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ABOUT
Teagasc is the semi-state authority in the Republic of Ireland responsible for research and development, training and advisory services in the agri-food sector.
Teagasc has a distributed workforce with 1,500 employees and 55 locations across Ireland.
Notable wins for Teagasc
73%
of our employees feel a strong sense of belonging
91%
participation rate from our people managers
282
hours of DEI learning and relevant training
Notable Wins for FBD
of people in FBD engaged in the DEI platform.
of people self identify as neurodiverse.
AFAFAF
Introduction
Before partnering with inclusio, Teagasc had already developed their own DEI strategy, but they were unable to demonstrate its impact. Teagasc was interested in hearing from its people, knowing who they are, understanding their experience at work, and getting some feedback regarding their DEI strategy. This would help them effectively track their DEI performance, report to regulators, and develop meaningful action plans that would address the specific needs of their people moving forward. Teagasc was intentional about making difference count so they turned to inclusio for support. Teagasc understands that "a positive experience at work is critical to attract, retain, and motivate the best people" - Head of Human Resources, Valerie Farell, Teagasc.
The challenge
Demonstrating DEI impact
Teagasc could not prove the value of their DEI strategy because they lacked relevant and reliable DEI data needed to capture the lived experience of their people at work. This made it difficult for Teagasc to understand and report on workplace culture, diversity, and inclusion. They turned to inclusio to provide a scientific evidence-based approach to address this challenge.
"At Teagasc, we developed a diversity and inclusio strategy a couple of years ago. Since then, we've been implementing a number of initiatives but I suppose we didn't know if those initiatives were having any positive impact. What concerns did staff still have? So we were looking for some sort of solution to get that feedback from our staff" - Head of Human Resources at Teagasc, Valerie Farell
Collecting employee DEI data
DEI data collection is an essential part of demonstrating DEI impact because it informs you of the gaps, trends, strengths, and weaknesses that are present in the workplace. However, due to the sensitive nature of the information being collected, employees may not want to disclose personal details, or share their experience, and may not want their personal data attached to their HR records. This made it difficult for a distributed workforce like Teagsc to know their people, understand their sentiments, and provide employees with the appropriate support they need to have a positive experience at work.
Head of Human Resources at Teagasc, Valerie Farell shared that "we were grappling with doing a staff survey for a number of years and really held back. We just felt if we did a diversity and inclusion survey from the HR department, nobody would fill it out".
Delivering relevant DEI training to employee
Teagasc wanted to provide their people managers with DEI training but didn't want a generic experience. They wanted something that would cater to the needs of their people. Head of Human Resources at Teagasc, Valerie Farell shared, "how can we provide relevant DEI training to our people managers without knowing our staff, and knowing their needs?"
“We wanted to identify staff’s lived experience in the organisation, it really became a much deeper experience. The platform has assisted Teagsc to know who our staff really are, what their experience in the organisation has been, and target areas for improvement” - Data Protection Officer, Della Hunter, Teagasc
How inclusio supported Teagasc
- Provided employees with a safe and confidential way to self-identify on diversity demographics and to input and feedback on company culture.
- Advised the team in Teasgasc on building a strong programme of internal communication content to enhance buy-in and engagement
- Enhanced employee DEI knowledge via bite-sized learning taking just a few minutes each day. Employees engaged in 60 minutes of D&I foundational learning over two separate 15-day periods.
- inclusio data report provided rich demographic profile of the organisation broken into 100+ different data points and a scientific measure of inclusion sentiment across 5 key metrics.
- inclusio’s People Science Team experts presented the insights and DEI performance metrics to Teasgasc leadership teams, making recommendations on DEI actions and advising on a communications strategy for employees.
Gains
1. Teagasc now know their employees demographic profile
"The inclusio diversity profile insights enabled us to get beyond gender and take a data-driven approach and focus on the things that are most important for our staff".
The insights from Teagasc's demographic profile have been used to assess their current DEI initiatives and identify the gap that exists. For example, Della Hunter, Data Protection officer at Teagasc shared that "neurodiversity was not a topic that we would have included as part of our diversity and inclusion agenda in the organisation until it came to the fore through the inclusio platform". Della adds that the confidential nature of the inclusio platform "provided staff with the opportunity to speak openly".
