4.4 Thinking about inclusion

Equality, diversity, accessibility and inclusion (EDAI) should be at the heart of organisational development, to ensure you can provide the best experience for all those connected to your organisation, be they staff, students or other end users, and to develop a diverse workforce that is representative of the wider world, and that can bring different perspectives and experience, to help you thrive in a more connected world.

While inclusion was important prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, the pandemic brought to the forefront of people’s minds what do we mean by inclusion. During the pandemic the media focused on the lack of laptops or tablets for school children who had to be home schooled, and many communities came together to donate such devices to local schools for those children who did not have access to them.

The disparity for certain groups were more visible, but also expectations as we all adapted to lockdowns, in order to live and work. Having started to feel the world was returning to a new normal, many people are now having to face the impact of the increasing cost of living, which brings new challenges when considering inclusion and wellbeing.

EDAI is a wide and complex topic which we cannot cover in depth within this course. Instead, this course offers areas to consider. The Hybrid working: wellbeing and inclusion course explores inclusion further. You can find this course here: Supporting hybrid working in Wales [Tip: hold Ctrl and click a link to open it in a new tab. (Hide tip)] .

During the research and speaking to contributors for this collection of courses, alongside diversity in the workplace, four topics were frequently raised that should be discussed when focusing on new ways of working: generational diversity; inclusion considerations for females; inclusion for those in rural locations; and digital inclusion – this is covered later.