Strike Communications has been shortlisted for two awards in the CIPR Excellence Awards 2026 and an award in the PRCA DARE Awards 2026, marking a standout moment for the Bristol-based agency.
For the national CIPR Excellence Awards, the team is in the running for Small PR Consultancy of the Year, a category that recognises high-performing agencies delivering exceptional client work, business growth and industry impact. Strike has also been shortlisted for Low Budget Campaign of the Year at the CIPR Excellence Awards and Low Budget Campaign in the PRCA DARE Awards for its Bring Turner Home campaign, delivered in partnership with Bristol Museum & Art Gallery last summer.
Run by the Chartered Institute of Public Relations (CIPR), the Excellence Awards are among the most respected in the industry, celebrating campaigns, teams and individuals that have made a genuine difference – from shifting perceptions to delivering measurable, meaningful results.
The Public Relations and Communications Association (PRCA) DARE Awards brings more top-tier recognition, celebrating the best PR and communications professionals across the UK, with winners determined by a panel of highly respected industry experts.
The recognition comes after three years of strong growth for Strike and it’s most successful year to date last year – the result of its clear strategy on providing values-led strategic consultancy with creative, high-impact campaigns.
The Bring Turner Home campaign captured national attention by rallying public and media support around Bristol Museum’s ambitious bid to bring J.M.W. Turner’s The Rising Squall masterpiece back to the city. Delivered on a modest budget, the campaign demonstrated how strategy, cultural insight and compelling storytelling can drive significant reach and engagement.
Strike’s founder and managing director, Catherine Frankpitt, said: “Being recognised nationally for both our agency performance and our campaign work highlights the breadth and impact of Strike’s work. Seeing our name alongside some big names in the industry and long-established London agencies is real validation for how far we’ve come in the last couple of years. This is real recognition to the Strike team, all of whom put their heart and soul into ensuring we deliver for our clients and remain true to our mission of delivering positive social impact through our work.”
The winners of the CIPR Excellence Awards will be announced at a ceremony in London on 1 July 2026, with the PRCA DARE Awards announced in Bristol on 1 June 2026.
The government will soon be announcing the long awaited champion for freelancers in the creative industries.
Following campaigning by many groups representing the self-employed, it was first confirmed in the creative industries sector plan published in June 2025 that the Department for Culture, Media and Sport will appoint “a creative freelance champion…to advocate for the sector’s creative freelancers within government”.
Freelancers are a key driver of the creative sector. Government data shows self-employment accounted for 28% of creative industries employment from April 2024 to March 2025, compared to 14% across the entire UK workforce.
Other data shows that although creative industries employed roles fell to 1,713,000 in 2024 from 1,744,000 in 2023, the number of roles for self-employed individuals and freelancers increased to 696,000, up from 675,000 the year before.
Writing on LinkedIn, Matthew Dowling, chairman of the Good Work Review Working Group for Self Employed Creators at the Creative Industries Council, said he has received confirmation that the freelance champion role has now been offered, and “an official announcement is expected in the coming weeks”. He added:
“For years, freelancers have lacked someone at government level to advocate for the millions of independent workers who too often feel overlooked, underserved, and invisible in national policy.
“There’s a huge opportunity to use this appointment as a milestone to recognise both the economic contribution of the freelance community and the role they play in our everyday lives.”
We want to know what BCI members think the freelance champion should focus on. We have many freelancers in the Bristol Creative Industries member community and it’s very welcome news that the government is finally introducing this new role.
Research last year by Creative UK found the challenges faced by freelancers include late payment, a decrease in demand for their services as a result of generative AI and limited workplace protections. Supporting freelancers were among the issues raised by several BCI members when we asked them to share what they’d like to see the new government do to support the creative industries ahead of the 2024 general election.
We’ll be publishing an article on what Bristol Creative Industries members would like the freelance champion to focus on.
If you’re a BCI member and would like to be featured, send a quote of around 100 words outlining what areas you think the freelance champion should address to Dan Martin at [email protected]
Supporting the next generation of lighting talent has been part of SLX’s story for years, and applications are now open for the 2026/27 cohort of our Lighting Programme.
