Getting your employer onboard with diversity and inclusion

If you have been pressing your company to do better on equality, diversity and inclusion, there is now guidance available that maritime employers around the world can't ignore.

That's because the new Diversity and Inclusion Toolkit for Shipping has been produced by the International Chamber of Shipping (ICS) – so it comes from the employers' own membership association.

For those employers who are somewhat behind the trade union movement on diversity and inclusion, the publication opens with some persuasive introductory paragraphs about how D&I can be good for business. It then moves onto four main chapters:

1. The value of diversity and inclusion
2. Areas of diversity – definitions and explanations
3. Diversity and inclusion policies
4. Measuring, monitoring and driving change

The guide includes advice on legal requirements for companies to be inclusive and non-discriminatory, and addresses the importance of good communication.

For real newcomers to the subject, there are Dos and Don'ts highlighted throughout, such as:

DO
Support parents through childrearing

DON'T
Lose important staff by not having a policy

There is also advice about using inclusive language – something which will be familiar to trade unionists and indeed is the subject of the Nautilus motion to the 2023 TUC Women's Conference .

Through the ITF, representatives from Nautilus International and the Norwegian Seafarers' Union had some input into the development of the guide, and it is reassuring to see throughout the text that employers are advised to consult unions in their policymaking process and make formal agreements where necessary.

So if the Diversity and Inclusion Toolkit for Shipping seems like a guide that should be on your employer's shopping list, it is available for them to buy for £140 on the ICS website.