Employer Engagement with EDI: Rapid Evidence Assessment

Summary

Though efforts have been made by employers to prioritise equity, diversity and inclusion (EDI) initiatives in recent years, challenges persist including lack of resources, data, senior leadership commitment and the confidence to implement and enact change.

This Rapid Evidence Assessment (REA) aims to identify evidence-based strategies to engage employers in fostering inclusive recruitment, retention and progression practices for marginalised young people.

Methodology

The research was conducted by the Institute for Employment Studies with key inputs from Youth Futures, an Advisory Group of external experts, and a consultation with wider stakeholders to ensure practical relevance and applicability.

A scoping exercise was initially carried out to assess the strength, quality, and relevance of available evidence. This highlighted a lack of sufficient high-quality evidence pertaining to young people from minortised ethnic backgrounds.

A wider Call for Evidence was issued, and the REA protocol was developed to include high quality peer-reviewed qualitative and grey literature case studies due to insufficient Level 3 evidence. Overall, 30 studies met the adapted inclusion criteria and are included in this review.

Findings

The findings are reported thematically, covering:

• Key organisational drivers and motivations for employers to act on EDI and inclusion of marginalised groups.
• Organisational enablers that support inclusive retention, recruitment, progression.
• Organisational barriers that prevent or slow down the rate of change and uptake of inclusive programmes.
• Changes resulting from effective employer action on EDI.

Ultimately this review underlines the need to address gaps in evidence on what drives employer behaviour change in relation to EDI.