Launched in 2018, the programme was created to give emerging lighting designers and technical theatre students meaningful support as they prepare to take the next step into the industry. Each year, five students from across the UK are selected to join the programme during their final year of study, gaining access to practical support, industry insight and real opportunities that help bridge the gap between education and working life.
For students heading into their final year, the programme is designed to give participants a chance to build their confidence, strengthen their knowledge and gain a clearer understanding of the different career paths available within lighting and technical production.
We know how important that early support can be, SLX is a Bristol-based technical production and hire company working across live events, light trails, sports, TV and broadcast, and performing arts. Creativity and problem solving sit at the heart of what we do, but just as important is the responsibility we feel to support the industries we are part of. As a B Corp, that purpose-led approach shapes how we work, how we grow and how we invest in people.
The Lighting Programme reflects that mindset. SLX was built by people with a genuine passion for these industries, and that has never changed. We know the sector depends on skilled, creative people coming through, and we believe established businesses have a role to play in helping make that happen.
Successful applicants will gain access to mentorship, hands-on experience, exposure to professional equipment and a better understanding of the realities of working in the sector. The aim is to help students move forward with more confidence, stronger industry awareness and a clearer sense of where their skills could take them.
We are now inviting applications from lighting design and technical theatre students who will be entering their final year of study in September 2026.
Applications for the 2026/27 cohort are open from 13 April 2026 to 8 May 2026.
To find out more about the programme and apply, visit: here
Pictured L-R: Julia Gray – Principal and Chief Executive Officer of City of Bristol College, Helen Godwin – Mayor of the West of England, The Rt Hon Dame Diana Johnson DBE MP and Karin Smyth – MP for Bristol South
On Monday, City of Bristol College’s Principal and Chief Executive Officer, Julia Gray, attended the Prime Minister’s Opportunities for All: A National Apprenticeship Week Reception at 10 Downing Street.
Also in attendance were Jacqui Smith, Skills Minister, Ollie de Botton, the Prime Minister’s expert adviser on Education and Skills who has previously visited City of Bristol College, apprentices, employers and children from schools who are interested in apprenticeships.
The Prime Minister, Keir Starmer, attended the event and spoke to apprentices and influencers who use their platforms to promote career paths.
The event celebrated the crucial role that apprenticeships play in creating good jobs, supporting various industries and strengthening communities across the UK.
The reception, help as part of National Apprenticeship Week, highlighted the growing national recognition of apprentices as key contributors to the UK’s economic future.
A press release published by the Government last week sees the Prime Minister vow to “unlock opportunities for young people across the country”.
The Government is set to pilot a university clearance-style system where “near miss” applicants who aren’t successful in securing their first choice of apprenticeship will be re-directed to similar opportunities in their area.
Delivered in partnership with employers and Mayoral Strategic Authorities, this pilot will test how young people can be re-directed to other suitable employers and apprenticeships often found on their doorstep if they were unsuccessful in their initial applications.
An online platform will bring together information on apprenticeships in one place for young people, many of whom are keen to explore the apprenticeship route but don’t know exactly where to start.
The platform will include new data showing actual earnings and details of how apprentices have progressed after completing their training, helping young people to compare options and understand which apprenticeships lead to lasting careers.
This will mean that employers, particularly small and medium-sized businesses will gain access to a stronger pipeline of motivated young talent; helping to close the skills gap.
Prime Minister Keir Starmer, said: “Apprenticeships give young people real experience, real prospects, and a real route into good careers.
“But for too long young people have been held back from the opportunities they need to get on in life because of outdated assumptions about how to make it into a successful career.
“We’re unlocking opportunities for young people across the country by making it easier and faster to get the skills that matter, so more young people can build a secure life for themselves.”
For information regarding how City of Bristol College can support both apprentices and employers, simply click here.
Web developers, digital innovators and tech professionals are gearing up for the sixth annual Umbraco Spark innovation conference, returning to Bristol this spring at We The Curious on Friday 20 March 2026. Organised by Bristol digital agency Gibe Digital, the event has become a fixture for developers from across the UK and Europe to share insights, ideas and practical knowledge around the open‑source Umbraco CMS and broader .NET ecosystem
Speaking about the conference, Steve Temple, Technical Director and Co‑founder of Gibe Digital, describes Spark as “a calendar highlight” that brings together “so many talented developers from the amazing Umbraco community.” Steve adds that the event leaves attendees “feeling inspired, armed with fresh knowledge to take your Umbraco projects to the next level.”
