Professor Susan Marlow, Professor of Entrepreneurship and Innovation, Nottingham University Business School (CONFIRMED)

This session explores the latest strategies and initiatives aimed at enhancing equality, diversity, and inclusion for women in the workplace, featuring discussions on overcoming barriers, enhancing representation, closing salary gaps, and fostering inclusive recruitment practices.

• Detailing and addressing the primary barriers that women face when progressing in the workplace
• Strategies to improve the representation of women and ethnic minorities across the workforce
• Insights into the pay transparency pilot: closing salary gaps and attracting a diverse workforce
• Positive action: outlining how employers can widen opportunities during the recruitment process

Marina Glasgow, Chief Conciliator, ACAS (CONFIRMED)

• Outlining the impact of government policy and gender dynamics in the workplace
• Understanding the impact of factors such as flexible working, motherhood, unconscious bias, and discrimination on women’s ability to access and excel in leadership positions
• Strategies for providing effective mentorship programmes for women in business
• Recommendations for employers to adopt in order to break down common barriers to women advancing into leadership positions

Jayde Howard, Lecturer in Business Management, University of South Wales (CONFIRMED)

This presentation will explore how to enhance gender inclusion in recruitment and retention through inclusive language, fair selection processes, fostering flexibility, combating burnout, and conducting data-driven analysis.

• Frameworks to create job descriptions with inclusive language that is welcoming to female applicants from all backgrounds
• Guidance for creating fair selection processes and prioritising inclusion when progressing candidates: key measures and considerations
• Reducing the turnover rate: embedding a culture of flexibility, diversity, and regular benefits across the organisation
• Tackling burnout: supporting female employees to develop a healthy work-life balance to increase retention
• Guidance for analysing data to establish which factors are driving turnover and retention for women in the workplace

Barry Boffy MBE, Senior Consultant, Fairer Consulting (CONFIRMED)

Case Study: Fostering Organisation-Wide Buy-In and Engagement in Gender Equality Initiatives

• Embedding diversity and inclusion into business priorities to ensure the needs of female employees are a primary focus
• Presenting the business case: demonstrating how engagement with inclusion initiatives leads to organisation-wide performance improvements
• Practical measures to engage male colleagues in gender equality initiatives and promote allyship
• Guidance on measuring the impact of gender equality initiatives to facilitate ongoing progress

Dionne Eldridge, D&I Lead ENEI (CONFIRMED)

This keynote will address barriers encountered by ethnic minority women at work, featuring insights on implementing the Race at Work Charter, promoting visible leadership, fostering allyship, and measuring the impact of diversity initiatives.

• The Race at Work Charter: supporting organisations to implement large-scale improvements to foster race equality
• Providing visible leadership on workplace race matters: identifying and appointing women as key workplace figures for race equality
• Outlining the importance of allyship in the workplace and strategies for engaging all employees in measures to support ethnic minority women in the workplace
• Measuring the impact of diversity and inclusion policies on ethnic minority women and publicly sharing all data collected

Sandra Kerr, Race Director, Business in the Community (CONFIRMED)

This session delivers timely insights on advancing women into senior roles, emphasising the need for sustained commitment amidst recent challenges to diversity and inclusion initiatives. Amidst growing concerns about DEI rollbacks, it is crucial to implement deliberate and inclusive promotion strategies. The session also highlights proactive steps to navigate leadership pipelines and counter the impact of recent high-profile female departures.

• Investing in external expertise to provide targeted mentorship opportunities for junior women in the workplace
• Strategies for ensuring ethnic minority women are promoted into senior positions
• Guidance on launching women-focused leadership training to expand skill sets and advance women into senior positions
• Practical measures to help female employees tackle and overcome imposter syndrome

Jenn Barnett, Head of Equity, Diversity & Inclusion (ED&I) and ESG, Grant Thornton (CONFIRMED)

This session will provide you with the opportunity to discuss the main challenges you face in measuring the successes and failures of gender equality initiatives in your organisations. You will gain insights from colleagues across the sector and discuss challenges and solutions.

This keynote session will offer guidance on implementing comprehensive gender equality policies, featuring strategies for effective communication, addressing biases, promoting flexibility, and supporting women’s health in the workplace.

• • Guidance for creating and enacting gender equality initiatives and policies and communicating them to all employees
  • Tackling the Gender Pay Gap: ensuring all pay structures are ‘fair’, navigating developments in the Asda fair pay case & reporting standards
  • Resources to confront institutional biases and ensure all colleagues contribute to developing an inclusive working environment
  • Embedding flexible and remote working practices across the organisation to improve the experiences of women with caring responsibilities

Tiana Scott, Lead Inclusion & Diversity Consultant, Unum (CONFIRMED)

This session will outline how employee networks empower women in the workplace by providing safe spaces for support and guiding leadership in addressing discrimination.

• Pioneering organisation-supported employee networks that champion equality to ensure female employees have a voice
• Developing a framework to incorporate networks and the staff voice into EDI consultations
• Creating safe environments for women to share experiences and seek peer support
• Using staff networks to facilitate open discussions on workplace discrimination and actively guide senior leadership.

Rosie Clarke, Principal Consultant, Inclusive Employers (CONFIRMED)

Professor Susan Marlow, Professor of Entrepreneurship and Innovation, Nottingham University Business School (CONFIRMED)