BIE ED&I Leads
A culture of inclusion and belonging
"At BIE, we feel the executive search industry has a key role to play in supporting diversity in our clients’ organisations. We are committed to educating ourselves, looking internally at the diversity of our own team and creating an inclusive culture. Our focus is on taking action rather than words; we work in close partnership with our clients to ensure our approach is fully inclusive and to present diverse shortlists of candidates through our search processes."
Gordon Whyte, CEO
We are committed to supporting organisations to build diverse leadership and to foster the inclusive cultures that will enable their people to succeed. Our role is to support organisations to think differently about talent as we attract extraordinary leaders.
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Data
We conduct yearly internal diversity data monitoring; external quarterly data monitoring for our interim candidates; and data gathering for our permanent searches per role – either requested at longlist or upon completion.
Training
We partner with external D&I Culture Consultancy to provide ongoing internal Diversity & Inclusion training for all employees (not just billing consultants) to help counter any bias at selection stage.
#10000BlackInterns
We are proud to be part of the #10000BlackInterns steering committee, an initiative that offers paid work experience across various sectors, as well as training and development opportunities and mentorship for the Black community.
Diversity in our search process
We are mindful that there are many potential routes for bias to infiltrate and adversely impact client and candidate outcomes. We ensure a holistic, transparent and supportive process is in place across our search activity to enable us to adopt an evidence-based approach, one that keeps the process fair and open.
We encourage our clients to consider the broadest possible search universe and investigate what development areas they can accept in order to keep the potential talent pool as diverse as possible. At each stage we take care to ensure we address these in partnership with our clients, while also supporting their diversity goals. From initial engagement through to client interviews, we look to provide our candidates with a high touch, honest and open process then enables them to be fully informed and supported.
Diversity monitoring
Throughout the search process, we share all trends, insights and overall progress via reporting and calls to monitor data on the overall levels of representation within talent pool.
As part of our commitment to deliver unbiased and diverse shortlists, we ask all shortlisted and placed candidates to complete an anonymous ED&I survey. This, coupled with internal training around the appropriate inclusive language and tackling unconscious bias, is helping us to build an accurate picture of our track record on searches.
Networks and intelligence
BIE has an extensive network of cross-sector ED&I leaders who collectively form the BIE “Authenticity” group. Members of the group meet regularly to share industry knowledge and insights with each other and our wider client base, enabling all involved to improve business processes and better integrate inclusion initiatives.
As part of our commitment to ED&I, we faciliate discussion and debate through a number of regular panel discussion events, roundtables, articles, interviews and papers, which benefit our clients, candidates and wider networks.
ED&I webinars
We run several webinars each year on different ED&I topics, featuring a panel of experts and individuals with relevant profesional and/or lived experience. These webinars are open to everyone, including our clients, candidates and wider networks. Follow us on social media to hear about our upcoming events.
Watch the recordings of our ED&I events:
Guide to Accessible and Inclusive Hiring – Disabled Workers
As part of our commitment to diversity and inclusion (D&I) here at BIE, and to support our clients with their D&I as a recruitment partner, we’ve put together a guide with tips and advice about creating hiring practices that are open, fair and welcoming – processes and principles we adhere to in our own day-to-day work.