Here are some demographic profile insights that Teagasc gained from using the inclusio platform; 5% of Teagasc's staff have a disability, over 10% identify as neurodiverse, 5% are part of the LGBTQ+ community, and 10% of their staff are caring for dependant adults at home.
These insights gave Teagasc a snapshot of their workforce which enabled them to consider and incorporate action plans that are relevant to their people.
For example, Teagasc discovered that 5% of their workforce are part of the LGBTQ+ community, to ensure they build a culture of belonging, Teagasc has developed a DEI initiative around raising awareness on the importance of allyship for their LGBTQ+ colleagues.
2. Teagasc used inclusio insights for mandatory reporting
"Teagasc is a public organisation so we are required to report every March on the numbers of staff who have a disability, inclusio was a great tool to help us capture all that data and I think people were more open about disclosing their disabilities. Equally, for the Gender Pay Gap, which is a reporting requirement for all large organisations, the inclusio report was able to give us a lot of insights on the sentiments and the perceptions of our female staff versus our male staff" - Head of Human Resources, Valerie Farell, Teagasc
"The inclusio report that we got after we ran the platform was able to breakdown the sentiment, the issues, and the data from a gender perspective. So we now have lots of information. from our female colleague which we could include in our action plan". - Head of Human Resources, Valerie Farell, Teagasc
3. Teagasc gained valuable insights into employee sentiment
Teagasc is now able to demonstrate their DEI performance and identify a pathway to DEI progress through the report they received from inclusio. Teagasc gained insights into employee experience as it relates to trust, belonging, physiological safety, job support, and wellbeing at work. They learned that 73% of their people feel a strong sense of belonging at work.
Teagasc also identified the challenges that staff faced at work. For example, "some employees felt it was difficult to seek accommodation if employees have a disability. Some employees felt like they didn’t have a voice at meetings and found it hard to speak up and didn’t feel included. Some employees felt like their roles weren’t being valued by the organisation" - Head of Human Resources at Teagasc, Valerie Farell
Using these insights, Teagasc have been able to tailor their actions to the specific needs of their people. Teagasc developed an accommodations passport for their staff with disability and staff who identify as neurodiverse, this initiative will be launched in June 2023. They also worked with members of the leadership team to address employees concerns, and have received relevant training and support from the inclusio team.
Teagasc has established one month of the year every year as their DEI month with planned activities focused on the insights from employees through the inclusio platform. Additionally, as result of the inclusio data insights, Teagasc will establish a new Employee Resource Group that focus on the voice of their people.
4. Teagasc received relevant DEI training for employees
Employees were able to engage in hours of DEI learning on the platform and training after receiving their inclusio report. They received bespoke training which included Neurodiversity training for HR employees and Inclusive leadership training for people managers throughout 2022.
The inclusio team developed and delivered expert sessions on leading inclusively, building trust and psychological safety for our management community. This training has enabled our managers to be more effective in getting the best from their teams in a hybrid working environment
Teagasc was delighted that their employees were able to engage in hours of DEI training from their own spaces. These sessions helped Teagasc promote inclusive practices across the business and equipped the people managers with the tools they need to take action in different instances.
Head of Human Resources at Teagasc, Valerie Farrell, shared that "inclusio delivered bespoke diversity and inclusion training for our managers which worked really well, and our managers and senior managers were really happy with the outcome".
Is the inclusio platform a valuable DEI tool?
“Yes, the inclusio solution was really timely for us, it allowed us to gather a lot of information from our staff. Staff knew it was confidential and therefore they were open with us." - Head of Human Resources, Valerie Farrell, Teagasc
The inclusio platform helped Teagasc scientifically measure its culture of inclusion, capture deep demographic data, identify the gaps, strengths, and weaknesses within the organisations DEI strategy. It helped Teagasc understand and demonstrate it's DEI performance and progress, all through the voice of its people.
These data insights provided Teagasc with the evidence they needed to recognize where they were, identify their path to progress, take action, and report to regulators.