When the Chancellor delivers the Autumn Budget, creative businesses across Bristol and the South West will be tuning in for signs of support — tax incentives, training funds, digital investment, and measures to steady employer costs.
As Bristol Creative Industries’ recent article, What our members want to see in the Autumn Budget 2025, highlights, the creative community is optimistic yet pragmatic. Members are calling for clarity, consistency and targeted support but they’re also pointing to something more human: the need to nurture and retain the people who make creative businesses thrive.
Budgets may set the economic stage, but it’s our culture how we listen to, reward and develop our people that determines whether we can truly seize the opportunity.
We’re lucky in the West of England. The West of England Growth Hub offers practical support to help creative organisations scale from access to finance to leadership mentoring and business development through programmes like Create Growth and the Creative Sector Growth Programme. At the same time, the Good Employment Charter provides a clear framework for what fair, progressive employment looks like: secure work, flexible working, wellbeing, employee voice and development. Signing up (it’s free) signals to both clients and teams that you’re serious about building good jobs and great workplaces.
Both initiatives point to the same truth: creative growth doesn’t just happen through funding or innovation; it happens through people who feel heard and valued.
While we can’t dictate what the Treasury does next, every creative organisation can take practical, affordable steps to strengthen culture, attract talent and improve retention.
The question is…why it matters now? The creative economy runs on people freelancers, collaborators, studio teams. But amidst client pressures, deadlines and tech change, it’s easy to lose sight of the human infrastructure that keeps the work flowing. While the national conversation focuses on budgets, our local conversation in Bristol and local areas can focus on something even more powerful: how we build workplaces people want to stay in.
So as the Budget headlines fade, here’s a challenge for creative leaders in the region:
Because growth doesn’t start with policy it starts with people who feel seen, supported and proud to create where they belong.
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.
Weston College and University Centre Weston are looking to work with creative businesses to shape delivery, curriculum and skills alignment to provide your industry with a talented and work ready future workforce.
Current courses delivered by us include:
Please join us at one of our events (you can find them all here) and have your say! https://forms.office.com/e/0T1Z42Ey2V
We’re delighted to announce our third Skills Bootcamp in Virtual Production!
Starting Wednesday 17th December 2025, these fully funded courses offer an incredible opportunity to gain cutting-edge skills that are transforming the future of film and media production.
We are offering two specialist courses:
• Virtual Production with Unreal Engine
• Virtual Production with Sony VENICE 2
These bootcamps are free to learners, funded by the West of England Mayoral Combined Authority (WEMCA) and led by the University of Bristol in partnership with MARS Academy (MARS Volume), Gritty Talent, and accredited trainers in Unreal Engine and Sony VENICE 2.
Virtual production is revolutionising the screen sector by blending live action, visual effects, and real-time 3D environments into a seamless creative process.
Applications close at midnight on Wednesday 12th November 2025, please share with your wider audience.
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.
As part of ADLIB’s ‘True Diversity’ series, ADLIB had a chat with Seleeta Walker, who is widely recognised for her work in Diversity and Inclusion, where she has consistently championed progress and inspired change.
Her journey began with side-of-desk projects and has since grown into a dedicated career with meaningful impact. With experience spanning aviation, health and fitness, education, finance and IT, she combines lived insight with a strategic perspective. Named a 2024 CRN A List honouree.
Here, Seleeta shares why inclusion must move beyond awareness into consistent action, and how building truly inclusive workplaces today will shape better futures for the generations to come.
Seleeta Walker on Inclusive Futures: Creating Workplaces Worth Passing On:
This is a story that has been repeated many times, especially to those who know me, but we all have our individual journeys, and this is mine.
Once upon a time, I believed the world of work was simple: if you had a growth mindset, were consistent, determined, patient in your approach and grounded in a good heart, opportunities, doors and even financial abundance would be plentiful. In practice, as I pursued this ‘successful’ career in the aviation, health and fitness, education and finally finance and IT industries, I honed my instinctual awareness of the subtle dynamics at play.
