The power of creating visible champions and why actions speak louder than words are just two of the themes Emma Carruthers highlights one month into her role as CIHT’s EDI manager.

CIHT as a professional membership organisation is a really interesting place to work for me and is supporting some great work on EDI. I’ve come to CIHT with experience across the public and charity sectors, leading on EDI strategies and I've joined at a really exciting time, as we ask members to really progress this agenda with us.

Working in this role for CIHT is unique, because we’re encouraging members to progress EDI within their respective organisations, which vary in size from sole practitioners and SMEs to huge organisations. It is a challenge, and although my ethos used to be winning hearts and minds, as we’re continuing to support people who may feel disenfranchised, it’s now more around driving “EDI in action” where we accelerate progress. I want to foster a positive, constructive, and proactive environment, where members can learn together through transparency and get comfortable with the uncomfortable.

Championing best practice

The sector has made some progress, and much more can be gained, in celebrating successes and achievements. Entries to the upcoming CIHT National Awards and the EDI Initiative of the Year category demonstrate great examples of best practice that we can share and learn from. And we have to continue creating visible sector ‘champions’. 

Having recently published our Shifting the Dial five-year EDI strategy, we’re preparing to launch our action plan, which will detail key milestones, and our Routes to Diversity and Inclusion Toolkit offering practical guidance on how members can apply and take EDI forward. This will help bring to life more outcomes and deliverables and ultimately drive ‘EDI in action’. CIHT is creating accountability in terms of EDI: we're no talking shop, we're turning our conversations into tangible action.

Data on diversity

Last year, we surveyed CIHT members on EDI, and I’m currently reviewing that dataset and anecdotal feedback to identify any gaps and opportunities. We only know what we know, so one of the key outputs for me, as CIHT’s EDI manager, is to encourage existing and future members to be forthcoming in sharing their personal characteristics – their diversity dimensions – with us, as well as their personal experiences. Data underpins whether CIHT as a membership organisation, and our members’ respective organisations, can see and measure visible progress.

It’s well worth mentioning here our diversity and inclusion charter which has 77 signatories so far. We’ll shortly be launching an updated charter, which will give a supportive framework to signatories, in terms of what we're encouraging them to do. We'd like to see a real move, beyond statements of intent, to examples of action. I’m the point of contact for signatory organisations and potential signatories, so if you’d like to become a signatory, I'm here to support you.

And finally, CIHT is a great supporter of International Women in Engineering Day which is tomorrow (Thursday 23 June) and we have lots of exciting learning opportunities planned including a webinar on ‘overcoming imposter syndrome’ which is open to both members and non-members.

In interview with Craig Thomas.