Diversity Research

Almost 30 years of research on diversity – workforces, boards, service users, audiences

All EW Group research projects focus on your ability to measure the positive impact of engaging with diversity, be it in terms of:

• Providing robust evidence to support your specific business case for diversity
• Developing diverse teams and workforces through fair recruitment, selection and progression
• Ensuring the provision of appropriate skills and professional development
• Increasing the engagement of diverse groups within and outside your organisation
• Designing equality action plans, policies and long-term strategies with measurable impact
• Building more equitable leadership and governance.

Some of our more recent diversity research projects include:

Arts Council England – three sector-wide diversity research programmes (a practical Culture Change guide for distribution to all funded organisations; audience diversity in children and young people; disabilities in the sector workforce)

Department of Health – development of a sector-wide Equality and Diversity Leadership Competency Framework, based on national and international research.

Invensys – gender diversity research for the company’s global workforce, and strategy design to improve recruitment and retention of female talent.

BBC – workforce analysis as part of our ground-breaking diversity initiatives for women and for Black, Asian and minority ethnic staff to address group under-representation.

World Confederation of Physical Therapy – global workforce research and analysis as part of a Strategic Review and business planning.

NHS London Leadership Academy – research as part of strategic approach to workforce talent and diversity management.

Children’s Commissioner – best-practice diversity guidance, gap analysis and action-planning for panel enquiry into Child Sexual Exploitation in Gangs and Groups (CSEGG).

Department for Transport – research consultation on building inclusive teams as part of departmental Champions and Networks Conference.

Financial Ombudsman Service – research input into workforce Equality Standard and Action Plan.

The EW Group Solution – diversity research that’s cross-cultural and intersectional

We custom-build all of our research projects to your requirements and desired outcomes. We provide the research expertise you need to collaborate on:

• Diversity research topics, design and methodology
• Key considerations and data segmentation
• Synthesis of existing research/monitoring data on your key themes, including evidence reviews
• Quantitative data gathering and analysis, including workforce questionnaires and online surveys
• Qualitative data gathering and analysis, including interviews, focus groups and Open Space facilitated workshops
• Preparation of research case studies (from your industry and elsewhere)
• Recommendations on best practices with benchmarking and how to address this
• Recommendations for short-, medium- and long-term actions for you to consider
• Report-writing and presentation to steering groups, senior leaders and other key parties.

We approach diversity in all its forms as a cross-cultural theme. We don’t treat the protected characteristics in isolation, but interlink them together and alongside other crucial factors such as class and socio-economic status.

The breadth and depth of our collective equalities knowledge means that, where gaps and inconsistencies arise in the data we look at, we have the expertise to use data from other sectors to inform our research. This means we can create an accurate picture of where you are, and provide practical recommendations to take you where you want to be.