This year’s programme features a single main track of deep‑dive technical talks, practical demos and forward‑thinking sessions on topics such as load‑balancing for scalable apps, Umbraco Search, next‑generation back‑office features, and experimenting with AI‑driven accessibility tools.
Schedule Highlights:
Thursday, 19 March – The day before the main conference kicks off with a full-day Hackathon & Package Jam for the community, followed by a pre-party at a local game bar with ping pong, bowling, karaoke, food and drinks.
Friday, 20 March – A Harbour Run at 7 AM starts the day, followed by registration with coffee and pastries. The main track runs 9 AM–5:30PM, featuring technical talks, lightning sessions and demos. The Package Awards celebrate standout contributions, and the day wraps up with an after-party. Attendees also benefit from lunch, refreshments, a free cloakroom, and quiet/multi-faith rooms to support wellbeing.
Tickets & Pricing: Standard tickets cost £150 + VAT, available until the end of February or until sold out. Grab your ticket here.
Umbraco Spark continues to cement Bristol’s status as a hub for creative tech events — combining local community energy with the global expertise of the Umbraco ecosystem.
This article was written by Epoch’s Marketing Manager, Ricardo P Martins.
Getting that first job is hard.
Even harder in an industry like ours, filled with self-doubt, giant egos, cut-throat competition, and most recently, the threat of an AI revolution. In this industry, opportunities for new talent to get a foot in the door are few and far between.
At Epoch, we believe that opportunities should be giving to everyone, not just to a few privileged people from the “right” schools and/or “right” backgrounds. So, if we see talent, we want to help.
With that drive in our hearts, we created the Epoch Academy.
The Academy, as we fondly call it internally, is Epoch’s internship programme. It’s our way of giving back to our community, providing opportunities for the next generation, nurturing both the future superstars of the industry and those who haven’t yet had the opportunity (or luxury) to break into the creative workforce yet.
We do that by maintaining strong relationships with a handful of universities across the UK. These are universities that not only produce incredible talent every academic year, but also align with our values of putting people first and building meaningful bonds.
We start creating these bonds by sending a team out to each one of these universities to spend time with the students, getting to know them on a one-to-one basis, hearing their stories, their ambitions and learning about what drives them. The Epoch Academy Workshop, held in Bristol around springtime, is the cherry on top of this beautiful relationship. It’s a day of celebrating all the talent we found along the way and spending quality time with them creating, brainstorming, conceptualising, and most importantly, having loads of fun together.
The Workshop is also an opportunity for them to bond not only with us but also with other young creatives from different universities, backgrounds and walks of life.
It’s important to say that, as we can’t visit all universities across the country, we also take applications for the Epoch Workshop on our website. We make sure that at least 40% of workshop attendees come from these website applications.
The biggest bond of this journey, however, is created during the internship itself. By then, they know us. They’ve met us in their classrooms, connected with us on LinkedIn, and spent a whole day with us in Bristol. So, when they come through big grey door at 54 Queen Square on their first day, it feels like arriving at a friend’s house.
It’s warm. It’s familiar.
Not to toot our own horn, but many of them want to stay.
A few already have.
And those bonds? They are for life.
With the European Accessibility Act (EAA) coming into force in June 2025, website accessibility is no longer optional.
It’s a legal requirement across the European Union and will affect every part of how we design and develop digital products.
The aim? To ensure a wide range of products and services, including websites, comply with accessibility standards that allow equal access for people with disabilities.
According to the 2025 WebAIM Million Report, only 5.2% of the world’s top one million websites meet basic accessibility standards.
In other words, 94.8% still fall short of the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG), which underpin compliance with the ADA, Section 508, and now the EAA.
The good news? Designing for web accessibility is not about restricting creativity or overhauling your codebase, it’s about building better, clearer, and more inclusive experiences for everyone.
The bottom line is that you will need to meet the WCAG 2.1 AA standards. These guidelines form the basis for accessibility across the web, covering everything from colour contrast and readable text to keyboard navigation and assistive technology support. Your design and development teams will need to make a plan to address any areas that fall short.