Not so long ago, there was a moment when the world seemed to stop. An event so visible and so raw that it cut across borders and industries. People spanning cultures, identities, and perspectives were recognising the subtleties, the structural obstacles and unspoken disparities that had long shaped collective experiences.
It was momentous but also complicated. The greater the awareness, the greater the risk of further fracturing, and division rather than solidarity taking hold.
What struck me most was not a sense of resolution, but a sense of possibility. That if awareness could lead to action, and if action could be sustained, then change was not only necessary but achievable.
In the four years that followed, I invested time into side-of-desk projects supporting ethnically diverse employee engagement. It was unpaid, often unseen, and sometimes hard to explain to those who had not experienced personal challenges first hand. But it mattered. And I saw how even small, consistent actions could begin to shift how people felt in the workplace.
By 2024, this work became my official career path, but by then I had already learned that diversity and inclusion is a discipline, a set of everyday choices that shape whether people can not only enter the room but truly thrive once they are there.
That dedication also led to being honoured as a 2024 CRN A List honouree, recognising inclusive leaders shaping channel culture towards greater equity and opportunity.
So where are we now?
Years on from that global turning point, the challenge is keeping the momentum alive. Fatigue has set in, and priorities are shifting, leaving Diversity & Inclusion (D&I) always at risk of being reduced to a line in a strategy deck or a slide in an all-hands meeting.
For me, it is about more than representation. It is about whether people feel heard, respected, and supported to do their best work. True diversity is the foundation for stronger teams, better decisions, and more sustainable organisations. It is about moving beyond “fitting in” to building a culture where difference is seen as an asset. When I speak of diversity and inclusion, I mean everyone. Diversity includes every demographic, including the traditional white male. We should not ignore or exclude any group, because if we do, we risk becoming the very thing that once separated us in the first place.
I have seen what happens when this is done well. Teams become more innovative because they draw on a wider range of perspectives. Decision-making improves because blind spots are reduced. The culture feels healthier because people know they belong.
I have also seen the other side, the missed opportunities that happen when diversity is not prioritised. Talent walks out the door. Innovation slows. Organisations lose touch with the markets they serve. And it is not always dramatic; sometimes it is the slow erosion of trust or the quiet disengagement of people who no longer feel seen.
There is also another reality to face: those who remain uninspired, or who believe inclusion does not serve them. We cannot ignore this section of society. They may not connect personally to the value of D&I, but their presence and perspective shape the culture too. The challenge is not to persuade through force or rhetoric, but to create environments where even sceptics cannot deny the tangible benefits: better teamwork, fairer decision making, more resilient organisations. When inclusion becomes everyday practice, even those who do not champion it directly still live within its positive impact. And in time, some of the most sceptical can become unlikely allies, not through persuasion but through experiencing the benefits of a fairer, more collaborative environment for themselves.
To anchor inclusion sustainably, I focus on three actions:
True diversity is not a fairy tale with a happy ending. It is a practice, one that requires commitment, curiosity, and a willingness to keep learning. And when we get it right, the result is a workplace where people are valued for their ideas, their insight, and their impact.
We also must look ahead. Future generations have been exposed to a level of openness and global connection that was not the norm before. Many of them carry an instinctive inclusivity, a natural ability to accept difference without hesitation. We owe it to them to create working environments that reflect those ideals, so they can step into careers where inclusion is not an aspiration but an expectation. Their perspective is hopeful and unburdened, and it reminds us that inclusion is not only possible, but it can also be natural. Our responsibility is to ensure the momentum does not fade, so that what they inherit is a working world that lives up to the promise of their ideals.
That is what keeps me committed: if we keep listening, keep noticing, and keep acting, despite discomfort, the possibilities are far greater than the challenges. And the greatest truth of all is that inclusion, when practised with sincerity, creates more than just better workplaces, it creates better futures for everyone.
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.
