That was the message from Sarah Churchman, chief inclusion, community and wellbeing officer at PwC speaking to delegates at TTG’s first Fairer Travel Diversity Forum.
Churchman urged travel businesses to put in place “simple metrics” and set KPIs to chart their progress - stressing that without such methods in place “tangible change can’t be accurately measured”.
“How can you know what action you need to take without knowing where to properly focus your activity?,” she stressed.
“When you set KPIs, then there’s accountability, targets and goals to achieve,” she added. “Don’t be afraid to be public with what you’re trying to achieve and look at how you measure up to other companies and sectors.”
Churchman said that in her more than 20 years working in the field of diversity and inclusion, firms “think they are a lot more inclusive than they are”.
“You can say what you’re doing is good but what you’re actually doing is so much more valuable - don’t have a gap between saying and doing,” she warned.
Asked for examples of useful KPIs for businesses to put in place, Churchman described how PwC looked at the proportion of female staff and those from ethnic backgrounds being promoted and how it examined its recruitment process.
The travel sector, according to Churchman’s assessment, was doing “ok” with its work on diversity and inclusive but “there was always scope for improvement.
“My sense is that other sectors have been working on this for longer,” she said, adding how the sector’s ongoing recruitment crisis and need to rebuild its consumer reputation post-Covid presented “a great opportunity” to attract more diverse talent.
She stressed how - although employee resource groups were useful to spark ideas and call for action - “strong leadership support” was vital to implementing change on a more major scale.
“It can’t just be left to a certain group of people with that lived experience - this needs to be driven by your most senior management. Otherwise, it’s going to take so much longer,” said Churchman.
She encouraged businesses starting out on their journey to “always put inclusion first” and ensure all members of staff felt part of what was trying to be achieved.
“There can be tensions and this isn’t necessarily easy but speaking to your people is such a valuable resource. Don’t just do what you think is right or try and copy what another business is doing. This is something that has to be unique to you and your environment.”
