Diversity Mark, the awarding authority for Diversity & Inclusion in UK and Ireland, is expanding its team as it looks to support and guide businesses to foster talent and build their corporate reputation by adopting a more systemic business led approach to inclusion and diversity in the workplace.
Director Nuala Murphy said, “We are delighted to welcome entrepreneur Orla McKeating and strategic advisor Conor Houston to our Diversity Mark team. Both share our vision to build more diverse and inclusive workplaces through tailoring the needs of individual companies to set evidence-based targets and core business leadership accountability to attain a Diversity Mark accreditation.
“The business case to embrace inclusion and diversity remains strong. Put simply it means employing people of different genders, age, disability, education, ethnicities, sexual orientation and cultural backgrounds. Society is changing: the recent results from the NI Census highlighted that the population of Northern Ireland is now more diverse than ever. Customers and consumers will want to do business with companies that relate to them.”
Diversity Mark accreditation is awarded to companies following an independent assessment process which ensures they have reached a high standard of commitment to advancing Diversity and Inclusion. Over 150 leading NI companies–representing circa 150,000 employees – are part of the Diversity Mark signatory community.
Expanding on the relatable experience of the new team members, Nuala said: “Orla has experience as an entrepreneur and advocate for racial equality. Conor has shown leadership in how businesses can transform society, as well as been an advocate for LGBTQ+ equality. Their involvement in Diversity Mark demonstrates our ambition to make Northern Ireland a global leader in diversity and inclusion.”
Orla McKeating said: “As an entrepreneur, I know how important it is to attract and retain talent – Diversity Mark is the ‘Mark of Progress’ and it publicly declares commitment to building more diverse and inclusive workplaces to benefit all employees.”
Speaking about his appointment, Conor Houston said: “The business case for diversity is clear – diverse organisations perform better, have high employee satisfaction, better financial returns and are more innovative. And our society benefits too.”