For years, workplace wellbeing meant gym memberships or meditation apps. But today, the #1 issue impacting employees isn’t physical health — it’s financial stress.
The numbers speak for themselves…research tells us that:
90% of employees say money worries affect their mental health
63% are experiencing financial stress right now
Nearly 40% admit it directly impacts their performance at work
And yet, 44% of people feel their employer doesn’t care about their financial wellbeing. In a competitive job market, that’s a problem.
Why now?
Traditional pay rises are STILL harder to sustain (with rising employer costs and tax changes). Meanwhile, many employees — even high earners — live “wealthy hand-to-mouth”: asset-rich but cash-poor, relying on credit cards and overdrafts. So here are my 5 pillars of a strong financial wellbeing programme.
1️⃣ Understand your people’s needs (surveys, focus groups, demographics)
2️⃣ Provide financial education (workshops, coaching, AI tools)
3️⃣ Support debt management (flexible pay, student loan help, counselling)
4️⃣ Encourage savings (payroll deductions, cashback, discounts)
5️⃣ Plan for the future (enhanced pensions & retirement guidance)
Financial wellbeing is no longer “nice to have.” It’s a business essential.
When employees feel financially secure, they’re healthier, happier, and more productive. That’s a win-win for people and performance.
Often a good place to start is simply completing a benefits audit (not overhauling everything) to answer three key questions:
Are your benefits still relevant?
Are they competitive?
Are you spending wisely?
As a Bristol Creatives Member…I can do this free for you.
#FinancialWellbeing #EmployeeBenefits #FutureOfWork #EmployeeEngagement #WorkplaceWellbeing #HR #PeopleStrategy
As part of ADLIB‘s ‘True Diversity’ series, Tony had a chat with Lee Chambers, Founding Director at Male Allies UK, business psychologist, male allyship specialist and speaker.
This article is based on a transcript from that chat where Lee talks about why inclusion matters, how it helps build better workplaces, and why men need to be part of the conversation.
Tony: Starting with the need for diversity and inclusion. Why is it so important?
Lee: So from my perspective, and from a lot of the work that I’ve done, the importance of diversity and inclusion spans a variety of different areas. The first one for me is, in an increasingly individualistic world, the things that actually bring us together, especially across difference. Because as we become more individualistic, we actually start to fear difference more than embrace and celebrate it.
So things that actively work to bring different people together in a proactive and intentional way are increasingly important in an algorithmic world, which is trying to bring commonality together rather than difference. I think it’s vital for society that we’re able to create communities of difference rather than communities of commonality.
I think, secondly, it’s important because we still live in a world without modern meritocracy. Your outcomes are still massively determined by lots of things that you can’t necessarily control yourself, but that do potentially present either an awful lot of systemic barriers to overcome, or significantly less. And we all benefit when we collectively work together to reduce some of those barriers, because fundamentally it means that we can create better outcomes from the work that we do together.
There’s more opportunity to work with great people. Talent gets the ability to rise. People can get closer to their potential. People get the opportunity to perform, which is vital for sustainable businesses. And more than ever, people feel like they can belong, not necessarily their whole self, because many people don’t want to bring their whole self into the workplace, but they would like to bring their best, most effective self. And an inclusive culture allows that to happen.
It allows that embracing of difference which, whether we’re looking at commercial or societal outcomes, helps us mitigate risks earlier, see more potential opportunities, create more effective products and services, and just make better workplace cultures where people want to stay, continue to develop themselves, and continue to contribute. They see it as a net positive rather than something that takes away from them.
I think that’s vital because the next generation is more sensitive towards these things and is definitely looking for more purpose and more alignment in the very work that they do. So yes, it’s vital in a lot of different ways. When it’s done effectively, and in a structured and really considered way, it simply makes for better ecosystems that humans can exist within.
At the end of the day, as humans, we need those spaces to be able to grow and thrive. And it’s not always on us as individuals to create those spaces.
