Wednesday 5th July, 12:00 pm (BST)

The Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) has announced that its biannual mandatory diversity survey will be due on 23rd July 2023.

All SRA regulated law firms, regardless of size, must collect, report and publish their workforce diversity data every two years.

In this webinar, VinciWorks’ Director of Best Practice, Gary Yantin, will be joined by Siân Hughes, Head of EDI at the SRA, and Andrew Donovan, Managing Director, at The Compliance Office. Gary, Siân and Andrew will discuss the importance of reporting and publishing SRA diversity data.

The webinar will cover: 

  • How to report and organise the diversity data
  • How to carry out the survey and meet the SRA’s deadline
  • Current data on diversity and inclusion in law firms and what firms can do to improve
  • How we can help

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Our recent survey has found that over half (56%) of HR and DEI managers are not yet carrying out any training around sexual orientation within their organisations. Furthermore, 62% of HR and DEI managers have witnessed discrimination against sexual minorities in the workplace.

Almost a quarter of those surveyed (23%) revealed they had witnessed this type of discrimination several times, while only one-third (33%) had not seen any discrimination against LGBTQ+ employees.

Only a quarter (25%) of HR and DEI managers plan to roll out sexual orientation training to their employees to combat discrimination in the workplace in the near future, but barely a fifth (22%) of those questioned are undertaking the recommended training every year.

While over half (57%) of HR and DEI managers think their organisations provide a significant amount of support to LGBTQ+ employees in their workplace, 43% of those surveyed admitted they feel their organisations are not very supportive. This highlights the substantial amount of work that still needs to be done to make sexual minorities feel comfortable in the workplace.

“Organisations must recognise the importance of supporting LGBTQ+ employees to feel comfortable in the workplace, which means educating the whole workforce about the challenges that sexual minority employees face. Regular training on sexual orientation also supports staff to know how to speak to colleagues and clients with more sensitivity, more understanding, and also challenge those potentially biassed. People should be able to bring their whole selves to work, and that includes LGBTQ+ people,” commented Nick Henderson-Mayo, Head of D&I at VinciWorks.

“Having more comprehensive training sessions that are shared with all employees allows sexual minority employees to see that their organisation cares about them and creates a culture of respect for LGBTQ+ employees that helps brands build strong, inclusive reputations.”

To support HR and DEI managers in tackling discrimination against sexual minorities in the workplace, VinciWorks has launched its latest film-based training on Sexual Orientation and is offering a free trial of the course.

Register for a free trial

Group of Diverse Hands Together Joining Concept

Organisations have increasingly shown their commitment to sexual minority employees and customers with inclusive marketing and rainbow advertising.

But what concrete steps should organisations take to support their sexual minority staff, and how can businesses celebrate Pride when there are still so many challenges that LGBTQ+ individuals face worldwide? 

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SRA Diversity reporting tool

The Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) has announced that its mandatory diversity survey will be due sometime in the summer of 2023. The SRA has said that it will provide four weeks’ notification prior to the actual deadline. VinciWorks is proud to offer all law firms in England and Wales a simple, free and secure way to anonymously collect and aggregate diversity data via our compliance management software, Omnitrack.

After registering, you will be provided with a unique link to send to your staff. We will send you all data collected, together with aggregated data in the format required by the SRA, in advance of the reporting deadline. Click here to preview the questionnaire.

Sign up for the free service

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Updated 1 June 2023

The Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) has announced that its mandatory diversity survey will be due in the summer of 2023. The SRA will open the survey on 26 June when they will email firms with a link for reporting.

The SRA has given a reporting period of four weeks – the deadline is 23 July 2023. Firms should have received an email on 18 May with information on reporting.

Which size firms are required to report diversity data?

All firms, of any size, even sole practitioners will have to collect and report the data to the SRA. However, in-house lawyers will not need to report.

How do firms collect the SRA’s diversity data?

In order to make this mandatory report to the SRA, firms will need to collect diversity data, based on a questionnaire, from all staff. The firms will then have to collate the data and organise it by specific job roles before submitting it to the SRA.

You can use the SRA’s Word version of the questionnaire or VinciWork’s SRA diversity survey data collection tool.

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Offering menopause leave supports an intersectional approach to diversity and inclusion

Menopause leave matters. In the UK alone, 60% of women have taken time off work due to menopause symptoms, 900,000 women have left their jobs due to menopause, and 99% of women said menopause symptoms had impacted their careers according to data from CIPD. 

Businesses know staff turnover is expensive. And the costs are exponentially greater when staff have more experience and have developed long term organisational knowledge. It’s expensive to lose any staff, it’s even more expensive to lose experienced staff, while the benefits of investing in diversity and inclusion have returns many times greater than any initial investment.  

We’ve written before about how employers can be more supportive of women experiencing menopause, and some companies have already moved forward with flexible working for all to help employees deal with whatever issues they have in their own time. Whether or not employees offer flexible working, all employers should be offering menopause leave.

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Intersectionality describes the relationship between our multiple identities and how they can create a unique experience of discrimination, bias and privilege.

If a person has more than one marginalised or minority group identity, they are more likely to experience overlapping forms of bias, discrimination and disadvantage, both in the workplace and in wider society.

To tackle these inequalities, we cannot look at each identity and the associated injustices in isolation because people experience injustices intersectionally. Therefore, to tackle inequalities, we need to explore these intersecting identities and the unique experiences they create for people.

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People are multi-dimensional in their identities and may identify with several different marginalised or minority groups at the same time. These overlapping identities can result in multiple and intersecting forms of bias, discrimination and disadvantage, both in the workplace and in wider society.

Intersectionality provides a framework for considering our different identities and experiences in order to understand the complexity of biases and prejudices that people can face and take steps to address any resulting inequality or discrimination.

In this webinar, we drew on expert insight, ‘lived experience’ interviews and original drama to look at how an intersectional approach can support inclusion and help to achieve more equitable outcomes.

The webinar covered:

  • What we mean by ‘intersectionality’
  • How our intersecting identities can overlap to create privilege or disadvantage
  • Why taking an intersectional approach is key to more effective inclusion
  • The importance of collecting and analysing data
  • How to put an intersectional approach into practice

Watch now

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VinciWorks proudly serves 42 of the top 100 firms who’ve dedicated themselves to LGBTQ+ inclusion

Stonewall’s annual top 100 Employers is the definitive list of workplaces who’ve dedicated themselves to supporting LGBTQ+ inclusion in the workplace. It’s always an exciting moment for VinciWorks to see just how many of our clients are represented on the annual list. These are firms who use our compliance software to monitor diversity for instance, or who train with our suite of equality, diversity and inclusion courses, or use our e-learning to make their workplaces better. This year, VinciWorks is thrilled to see that 42 firms out of the top 100 of the list is made up of VinciWorks clients. 

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Group of Diverse Hands Together Joining Concept

What is intersectionality?

We are all multi-dimensional in our identities. Someone may be both a woman of colour and a lesbian, for example, or an older man from an economically deprived background may also have a disability. Both of them may well have a faith, and they may also be parents or carers. Few of us see our identity in terms of one sole defining characteristic, but initiatives around inclusion have often tended to take precisely that approach, failing to appreciate the complex interplay between the different characteristics and experiences that make us who we are.

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