diverse workforce from different cultures, backgrounds and individuality.”
– Allan Harper, MD
“The diversity and inclusion process has allowed me to be more aware of my own privileges and situation in life. It has also allowed me to be a better colleague by speaking out more for myself and for others. If we can be a little bit more aware of everyone's situations and background’s, we can better support one another.“
– Claire Mann, Operations Coordinator
"The diversity and inclusivity focus has helped me a lot. It has helped me have difficult conversations with my colleagues, but it has created an open space where these conversations can take place. It has helped us understand each other much better and it will help us with the future."
– Sajjun Lohia, Sales & Marketing Coordinator
We are very proud to have been recognised for our actions with a RAC Cooling Award win!!