Tony: That’s a brilliant answer. Thank you. Absolutely agree with all of that. Can you share a little bit more about what you do at Males Allies UK?
Lee: Male Allies UK fundamentally exists to help men engage in inclusion. From our work, we’ve seen that when it comes to people-orientated projects in the workplace, whether that’s around well-being, inclusion, people engagement, or people development, there are a lot more women who get involved. In the bigger picture, that means men are missing out on the opportunity to be part of designing what these people structures will look like in the future. If they’re not present, they can’t be part of co-designing and co-creating them.
We’ve also seen over the years the impact on men’s health when they don’t take a more collective approach to navigating the world. The isolation, individualism, self-reliance, and self-sufficiency, sold as independence and freedom, actually come at a cost. No man is an island. If men can connect with people, it gives them the ability to feel more connected to the world, and also to themselves.
So we exist to engage men in inclusion, to support them in building the skills of allyship, and to be honest about the systemic barriers that still exist for all genders in the workplace. We specifically start from a binary perspective and move beyond that over time.
We do this through delivering masterclasses that are more informational, busting myths and misconceptions, identifying barriers from our research, and highlighting the benefits of inclusion. Too often, inclusion is framed only around when it goes wrong, microaggressions, discrimination, poor behaviours, bad cultures, rather than amplifying the benefits of getting it right and doing it well.
We also create spaces and consult on engagement, whether that’s events, men’s networks, male partner networks, male strands, or male pillars. We host what we call creative spaces, where men can share their perspectives on inclusion without judgment, contribute their honest views, and express sentiments they might feel suppressed from sharing elsewhere. There are boundaries of respect, but it removes the sense of “I can’t say anything.” This lets them explore their beliefs, and as we go through that process with curiosity, we often find the root of resistance is linked to their own personal challenges, economic pressures, divorce, mental health struggles, fertility issues, lack of friends, caring for parents, and more.
If men don’t feel they can share these experiences, it can cause frustration that other challenges get more attention or visibility. In these spaces, they can connect, support each other, and see they’re not alone, because again, no man is an island.
We also look at what organisations can do systemically to get more men collaborating together. Our big mission, beyond those safe spaces, is to get everyone in the room together. It’s vital to shine a light on our blind spots, recognise that men and women are not homogeneous groups, and that there are massive intersecting identities within both. There are also common challenges across genders, and many issues that impact women in the workplace have a tail, end effect on men that often goes unconsidered.
If we can work together to address the gender stereotypes and norms that restrict us, many of which are at the root of these challenges, we can start to create a world where we can be who we truly are, rather than who we’ve been told to be. This will make us less judgmental, more curious about each other, and more able to explore what’s possible, bringing our own authentic expression into the world.
Tony: In your opinion, what does good allyship look like?
Lee: Yeah, so the word “allyship”, when I first came across it nine years ago, I didn’t like the term. It felt very militaristic, like “good guys versus bad guys,” a rallying cry of “join us and let’s blow them up.” That didn’t mirror my perspective on what I wanted to achieve.
I’d been on a personal journey, building a tech company, getting ill, learning to walk again, stepping out to become a stay, at, home dad, and through that, I began seeing the world differently. I realised there were many things I hadn’t seen or noticed before, a lot of unfairness in the world.
Initially, I resisted the term, but then I learned its root comes from the Old French word alliere, meaning “to combine, to unite, to come together.” That clicked for me. Allyship is about that collaborative, collective coming together, partnering with people for change, and partnering through difference.
Good allyship is multifaceted. It starts with personal work: unpacking your own conditioning, educating yourself on other perspectives without placing emotional labour on others. Then there’s allyship “in the moment”: thinking about who’s not in the room, who is in the room but not being heard, who’s being interrupted or not credited. It’s having the courage to bring someone in, amplify their voice, ensure they get the credit they deserve, and being mindful of who is doing work that goes unrecognised.
