Encouraging and celebrating diversity, inclusion and belonging

We want diversity, inclusion and belonging to be in every aspect of our company culture – from how we get things done to the very  values  we  embody.

Robert Finnegan, CEO at Three UK, said: “We are a diverse business with employees drawn from all sections of society. I firmly believe that building on this diversity and our employees’ sense of inclusion and belonging will help us create a stronger and better business, and in a small way, contribute to a more equal society.”

Where we started

While we are an open and inclusive business that does not tolerate discrimination, we do realise that we’re not perfect and there are areas we need to improve.

So, a few months ago we started on this journey by taking a long, hard look at ourselves and asking what more we could be doing to address inequality at all levels.

We reached out to our employees across the UK to understand their views and feelings about diversity, inclusion and belonging.

What we’re doing about it

We’re working very closely with the experts in the field,  National Centre for Diversity,  on several key areas.

Setting up the Diversity, Inclusion and Belonging Steering Committee

We wanted to ensure we had an ongoing structure to drive this focus. And the invaluable feedback from our employees strengthened this belief even more.

We’ve established a  Diversity, Inclusion and Belonging Steering Committee, which is made up of volunteers from across our business who will lead the way in creating a workplace environment that promotes and celebrates diversity, inclusion and belonging.

Creating awareness and educating our people

In partnership with the National Centre for Diversity, we’re hosting workshops for our people leaders where they’ll get the chance to reflect on their own leadership skills while reviewing the characteristics of inclusive leaders and how to adapt and enhance current management practice.

They’ll be made aware of how unconscious bias might be impacting culture and organisational processes and understand the importance of positive role modelling.

In early 2021, we’ll be delivering a similar programme to the rest of our people.

Finding further opportunities to improve our processes and policies

We’re working with the National Centre for Diversity to review our end-to-end recruitment process – from advertising a job to starting a new role, and everything in between. This will help us ensure fairness at every stage and identify further opportunities to improve diversity, inclusion and belonging through this process.

Working with our independent networks

We have some great  independent networks  across our business providing support to our people such as:

Women in Tech  is for everyone who believes in gender diversity, equality and inclusion.

Pride @ Three  provides support, understanding and information to colleagues across Three on issues affecting the LGBTQ+ community.

BAME & Allies  believes in increasing and supporting BAME representation particularly in senior roles across the organisation and influence corporate policy changes that ensure equal opportunity that can be measured.

Accessibility at Three  is a place for people with accessibility needs, physical or neuro-diverse, to share their stories and recommendations to help build a more inclusive business. It focuses on spreading awareness and understanding of disabilities that are not immediately apparent.

Diversity, Inclusion and Belonging is a big priority for us and this is just the beginning.