Elaine MacGlone: Working towards an inclusive, diverse culture

When I was setting out our plans for our equality and diversity work for the year ahead, little did I know that it would lead to being an '˜icon'.

Going back to work after maternity leave can be daunting

At the risk of sounding like I was an X-Factor contestant, I should say that I was the very lucky recipient of a 2017 Icon Award for Diversity and Inclusion Manager of the Year. It was a wonderful award to receive and is fantastic recognition for the work the Law Society does to spread the word about the benefits of diversity and inclusion throughout the legal profession.

So what have we done to deserve such an accolade? It has, as is typically the case, been much more than a few months’ work. We have been working to promote equality and diversity throughout the legal profession for many years and led to us introducing 10 Equality Standards in 2015, a set of voluntary standards to assist our members in their own journeys to achieving a diverse and inclusive culture and outlook. These are grouped under six broad headings of Leadership, Strategy, Staff Development, Reporting and publication, Equal pay, and Accessible services. We provide guidance setting out suggestions for firms and organisations on how they can use these equality standards in their business environment.

Many firms and organisations will already have the means in place to adopt our equality standards, as they are deliberately designed to be flexible to allow any organisation to tailor them to their business. These are further underpinned by our four guides covering eliminating the gender pay gap, providing accessible services, a practical guide to equality and diversity, and on preventing bullying and harassment in the workplace.

These are designed to give practical advice and information to members, as employers, employees and service providers.

In addition to supporting firms in their equality work, we want to support individual members of the profession. We know that returning to work after maternity leave, shared parental leave, or adoption leave can be daunting. To assist members and their employers in managing this successfully we introduced a set of guides for Parent in the Profession. This covers a wide variety practical matters like how to handle renegotiating your role, and targeting specific issues, such as how to re-ignite your confidence and making a positive start to combining being a mum or dad with your career. This is a great example of how the understanding of equality and diversity across the Law Society, as these guides were inspired by a suggestion from a colleague in another team reflecting on their experience of returning from maternity leave.

We are also working directly with organisations such as the Glass Network, a group set up by Chris Rennie and Drew McCusker to support LGBT+ people in the legal profession, Women in Law Scotland and Scottish Ethnic Minority Lawyers Association (SEMLA).

Earlier this year we were heavily involved in a campaign initiated by the Glass Network called #TheseAreOurPrinciples. Using social media as the primary means of communicating, this campaign invited a wide selection of people, including the First Minister, our member solicitors and others, to feature in short videos setting out a basic legal principle and how that relates to the experiences of LGBT+ people in the workplace and wider society. A simple, but very effective means of highlighting issues which could be easily shared across social media platforms.

While it’s not all about the glitz and glamour of awards, it was still a great pleasure to see the campaign shortlisted for Best Diversity Marketing and Social issues Campaign award at the Herald and Genalytics Diversity Awards in October and we are very excited to have been shortlisted for Scotland’s inaugural Scottish Diversity Awards next month.

The work doesn’t stop after awards season however, and in the next 12 months we’ll be focusing on our equality standards and how they can benefit the profession. 2018 will also mark our first census of the entire profession in five years, a major piece of work which will help us monitor changes and understand the make-up of the profession today to help drive our equality and diversity work and strategy for the future.

Elaine MacGlone is Equality and Diversity Manager, Law Society of Scotland