There’s also the systemic aspect, examining policies to see if they create more or less opportunity, and looking at processes like meetings, networking, promotions, project allocation, recruitment, and more. We all have different levels of systemic power to make change, but everyone has some ability to make change.
I see allyship as a skill to build, not an ideology to believe. We’re often beginners when it comes to the lived experiences of others, but over time we gain benefits from building these skills. It requires willingness to learn, humility, courage to challenge, and curiosity about what we don’t yet know.
Good allyship also means knowing when to step forward to challenge and question, when to step to the side to partner on change and projects, and when to step back to allow others to take the platform and lead. That ability to move fluidly, stepping forward, aside, and back, is the essence of allyship. It’s easy to get stuck in one of those positions, but true allyship is an agile skill.
Tony: I love that meaning of allyship! And your point about stepping forward, stepping to the side, and stepping back is a great one. A lot of people, maybe through fear of getting it wrong, default to stepping back, and I’ve done that in the past. Then, once you do step forward, the tendency might be to do it all the time or too much. So that’s a really good awareness point , I’ve learned something just from hearing that. Thank you.
Tony: Can you give an example of what good allyship looks like?
Lee: In terms of good allyship, there are more great examples than we often appreciate. Sometimes those examples are small and easy to overlook, because we tend to think of allyship as lots of small, intentional, inclusive acts that build the skill set.
We don’t see allyship as making big sweeping statements, grand gestures, or one, off transformational changes. It’s about those micro, moments in the day, to, day. Yes, there’s a lot that could be improved, but even simple actions can be powerful, like seeing senior leaders openly say, “I’m going to pick my kids up” or “I’m taking time off with my children.” Especially for male senior leaders, that challenges stigma and models what I call “caregiving loudly.”
Other examples include men calling out sexist remarks in meetings and explaining why they’re problematic, or pulling women back into conversations when they’ve been interrupted, saying, “Hang on, you’ve just interrupted her, let her finish her point.”
Some of the most powerful examples of allyship, though, are the ones we don’t see, like changing policies or systems, or using institutional power to advocate for something you wouldn’t necessarily expect them to be passionate about. Those are moments when people put real skin in the game, because allyship can be uncomfortable.
If you’re going to build this skill set and take action, it’s going to feel risky at times. You might feel scared or unsure. In our research, fear is the biggest barrier to men stepping in. That’s understandable given the current climate, but fear can also be a signal to act. Today’s discomfort becomes tomorrow’s growth.
It’s important for men to see that allyship is a beneficial skill to build and to understand the potential personal benefits over time. That perspective can help turn discomfort into growth. While that might sound transactional or self, centered at first, we’ve seen that men who sustain their allyship journey often don’t know the benefits at the start, they discover them gradually, and that keeps them engaged.
Tony: Can you tell us more about the report you’ve been working on?
Lee: Our social impact work as a company includes working with boys in schools. We’re passionate about that, because many of them are not far from entering the workplace themselves, a workplace that’s increasingly volatile, dynamic, and, at times, really challenging.
It’s a very different environment compared to the education system. These young boys have grown up in a fascinating but complex world. They’ve had a digital, first existence; social media has been present in their lives from the day they were born. Many of them have never experienced living on a street where they know all the neighbours, people of different ages, cultures, and political affiliations, and sharing those everyday connections, like a garden party. They haven’t had that exposure to difference.
Instead, they’re often algorithmically pulled into echo chambers of people who think and act exactly like them, manipulated, shaped, moved around, and sold to, growing into future consumers. At the same time, they’re living in a world where masculinity is unclear. The way it used to be isn’t how it will be in the future, but there’s no clear definition of what it is now. Many young boys are searching for answers during that crucial adolescent period, trying to figure out who they are.
We wanted to understand what it’s like to be a boy between 12 and 15 in the UK today. So we spoke to over a thousand boys, asking their perspectives on education, the future, technology, masculinity, and femininity, just to understand how they see these things. Our upcoming report will bring their voices to life, sharing their views directly, in their own words.