Design is typically the first step towards website accessibility. A well-designed interface can prevent many accessibility barriers from ever appearing. Here are the accessibility best practices for inclusive design:
Text and interactive elements should have sufficient contrast to remain readable in all conditions. For example, pale grey text on a white background fails to meet web accessibility standards and is hard to read for many users. We use tools such as color.review, to ensure that our designs match colour contrast requirements.
Legible typography benefits everyone. We choose fonts that are clear and scalable. We also use consistent heading levels – heading levels (H1 to H6) help organise content into a logical hierarchy and structure that helps both users and assistive technologies navigate the page. We always start with a base text size of 16px (or 1rem) to make sure that the most important text is always legible.
Interactive elements such as buttons, links, and form fields should always provide visible feedback when hovered over, focused on, or clicked.
Clean layouts, clear labelling, and straightforward navigation create a smoother experience for all users, including those with cognitive impairments.
When communicating information, it’s important to use multiple cues such as icons, text labels, or patterns in addition to colour.
Even though website accessibility is a requirement, a site can still look and feel engaging while remaining functional and accessible for all. The same principles that improve usability for users with disabilities often enhance the overall user experience.
Although good design lays the foundation for web accessibility, development plays an equally important role in making sure that a site is accessible. Here are some of the key principles to follow:
Structure content with proper headings, lists, buttons, and landmarks. Semantic elements communicate meaning to browsers and assistive technologies, improving navigation and comprehension.
Instead of using PX-based measurements, using REM is best practice as it ensures that the type and element sizing scales with user preference. REM stands for ‘root-em’ and is a fundamental unit of measurement in web design.
All interactive elements should be usable with a keyboard. Users must be able to navigate, select, and submit information without relying on a mouse or touch device.
Every form field should have a visible and programmatic label. You should provide clear error messages and ensure they are announced by screen readers.
An ARIA label is a HTML attribute which provides descriptive text for web elements when the visual label is absent. It can enhance accessibility when used correctly, but it should not replace semantic HTML. Use it only when there is no native element that conveys the same meaning.
Regularly test your site using screen readers, keyboard-only navigation, and accessibility tools such as Lighthouse, Axe, or WAVE. Manual testing is essential for a complete picture.
Given the figures from the 2025 WebAIM Million Report, there is a high chance that your site won’t comply with the EAA. We recommend the following steps to ensure that your site reaches Web ContentAccessibility Guidelines:
The EAA is an important step towards a more inclusive digital world. For designers and developers, it represents an opportunity to create better products that serve everyone, regardless of ability.
Accessibility in web design is not a constraint but a mark of quality, professionalism, and care. By embedding accessibility best practices into both design and development now, you will not only meet the 2025 requirements, but you can also build digital experiences that are clearer, more usable, and more human now and for the future.
Is your website welcoming to everyone? We can work it out! Let’s talk about creating a digital experience that includes all users. Get in touch at [email protected].
As part of ADLIB‘s ‘Design for All‘ series, they speak with Martin Underhill, a digital accessibility consultant with a background in user experience design and frontend development. Until recently Martin was Accessibility Lead at Sage, a FTSE 100 company where he where he built a thriving accessibility discipline from scratch.
Here he shares how accessibility became central to his career, how he promotes inclusive design at scale, and practical tools that build empathy and capability across teams.
My name is Martin Underhill and I am a digital accessibility consultant. I help organisations embed accessibility in their teams, products, and processes so it becomes a lasting part of how they work.
I’ve just finished up as Accessibility Lead at Sage, where I spent five years working with about 11,000 colleagues across 23 countries and more than 40 flagship products, as well as internal platforms and digital communications. I led a team of six, spanning auditing, design focused accessibility, code specialists, community engagement, and generalist support.
I started my career as a freelance designer and frontend developer, and I quickly learned to simplify the user interface so I could deliver on time and give clients value; in doing this, I improved the overall user experience. That habit of starting with a minimal viable design before adding complexity led me naturally toward accessibility.
Later, as an interaction designer in UK government, I helped teams meet WCAG 2.1 AA. I worked from accessibility audit reports, coached developers to write more semantic markup, and demonstrated screen reader use. That is where my design and frontend skills came together and set my path in accessibility.
