Lisa Waterhouse
Senior Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Manager, National Grid
Helen Dolloway
Enabling ERG Co-Chair, National Grid
Offering a broad diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) agenda can prove invaluable in helping an organisation recruit the high-quality talent it needs to meet its corporate goals.
For more and more job applicants, DEI is a critical consideration when planning a career move — and it is a trend HR specialists are acutely aware of.
Inclusive workspace
Lisa Waterhouse, who oversees DEI in the UK for utilities group National Grid, says organisations need a diverse workforce to drive innovation, productivity and informed decision-making. To attract the right array of talent, they must also have a strong DEI agenda in place.
“We want the best people to work in our organisation to enable us to achieve our ambitions to be a clean energy leader, to drive net zero and innovate for our customers, stakeholders and communities,” she explains.
“We need people with different skills and perspectives, and from different backgrounds and upbringings. If the workforce is more engaged, they are more motivated and more productive — and deliver better results.”
We want people to feel they can
bring their full selves to work.
Equitable organisation
Aiming to be among the ‘most inclusive, diverse and equitable organisations of the 21st century,’ National Grid has a global DEI strategy that takes a holistic approach, touching every stage of the employee life cycle.
Yet, it remains aware of the challenges, such as delivering DEI across a workforce where the majority of staff work away from offices. Externally, its DEI pillars encourage diversity in the supply chain and communities while, internally, the company pledges to be bold, transparent and more equitable with DEI targets.
“We want to make the workplace better for employees,” says Waterhouse. “We work with recruitment teams over inclusive hiring processes while our property team, for example, has a range of inclusion and equity elements to make buildings more accessible.”
Employee Resource Groups
National Grid supports DEI via 16 Employee Resource Groups (ERGs) covering ethnicity, women in engineering, people with disabilities and pride for LGBTQ+, among others. Helen Dolloway is co-chair of the UK Enabling ERG, which guides, informs, organises activities, raises awareness and helps resolve challenges for personnel with disabilities, health conditions, mental health issues and neurodiversity.
She says: “People with disabilities or health conditions do not necessarily want to tell anybody about it, as there is a fear it might affect their job or career progression. But we do a lot with adaptive technologies and offer support; we want people to feel they can bring their full selves to work.” Their Global Inclusion Week activities include DEI events and panel discussions with input from senior company leaders.