Ultimately, they too will benefit from building the skills of allyship in a world of disinformation and moral outrage, where they’re often told they’re hard done by. And yes, economically, it will be difficult for many young men to achieve what their parents did, given the current economic cycle.
But I take a lot of hope from speaking to them. They’re insightful, and I think we often undervalue their perspectives. More than ever, it’s a challenging time for them, but if we can support them through it, they can help us understand the world they want to live in. That’s why we need to work together across generations, something we haven’t always been very good at.
Tony: That’s amazing, when does it go live?
Lee: It’s going live on the 30th of October. We’ve got a launch event at the House of Commons.
Tony: That’s awesome. Will it be available to the public?
Lee: Yes, there’ll be an accessible version available, which will be downloadable after the event.
Tony: How can businesses or potential employers get involved with Male Allies UK?
Lee: The best thing to do is connect with us on LinkedIn, where we share a lot of resources and perspectives. You can also visit our website, maleallies.co.uk, which has a range of resources.
Engage with us, because the most valuable thing we do is speak with people. We work across 13 different industries, so we see a wide range of perspectives, commonalities, and sector, specific challenges. Everything we do starts with a conversation.
We don’t gatekeep our lessons or knowledge, because we want companies to make this work relatable to them. The key is for us to connect and follow each other’s journeys. There might be a point where you’re looking to engage more men, or when allyship skills could benefit your culture, and at that point, we can partner and do something more formal.
Until then, it’s just good to be connected, to understand the work, and to know you’re not on the journey alone. This is meaningful work, and in these uncertain times, coming together is more important than ever.
Tony: Thank you so much, Lee. I’ve really enjoyed chatting to you and there are so many takeaways. Best of luck with everything and I look forward to reading the report when it’s live.
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Male Allies UK is on a mission to normalise active allyship and cultivate gender equity within organisations and communities.
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.
In my role and a fellow member of Bristol Creative Industries, I often sit down with founders of small creative agencies. They grow their teams from two people around the kitchen table to a buzzing studio of 40. Business is good, clients are happy — but there is a nagging worry about staff turnover.
“I feel like we’ve got a great culture”, “We pay fairly, we’re flexible about working hours, but people still leave for bigger companies. I can’t compete with their salaries — but maybe I’m missing a trick with benefits?”
That’s where an employee benefits audit comes in.
What exactly is an employee benefits audit?
In simple terms, it’s a review of the perks and support you give your team. It looks at the obvious things — pensions, healthcare, life insurance — but also at the less visible, day-to-day benefits: training budgets, wellbeing support, cycle-to-work schemes, flexible working, and even perks like free coffee or social events.
The goal isn’t to overhaul everything. Instead, it’s to answer three key questions:
Why does it matter?
Last month was a crying example for a BCI Member. When we ran their audit, we found they was paying for a health cash plan that most of her staff didn’t know existed — and those who did weren’t claiming. At the same time, their team wanted something much simpler: access to mental health support and more training opportunities.
By reallocating spend, they ended up with a package that cost her less but delivered more. Staff engagement has improved, and they noticed fewer people scanning job ads for “what else is out there.”
For SME/Mid-sized organisations, the stakes are high. Recruitment is expensive. Losing a key person can disrupt client work. The right benefits package won’t stop every resignation, but it can tip the balance between someone staying or leaving.
Isn’t an audit complicated?
Not at all. It’s not a mountain of paperwork or a six-month consultancy project. For Bristol Creative Industries members, it’s simple and free:
That’s it. No jargon. No disruption to your business.
Why now?
The world of work has shifted. What employees expect from their employer in 2025 isn’t the same as it was even three years ago. Hybrid working, mental health, flexibility, and personal development now matter as much — sometimes more — than traditional “perks.”
An audit helps you see whether your benefits reflect that reality. It’s not about spending more, but about spending smarter.
The takeaway
For the BCI Member I mentioned earlier, the audit was a turning point. They didn’t need a bigger budget — just a clearer view of what worked and what didn’t. The result? A happier team, better retention, and money saved.
