An ally is someone who is not a member of an underrepresented group but who takes action to support that group to help make their workplace more diverse and inclusive for all.
For workplaces to become truly inclusive it is up to people who hold positions of privilege to be active allies and to take responsibility for making changes that will help others be successful.
Allies at all levels can take action with simple, everyday efforts that make a real difference and in this series, we highlight some things that you can do to be an ally and to support your colleagues from underrepresented groups.
Provide additional support and training for your managers and supervisors.
Firms and employers should invest in additional support and training for managers and supervisors. While many firms invest in developing their managers soft skills such as communication they should also invest in diversity and inclusion training and building up the confidence of line managers and supervisors to enable them to have conversations with the individuals that they are supervising. This should include building up their disability and neurodiversity confidence and their understanding of workplace adjustments (also known as reasonable adjustments) and associated policies and processes.
Mangers and Supervisors will often be the first point of contact for a disabled or neurodivergent employee that is struggling, and that can be critical in shaping an employee’s experience. So it is very important to empower those managers.
As well as providing specific training for managers and supervisors, firms can provide additional support by having one ‘single entry point’ into all of the employer-provided health, adjustments and wellbeing support there is available for managers to get support for employees (and themselves) at work for any situation will make decisions and finding support quicker and easier for managers which will then be felt by employees (who should hopefully feel supported).
This may include bringing together much of what many firms already provide into one place, but it needs firms to undertake a review of what is not currently working and provided and then ensure that it is available, accessible and communicated to the managers.
Read the full “How to be an Ally” series here.
