Exclusive: ‘A D&I strategy is not a tick-box exercise,’ says Weetabix’s CPO

It’s been a busy time at Weetabix, as the food company famous for the cereal brand has rolled out several initiatives to foster a diverse and inclusive (D&I) environment for its workforce.

From the introduction of a new inclusion champion job role to its flexible benefits package known as Weetaflex, the business has put in place plenty of measures to boost its D&I strategy.

Here, Stuart Branch, chief people & digital officer at Weetabix Food Company, speaks to Reward Strategy about these new measures and how other reward and HR leaders can champion D&I.

Why are you placing a bigger emphasis on D&I currently – what has sparked this?

We’ve been addressing D&I at Weetabix for several years, rather than it being a recent spark of activity. It is a fundamental pillar of our people culture and has been integral to our ways of working for a number of years. At the core of our culture, we believe in doing the right thing, even when no one’s looking – and we’re working more holistically to ensure everyone can thrive at Weetabix as part of our wider inclusion programme.

Weetabix has, like many companies, put time, effort and leadership into diversity and inclusion in the last few years and the fruits of our labour are coming through thick and fast. Whilst the financial investment may be modest, the leadership effort has been considerable and significant.

We realised this year that we needed to protect the time that these our people were dedicating to their D&I work, as well as giving them an opportunity to be recognised for their efforts. We developed an official inclusion champion role, which has a job description and objectives, as well as time allocated to it. We now have eight official inclusion champions who play a huge role in keeping the momentum up.

We’re also lucky that we have a leadership team that recognise the importance of inclusion in realising the business’ strategic commitment to ‘brilliant people’, believing people do their best work when they can be themselves.

Can you tell me a bit about your Inclusion without Exception programme? Why was this introduced and what does it entail?

Inclusion without Exception was set up three years ago, with the support of D&I consultants, to create a safe space for individuals to raise concerns, celebrate successes, educate team members and develop our culture further. We’ve recently expanded the impact of our programme and it encompasses a variety of activity including internal sessions, third-party training and ongoing objectives to ensure there is no unconscious bias in the workplace.

In the last year our inclusion work has centered around communication – ensuring that we’re understanding the needs of our people, as well as supporting with resources and giving them a platform from which to speak.

Inclusion without Exception is a programme of work that needs meaningful ongoing consideration, time, and resource allocation. It’s therefore important that our work never stands still, and we run regular employee surveys looking at our colleagues’ perception of working at Weetabix – this allows us to clearly monitor our progress and feeds into our spirit of continuous improvement.

How is Weetabix encouraging employees to open up to share their own inclusion stories?

One of the activities in our Inclusion without Exception strategy that is driving a profound impact is our ‘Breakfast With…’ sessions. These started as in-person events but are now a much-improved online Teams session. Several senior team members now facilitate a wide range of speakers on a regular basis, providing a safe and supportive place to share very personal reflections and stories of their own experiences of inclusion and diversity.

As part of these ongoing sessions, we offer a programme of ‘Inclusion Stories’ that focus on promoting, protecting and raising awareness of mental wellbeing. Recent topics have included challenges facing the neurodiverse, and the realities of going through the menopause. It’s vital we are addressing these subjects head on. Offering a safe space to communicate these stories has been really well received by our colleagues.

Why are open forums so crucial to boosting D&I in the workplace?

We’ve found that offering a safe space for individuals to discuss issues, raise concerns, celebrate successes, and educate team members has been invaluable. Traditionally there has been a tendency at workplaces to leave any personal matters at the door – but this invariably leads to more problems down the line. By providing the opportunity for colleagues to share stories and experiences, whether that’s around mental health or adapting to the menopause, it creates a more empathetic, understanding and ultimately, positive place of work.

What efforts have you put in place to drive change at the business?

Many organisations are striving to improve D&I. The data, the correlation and the evidence between inclusion and sustainable business results is becoming unquestionable. Employees are now holding companies to account – a D&I strategy is not a tick-box exercise to be rolled out when required – it has to be a fundamental part of a workplace culture.

Equality is and will continue to be a key focus for us. We’ve introduced several policies to create generous parental leave, flexible working, and learning and development that is designed to equip people upon return to work, and ultimately benefits us all. We want to attract and nurture top talent and we know that creating a fair, empowering and inclusive workplace culture supports this goal. This includes investing in training, recognising the achievements of our employees and offering a flexible benefits package – Weetaflex.

We’re incredibly proud of the work we have done so far, but we of course recognise that we are still very much on a journey. We will continue to prioritise our Inclusion without Exception strategy for all our staff – from those that have been with us for decades, to those just starting out.

Do you think certain challenges have helped to place a bigger emphasis on D&I, such as the cost of living or pandemic?

It’s of course been a challenging couple of years for many companies. Our flexible arrangements were strengthened during the pandemic and work/life balance for all will remain a key focus – that’s why we’ve adopted a ‘test and learn’ approach to reopening our office over the last year, ensuring a system that was fair and still provided the additional flexibility we’ve all become accustomed to.

Covid and the various lockdowns forced many people to reassess their work/life balance and also the type of company they want to work for. Our recruitment practices have been reviewed, so that we’re doing all we can to attract diverse talent from the outset. We’ve also updated our job descriptions to be gender neutral. We are seeing more and more applicants asking about how we manage inclusion. Being honest and transparent about our journey undoubtedly supports our employer brand. If you want to attract and nurture top talent then creating a fair, empowering and inclusive workplace culture supports this goal.

One of the most important learnings we had post-Covid from a people perspective was about the importance of reducing the stigma of mental health struggles and signposting the resources available as clearly as possible – we’ve built on our existing mental health initiatives as a direct response.

What can other HR/reward leaders do to champion D&I?

The importance of having a strategy in place cannot be underestimated, and this should always begin with insight. We survey employees every year to find out the impact of our work and if there are any gaps, and then we ensure those needs are addressed.

A company, whatever sector they might be in, is only as good as the people within it and focusing on your people is a key part to being sustainable for years to come.

Two problems that D&I programmes often run into are a lack of senior support and a lack of resource. As well as our inclusion steering group made up of senior leaders, we have a cross-functional inclusion forum which brings together passionate people from all levels within Weetabix.