Your people are your biggest investment. A benefits audit is a small step that makes sure that investment is paying off — for them, and for you.
👉 BCI members can access a free audit via myself. It takes less time than your morning coffee run, but it could make a real difference to your business.
When we think back to our work experience weeks, most of us remember the same thing: a lot of tea-making. You sit awkwardly in the corner of an office, doing your best to stay awake while someone tries to remember what they can actually give you to do. That, or you get dropped into a placement that has absolutely nothing to do with what you’re interested in. Sound familiar?
It’s no wonder employers can be hesitant to offer work experience. Let’s be honest – most of us are already juggling deadlines, meetings, and more Slack messages than any human should have to process. Taking on a student can feel like another thing to manage with little pay-off for either party.
At Gather Round, we felt the same. But we also remembered how frustrating it was to be on the other side: being young, curious, and entirely in the dark about what real jobs actually look like. That’s why we decided to do things differently when we hosted two brilliant students earlier this summer and now collaborating with Emma and Luke from Not Impossible.
We approached it like we do everything else at Gather Round: with intention, creativity, and a focus on people.
First off, we made sure the students were actually interested in what they’d be doing. Both were keen on marketing, so we matched them with our Marketing Director and built a week to give them real, useful experience.
We kept it simple:
They did competitor research, helped update our website, scheduled Instagram posts, and even did a story takeover. They learned how to calculate engagement, use Google Sheets to build a partners lead list, and got a proper behind-the-scenes look at how we work.
One of our students, Kai Atwood said, “I expected to have a great time and a firm understanding of how marketing works, and I absolutely was given that by Gather Round.”
That’s what we want to hear!
And honestly? It didn’t feel like extra work. Giving them structure upfront meant they could crack on with things, and checking in twice a day kept things flowing without eating into anyone’s schedule. The Gather Round team was thrilled with the work produced by both students.
Kai told us that most of his friends were doing placements in primary schools, even though none of them wanted to be teachers. Because those were the only placements their parents could arrange (through the school). That’s precisely the problem Not Impossible is trying to fix.
Since we had such a positive experience with our work experience students, we decided to partner with Not Impossible – a work experience platform created by Luke Ashman and Emma Colwill, who’d seen first-hand how difficult it can be to host placements, particularly in modern, hybrid work environments. Instead of relying on the old ‘friends and family’ networks (which often shuts out anyone without connections), they have created a more inclusive, flexible system that aligns with modern work practices and fuels social mobility.
It’s work experience reimagined: smart matching (pairing based on shared passions and personalities) and ‘micro connections’ between young people and experienced professionals. One hour, one day – right through to internships, whatever fits.
For employers, it’s a smart way to:
One company put it perfectly: “It’s invaluable to understand the thoughts and challenges faced by young people to help inform future recruitment.”
For young people, it’s about getting a foot in the door – even if they don’t have a network. They meet people doing jobs they care about, ask questions, build confidence, and figure out what they want to do (and don’t). After a microplacement, students feel 85% more informed about their careers and 96% more optimistic about the future.
Xavi, one of their students from the University of Bristol, said,
“The match is based on your values, interests and compatibility. So you’re getting a better idea of how to navigate the world of work from the kind of people that you would actually like to work with.”
It works. And we’re fully on board!
To get a deeper understanding of the impactful work Not Impossible are doing watch their YouTube video here.
Hosting students reminded us of the powerful role spaces like ours can play in helping young creatives find their path. We’re all about community, including making space for the next generation to explore, learn, and be inspired.
Our work experience students described Gather Round as “creative, friendly, inspiring and safe,” and said they’d recommend it to their friends. That means the world to us.
So if you’ve been on the fence about offering work experience, or wondering how to recruit strong talent without disrupting your workflow, give Not Impossible a look. Or if your a young person interested in work experience here at Gather Round we’ll be hosting opportunities through Not Impossible very soon.
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