Inclusion sits at the centre of everything I do; accessibility is part of inclusion, but my goal is broader. I want everyone to feel they can engage with accessibility, even when they’re unsure or resistant. The door stays open because inclusive products are in the best interest of every user.
At Sage, my role was as an internal consultancy across many product teams and disciplines, including design, development, content, QA, product ownership, and project management; that approach informs how I work with clients now.
Because our core team was small we grew a network of Accessibility Champions and a wider community. We ran:
A recurring challenge is misconception and fear. People often worry about saying the wrong thing or think accessibility is brand new and impossibly complex. My approach has been to focus on a welcoming culture where questions are safe and mistakes are part of the learning process. If someone uses unhelpful language, for example “people suffer from disabilities,” I follow up privately and tactfully and introduce the social model of disability, explaining that people experience barriers created by poor design, not by their impairment. But I also think it is important not to write someone off just because they start from a problematic position.
If we want an inclusive culture in the broadest sense, that means including people we disagree with, even those who might initially be dismissive or ableist. Often, those people are worth talking to the most. You do not change minds by shunning people, you change them through conversation, respect, and showing them real world examples of barriers and solutions. Some of our strongest allies began as sceptics, and seeing that transformation is one of the most rewarding parts of my job.
During my time at Sage, we introduced Empathy Labs to give people a safe and structured way to understand different experiences. Labs included visual impairment goggles, motor impairment gloves, and software based colour vision simulations such as red green colour blindness. These sessions could have been controversial if they trivialise disability, so we were sure to frame them carefully; the purpose was to understand barriers and improve design.
For this year’s GAAD our Champions network ran a day of Empathy Labs across seven or eight offices, including Newcastle, Dublin, London, Manchester, Barcelona, and another office just outside Barcelona. We invested in simulation kit and licenses for all offices. Getting them shipped into Europe, even to Dublin, was surprisingly hard, but worth the effort. Engagement jumps after these sessions and we see membership rise in our channels and groups. Champions can now mobilise labs for next year’s GAAD and for awareness moments such as International Day of Persons with Disabilities and Purple Tuesday.
That experience showed me how powerful empathy exercises can be when they’re framed correctly, and it’s something I now draw on when helping clients build their own awareness activities.
I learn best by doing. I use CodePen to write small HTML examples, then run a screen reader to check whether what I hear matches what I see. Books, articles, talks, and conference sessions are valuable, but hands on learning sticks. An at home empathy lab, even a simple one, helps you build real intuition for barriers and better design choices.
Inclusion is about openness. The more you engage people, through empathy exercises, hands-on testing, or conversation, the more they’ll want to be part of the solution. That’s when accessibility stops being “someone else’s job” and becomes part of the culture; something I’ve seen in government, at Sage, and now in my consultancy work.
ADLIB’s Accessible Design Resources
Following the insightful recommendations from our Design For All participants, we’ve curated an extensive collection of tools, guides, articles, books, blogs, and videos. This resource is specifically designed to support accessibility and inclusion specialists at every stage of their journey.
View Accessible Design Resources
This blog previously appeared on the ADLIB Blog.
Gritty Talent’s Skills Bootcamp – Inclusion Accelerator, launches on the 14th January 2026 in the South-West of England. Book early to avoid disappointment….
Engaging, practical and designed for change, the Inclusion Accelerator has been thoughtfully developed to turbo charge inclusivity in the creative industries.
The Skills Bootcamp is open to 20 leaders, hiring managers & EDI leads within creative sector organisations and companies in the West of England Mayoral Combined Authority (WEMCA) region. This dynamic, guided learning bootcamp, with the outcome of creating a company specific implementation plan, will be delivered by Gritty Talent’s own senior leaders who are creative industry professionals and EDI specialists.
What’s more it’s HEAVILY subsidised by WEMCA, who fund up to 90% of the cost for learners
For full information on funding, eligibility criteria and application details. Follow the link below.
https://www.grittytalent.tv/skills-bootcamp-inclusion-accelerator
As part of ADLIB’s ‘True Diversity’ series, they had a chat with Andreyana Ivanova, Head of Equity, Diversity, Inclusion and Wellbeing at KeolisAmey Docklands. With over 16 years of cross-sector experience her work focuses on building inclusive, resilient and high-performing cultures through insight-led strategy, organisational capability building and inclusive design.
