Businesses committed to a fairer Coventry - benefits of equality, diversity, and inclusivity

Places of support for your business

Evidence suggests positive public reactions to organisations that employ people with disabilities. A diverse talent pool benefits your business by employing staff with specialist knowledge and skills, creative problem-solving, and who have a particular attention to detail. Having staff who reflect their broad consumer base and can also support your business to tap into diverse audiences to drive business growth. Read Employing disabled people and people with health conditions for more information.

• Talent Inclusion and Diversity Evaluation (TIDE) is the diversity and inclusion self-assessment evaluation and benchmarking tool developed by the Employers Network for Equality and Inclusion.
• Make a commitment to the recruitment and retention of disabled people as employees and sign up to the Disability Confident scheme. The scheme provides advice on recruiting high-quality staff from the widest possible pool of talent. 
• Access to Work is a publicly funded employment support programme that provides practical and financial support if you have a disability or physical or mental health condition that can help people get or stay in work.
• The Support with Employee Health and Disability service provides essential information about supporting and managing employees with disabilities or health conditions at work. Any employer can access the service, which provides free advice on how to manage staff who may be in or out of work with a disability or long-term health condition in a user-friendly online question and answer format.

EDI resources and toolkits

• Federation of Small Businesses LGBT+ Business Hub provides free resources, interviews, advice, and networking events for LGBT+ small business owners and employers looking to make their workplace more inclusive.
• Federation of Small Businesses host a monthly virtual Disabled Entrepreneur networking event, this friendly, support and productive for entrepreneurs with any form of disability or health issues. Federation of Small Businesses also hold a bi-monthly ethnic minority business led networking event on the last Thursday bi-monthly and is an opportunity for businesses to network, share, learn and discuss the successes and experiences of being an ethnic minority business owner. Both of these events are open to any business to attend are online and provide an opportunity to support each other and network. Details of these events can be found on FSB events calendar
• Inclusive Employers ‘Talking inclusion with…’ inclusion podcasts have a range of real-life stories and information on a broad spectrum of inclusion topics, including LGBTQ+, race, and social mobility, inclusion in sport, disability and wellbeing and mental health.
• Business in the Community (BITC’s) Race at Work Charter
• West Midlands Combined Authority Race Forward West Midlands Race Equalities Taskforce Independent Strategy 2023-2028 for tackling race disparities across our region.
• Pay disparities. Taking data from the Race at Work 2021 Survey, this Windrush Generation: employment and socio-economic factors factsheet outlines the pay disparities including socio-economic factors.
• MiFriendly Cities Employers Guide; A guide to assist employers in attracting, employing, and harnessing the skills of migrants and refugees.
• Capturing Ethnicity Data toolkits – understand and take action on your pay gaps.
• The International Rescue Company website contains refugee facts, statistics, and FAQs.

Covenants

• The Care Leaver Covenant is a national inclusion programme that supports care leavers aged 16-25 to live independently.
• The Armed Forces Covenant website contains information on how businesses can be a force-friendly employer and make a difference.

How to improve your business’s accessibility to customers

Improving your business’s accessibility can attract and retain more customers.

• Did you know that the Purple Pound equates to £249 billion a year to the UK economy.. Read more about the Purple Pound; the term for the spending power of disabled people.
• Over 30% of disabled people said they had difficulty using public spaces ‘all the time’. 78% said they had frequent difficulty accessing shops and shopping centres. Read more in the UK disability survey research report (GOV.UK)
• Toilets and changing facilities encourage people to visit new places and engage in activities such as shopping and socialising. Enabling access to your toilets and changing facilities for customers including people with disabilities and their carers; older people; people with babies or young children and people of all ages who are coping with a range of medical conditions encourages them to visit and stay longer, demonstrating good levels of customer care, broadening your customer base, increasing footfall. The Bog Standards are a set of standards and guidelines that have been produced with information to support and encourage businesses to open up their toilets to the public. Changing Place Toilets and locations.