Website visitors may be familiar with our long-running Women In FM blog series. In drawing that series to a conclusion, we decided to highlight our broader diversity and inclusivity ambitions instead by introducing you to our Mosaic Champions. These individuals from across the Churchill Group are at the forefront of our D&I programme. For the first post in our latest blog series, you can meet Amanda James.
What is your role at Churchill and what does it involve day to day?
I am the Human Resources Business Partner for Chequers, Chequers Electrical and Building and Renovo. My role is to work with key business partners to develop Chequers’ overall people strategy.
What made you decide to become a Mosaic champion?
I am passionate about employees’ wellbeing and want to ensure that all my colleagues within Chequers and Churchill have a voice.
Is there a particular area of diversity and inclusion you are interested in?
When I volunteered to be a Mosaic Champion mental health was high on my agenda and it still is but, since becoming a champion, I have learnt so much more about diversity and inclusion and it has widened my focus to include cultural differences and how we can ensure Churchill provides an inclusive environment for everyone.
Why do you think diversity and inclusion is important in the workplace?
We need to show our employees a culture of inclusion and belonging and influence their experience of working with us.
Wellbeing and belonging are at the forefront of our people strategy and, in essence, I wanted to be a part of building a culture where inclusion and the value of diversity is the norm.
What would you like to see workplaces doing to improve D&I in the future?
It’s important to me that D&I in Churchill, and the wider corporate world for that matter, is not just a gesture and that we really address the issues and implement change. The focus on belonging should be shared by all our employees, not just the leadership team.
We are aiming to give everyone the knowledge and the tools to be inclusive and value diversity and I also want to act to raise awareness of D&I throughout the company and increase everyone’s engagement with it. By doing this, it will mean the business as a whole will be in a position to attract the best talent.
All the members of the Mosaic Committee want to hear from everyone in the company, as the only way we can change is by our employees talking to us.
Dialogue is key and within the committee we are currently working on different channels of communication to ensure all our colleagues have a line of communication they are happy to use.