Andreyana believes that thriving employees are the driving force behind sustainable business growth. She helps organisations reimagine and shape more human-centred, equitable employee journeys, cultivating workplaces where people feel they belong, are valued, and empowered.
ADLIB: Let’s start with the need for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) – what’s your take, why is it so important?
Andreyana: In my work, I approach DEI as a strategic lever for unlocking productivity, innovation and long-term growth. I often describe DEI as the engine of high performance and belonging as the fuel that powers it. When people feel safe, valued and empowered, they bring their full potential to work, perform at their best, and stay engaged and motivated. Organisations that embrace DEI not only attract and retain top talent, but also accelerate innovation and remain resilient through change. In other words, DEI is the infrastructure behind high-performing, human-centred and future-ready workplaces.
DEI goes beyond representation. It is about redesigning the systems, structures and everyday practices that shape how people experience work. When embedded in work design, leadership competencies and decision making, DEI helps organisations cultivate inclusive cultures, resilient workforces and human-centred workplaces where everyone feels they belong and can thrive. This people-first approach not only supports colleagues through key life moments, but also strengthens customer confidence and loyalty, ultimately accelerating organisational growth and social impact.
In an increasingly complex and polarised competitive landscape, DEI matters even more. Rising backlash in some regions makes it harder to sustain momentum, yet DEI remains the anchor that keeps organisations grounded in purpose and aligned with their values.
ADLIB: What are the risks of not prioritising DEI and what are the tangible benefits of building an inclusive workforce?
Andreyana: The link between DEI, organisational culture, resilience and performance is now widely recognised and backed by both research and practice. In the absence of inclusive cultures and equitable employee experiences, the consequences for organisations and their people can be significant: employees feel disengaged, isolated or struggle in silence, often resulting in presenteeism, attrition, or low discretionary effort. These outcomes not only impact individual wellbeing and performance, but also steadily erode organisational culture and long-term success.
According to Deloitte (2023), poor mental health costs UK employers £51 billion annually, with presenteeism alone accounting for £24 billion. The latest Workplace Wellbeing Deficit report (2025) adds further depth: people from lower socio-economic and marginalised backgrounds are disproportionately affected by mental health challenges at work. Rather than taking time off, many employees feel compelled to continue working while unwell, often to avoid stigma or falling behind (a pattern known as ‘leavism’). This hidden toll of exclusion leads to burnout, low psychological safety and a culture of survival. Over time, it deepens structural inequalities and stifles potential.
On the other hand, embedding DEI into the fabric of everyday work and employee experiences fosters wellbeing, engagement and belonging, and in doing so, boosts retention, performance and collective resilience. When people feel they belong, they are more engaged and connected, more likely to stay with their employer, and empowered to contribute meaningfully to the organisation’s shared success.
From a business perspective, embracing DEI provides a competitive advantage. Teams that reflect a diversity of lived experiences are more creative, adaptable and better equipped to solve complex problems. As research continuously shows, diverse organisations consistently outperform their peers. According to McKinsey’s 2023 report, companies in the top quartile for gender or ethnic diversity on executive teams are 39% more likely to financially outperform less diverse peers (McKinsey, 2023). Other studies on board-level diversity, such as those by Bloomberg Intelligence, point to similar trends across regions (Bloomberg Intelligence, 2023).
Cloverpop’s research shows a direct link between inclusive decision making and stronger business performance:
Taken together, these findings reaffirm that DEI is not only a moral imperative but a business one, delivering measurable results and long-term impact. Organisations that embed DEI as a core enabler of their strategy and ESG commitments are better positioned for sustainable growth. They connect more authentically with employees, customers and stakeholders, building cultures of trust and accountability. In doing so, they strengthen both their employer and customer brand, and establish themselves as credible, responsible leaders within their industries and communities.
The message for leaders and organisations is clear: if you don’t embrace DEI as a strategic advantage, your competitors will. In fact, the most forward thinking ones already have!
