Sift is dedicated to the elimination of unlawful and unfair discrimination across the whole organisation. It values the differences that a diverse, equal and inclusive workforce brings to our organisation and society as a whole.

In recent times, the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement has highlighted once again the vulnerability that people from minority backgrounds suffer in modern societies. This has led to a needed revision of the inclusion and zero tolerance policies within most companies and as a business we thought our policies needed a reevaluation too. We will do more to reinforce our ongoing commitment to driving better diversity and inclusion, specifically but not exclusively, in the workplace.

BLM Protest in Bristol. Source: Bristol Post

 

As a Bristol business, with significant reach and influence to 2m business professionals via our publishing sites – AccountingWEB, HRZone, TrainingZone, MyCustomer & UK Business Forums – and 600+ clients via our digital agency PracticeWeb, we feel we can make a greater contribution to this ongoing work.

As such, we have taken the following actions and commitments as a business over the last few weeks:

  • Formed a dedicated internal team to take real action and focus on ensuring aframework is agreed to achieve greater diversity in the workplace.
  • Committed to attract a more diverse workforce over the next three years, with review of our hiring and recruitment processes.
  • Committed to conveying better representation across our publishing titles and ensuring our clients, suppliers and wider ecosystem actively support this.
  • We’re adding ‘Be Inclusive’ as a new company value, to become a key part of the DNA of Sift.
  • Delivering a comprehensive education programme to all our teams – appropriate training, sharing resources/articles and the celebration of key events.
  • Building relationships with and listening to local communities, with a commitment to learn and better understand how our business can be more inclusive.

Sift is against discrimination and it’s reflected in a diverse workforce, formed by people from diverse ethnical backgrounds. However, we recognise that we can do more to ensure our teams integrate people with all protected characteristics; age, gender, disabilities, religion, belief, sexual orientation, gender reassignment, marriage & civil partnership and pregnancy & maternity. We believe these actions will have a positive impact, specifically with attracting people from diverse backgrounds and with protected characteristics to the workplace.

For further questions about diversity and inclusion in Sift please get in touch at: sift-diversity@sift.co.uk