Our Equality, Diversity & Inclusion

Campbell Tickell is committed to equality for all sections of the community, and actively promotes diversity in its own work, and in its work with and for clients and other partners.

We know that diverse organisations and teams are more effective and successful, as well as reflecting core principles of social justice. Our commitment to promoting equality and diversity is fundamental to who we are and is reflected throughout our values.

We have a robust Equality & Diversity Policy; we require all our staff and associates to comply fully with this, and to address any forms of disadvantage or discrimination or inappropriate behaviour.

Our recruitment work

In our recruitment services for clients, we have a strong and longstanding track record in bringing forward diverse candidates for executive and non-executive roles, with considerable success achieved in the appointment in particular of women and ethnic minority candidates to senior positions.

We have a set of questions that we consider with our clients on ensuring a diverse pool for a vacant leadership role. We seek to address a client’s ambitions on having diverse top teams and can help them raise their own expectations, as well as meeting specific requirements where a gap has been identified.

Our headhunting has helped to impact the make-up of leadership teams and Boards, creating more diverse groups that better reflect an organisation and placing people who have an offering across the intersectionality of the protected characteristics of, for example, gender, race and disability, while also targeting the elements that genuinely contribute to diversity of thought, such as class, career, and economic opportunity.

This is not about lowering standards simply to create more diverse longlists of candidates. We test skill and aptitude levels of all those who apply equally and fairly. With focused headhunting, we often produce a longlist that is diverse and has the best when it comes to quality, experience and aptitude. We have experience in targeting specific profiles to address under-representation, whilst giving assurance on credibility and ensuring transparency in selection. When working with selection panels, we are at pains to ensure that old fashioned stereotypes of leadership do not play any part in the process.

Our own team and work environment

We have a positive track record too in our own employment. Two-thirds of our staff are women, over half are ethnic minorities, over 40% are under 30, and we have LGBT team members. Half of our Partners are women and half are of ethnic minorities Of our Senior Team, half are ethnic minorities and over half are women. We support the principles of the ‘Rooney Rule’ developed in the USA for the National Football League. As regards our associate consultants, a majority are women, and they reflect other diversity characteristics appropriately.

It is fundamental that our working environment should be positive and welcoming to people of all backgrounds. We believe our ability to attract such a diverse staff team is directly linked to this. Staff members of different ethnic minority backgrounds have told us that this demonstration of diversity in practice has directly contributed to their keenness to join our team. At the same time, we are keen to develop our staff, and we have supported a number in their qualification training as well as in bespoke training and development programmes.

Working with clients

As an ethical business, we are committed to working with organisations to help them improve their effectiveness and sustainability, and help them ensure they are well run and deliver the highest possible quality services to their customers and clients. Many of the organisations we work with in this context are dealing with customers with significant levels of need.

In a diversity context, we have for instance worked with 26 of the 39 members listed for the BME National group of housing associations, 11 of them during the past year. We have moreover worked with such bodies as the Equality & Human Rights Commission, Stonewall, RNIB and Barnardos. We bring a strong track record of working with organisations focusing on such areas as refugees and migrants; mental health, learning disability and other forms of disability; women’s and LGBTQ rights; homelessness; international development; and charities working to address different forms of discrimination and disadvantage.

Our range of consultancy services is directly relevant from a diversity perspective. This includes equal pay audits, investigations into such matters as gender or disability discrimination, staff culture surveys and assessments, and equality and diversity training.

Our media work

The CT Insights pages on our website feature numerous blogs, newsletters and links relating to diversity, discrimination and disadvantage. We are keen to give a voice to organisations working in such areas, through our regular CT Brief publications and special editions, such as our Diversity and Inclusion editions, and our Health, Care & Support editions.

Supporting charities

Each year, our staff choose charities for CT to support throughout the year that work in homelessness, mental health, women’s right and related areas, and in international development. For example, we have provided financial support for UNICEF, Re-engage, Women’s Aid, HostNation, and Médecins Sans Frontières. Other examples from recent years include Shelter From The Storm, Help Refugees, Recycling Lives and Action Village India. We also make donations to similar charities chosen by our staff in lieu of sending Christmas cards.

In addition, our staff are given two days a year paid time off to volunteer with charities.

Sponsorship

We have sponsored relevant awards and initiatives, including the Gender Equality Award at the Housing Diversity Awards, the Women’s Housing Forum report, and WISH (Women In Social Housing).