ADLIB: How can organisations make DEI more impactful and sustainable across the employee experience?
Andreyana: While there is strong evidence that more engaged employees drive stronger business outcomes, too few feel truly connected to their organisations in a human sense. Accenture’s research (2022) shows that only one in six employees feel a deep connection to their work, culture and colleagues, described as ‘omni-connected’, which has a significant impact on retention, productivity and revenue growth. This highlights the gap between stated commitment and lived experience.
The best place to start is by listening and learning, using both data and employee voice to identify barriers, inequities and opportunities to create fairer outcomes for everyone. Ask the deep questions: Do colleagues feel safe to speak up? Whose voices carry weight? Are policies designed for the diverse realities of employees’ lives? Alongside feedback loops, organisations need robust data and insights to identify pain points in the talent journey, inform their strategies and priorities, measure the impact of their efforts and hold themselves accountable.
The next step is to act. That means integrating DEI into every stage of the talent journey from attraction to offboarding, and embedding equity into systems, processes, leadership behaviours and daily practices that shape organisational culture and how people experience work. Crucially, DEI and Wellbeing go hand in hand: colleagues are more likely to thrive and contribute fully when they feel supported through key life stages and challenges. As part of this, digital platforms and AI-enabled tools must be reviewed through an inclusion lens to ensure they deliver fair outcomes rather than perpetuating bias.
Fundamentally, embedding DEI into the employee experience is about creating equitable workplaces where people feel safe to speak up, supported to grow, and empowered to contribute fully. Achieving this requires leaders, managers and colleagues to take an active role in DEI, modelling inclusive behaviours that strengthen organisational culture. To sustain progress, DEI must also be embedded into leadership responsibilities, performance metrics and promotion criteria, ensuring accountability is consistent, measurable, and aligned with the organisation’s purpose and values. When DEI is woven into every stage of the employee experience, it transforms daily interactions into a culture of belonging where people and organisations can truly thrive.
ADLIB: What skills, mindsets or shifts do DEI and People leaders need to navigate the future of work?
Andreyana: The future of work calls for a different kind of leadership: one that is collaborative, human and grounded in integrity. DEI and People leaders are not only delivering programmes; they are working to reshape systems and cultures that were often not designed with everyone in mind. That requires clarity of purpose, resilience and the ability to navigate complexity. In today’s world of increased scrutiny and polarisation, balancing commercial focus with humility is more important than ever.
We cannot ignore the dynamic global landscape. The backlash in some regions, particularly the US, has created a more complex environment, one where the value of DEI is being questioned or misunderstood. But this also presents an opportunity to reflect, realign and strengthen the case for meaningful, systemic change that drives innovation, customer trust and long-term growth.
The most sustainable change happens when DEI is built into the way an organisation leads, makes decisions and grows. Leadership is central as we need leaders at every level who model empathy, accountability and allyship, and who foster trust and psychological safety.
For me, three shifts feel especially important:
The best leaders I have worked with lead with curiosity, courage and vulnerability. They listen, reflect, ask the hard questions, collaborate and bring others with them, not through blame but through shared ownership. They adopt inclusive leadership and allyship in their everyday behaviours, using their voice and influence to make space for others, challenge inequity and act even when it feels uncomfortable. At the same time, they use data and storytelling to demonstrate impact, making the business case for DEI visible and credible across the organisation.
Ultimately, inclusive leaders recognise that DEI is a continuous journey, not a destination. Especially in times of uncertainty it requires intentional, collective effort, guided by clarity and consistency, and the courage to lead with vulnerability, integrity and compassion. As Maya Angelou reminds us: ‘Do the best you can until you know better. Then when you know better, do better.’
If you are a part of an initiative, brand or company that proactively champions diversity and would like to be featured as part of the “True Diversity” series please get in touch with Tony.
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This blog previously appeared on the ADLIB Blog.
About ‘True Diversity’ by ADLIB:
Our series, True Diversity, is dedicated to featuring the people, organisations, and initiatives that truly understand why Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (EDI) matter.
We spotlight who they are, what they do, and why their work is important. Through their stories, we explore how they’re driving meaningful change and how businesses and potential employers can get involved in building a more inclusive future.
View ADLIB’s EDI Directory.
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