Equality charity launches diversity accreditation scheme

Monday 29 May 2017

A Jersey charity hopes a new accreditation scheme will help promote diversity in the workplace.

Liberate says the DIFERA scheme – diversity, inclusion, fairness, equality, respect and acceptance – is a logical progression of its Channel Islands Equality and Diversity Awards that it launched in September last year.

It’s also planned to extend the DIFERA scheme to Guernsey later in the year.

The scheme aims to assist organisations with implementing or improving their diversity and inclusion programmes. The organisations will be ‘audited’, and Liberate will then help them create a diversity champions group, which will be able to provide assistance to other members of the workforce. Organisations that take up the scheme will then be ‘accredited’.

Vic Tanner Davey, CEO of Liberate says: “The arguments for employers embracing diversity and inclusion are well-rehearsed: diverse organisations are better able to serve a diverse clientele; a diverse workforce is more likely to produce a wider range of solutions to business problems and be more creative; and, an organisation that acknowledges its employees as individuals and works to include them will get a reputation as a good organisation to work for, will be able to choose from a wider talent pool when recruiting and be more likely to retain staff who feel their individual needs are met.”