Boult Wade Tennant
/equality-diversity-and-inclusion

Equality, diversity and inclusion

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Having the right governance is key to maintaining and promoting equality, inclusion and diversity. To drive positive change that gets results we need the right leadership. In 2022 we changed the way we approached responsible business and as part of this new strategy, we created an EDI committee of volunteers, staffed from a wide variety of departments, offices, and levels of seniority. The committee is responsible for setting the firm’s EDI strategy, for implementing initiatives and is accountable to the Responsible Business Board. Having a group of committed members of staff that are eager to achieve our objectives is key to providing momentum and accelerating the pace of change. I am very proud of what this committee has achieved so far, and I know their energy will sustain the change in the future.

Dr Susi Fish
PARTNER
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Our priority areas are:

  • Age and lifestyle
  • Disability
  • Gender
  • LGBTQ+
  • Race and ethnicity

Boult have been really proactive in helping their entire team understand the issues at play and the benefits that a truly inclusive culture brings to everyone. The team have engaged in learning activities dealing with the issues that affect individuals and teams in today’s society and demonstrate a real desire to make Boult a truly inclusive organisation where everyone can feel they belong.”

Gordon Brock, Trainer, Elite Training European Ltd

At Boult we believe in being inclusive and creating a working environment where everyone can comfortably be themselves. Attracting, developing and retaining a diverse team and creating an inclusive culture where people feel valued and included is extremely important to us and something we work hard to achieve. Through our collective action we have achieved tangible change and made a positive impact on our culture, and we will continue to do so.

In 2021, we worked with Focal Point, an organisation dedicated to helping workplaces become more respectful and inclusive environments, to create a staff survey to understand what our people thought about our culture, and equality, diversity and inclusion at Boult. We wanted to take stock of where we were and where we wanted to go. We were able to use these findings to help us develop a fresh approach to and perspective on equality, diversity and inclusion.

During 2022, we created an EDI strategy around six pillars that guide our actions: engage, equip, empower, embed, evaluate and evolve. We revised policies and recruitment procedures, held leadership courses and changed our flexible working arrangements to ensure our approach encouraged diversity and valued differences. Since then, we have run educational sessions to raise staff awareness of unconscious bias and neurodiversity, to understand and engage with those issues. We have taken proactive steps to address EDI concerns in our industry and beyond, joining supportive networks and organisations such as WorkLife Central, IP Inclusive, and the General Counsel for Diversity & Inclusion (GCD&I). We have also signed charters and made commitments to organisations whose values we share such as the IP Inclusive Charter, the IP Inclusive Senior Leadership Pledge.

Our priority areas are:

  • Age and lifestyle
  • Disability
  • Gender
  • LGBTQ+
  • Race and ethnicity

Boult have been really proactive in helping their entire team understand the issues at play and the benefits that a truly inclusive culture brings to everyone. The team have engaged in learning activities dealing with the issues that affect individuals and teams in today’s society and demonstrate a real desire to make Boult a truly inclusive organisation where everyone can feel they belong.”

Gordon Brock, Trainer, Elite Training European Ltd

“Part of this firm’s success is its ability to tilt on an axis at any given point in time and quickly rise to a challenge. Our flexibility and wiliness to try things that are new I think has helped us embrace a different approach to our responsible business strategy. Our efforts have touched every part of our working life from a complex review of our appraisal system to introducing a mentoring programme. We have implemented awareness campaigns encouraging people to recognise different working styles, reviewed and updated our family friendly policies, including the maternity package, published and raised awareness on issues such as menopause and men’s health, we are actively signposting staff to resources and groups that work in the EDI space, and we have joined countless industry conferences and debates to discuss EDI in IP.“

Andrew Little
CHIEF OPERATING OFFICER
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