ESI has invested in a company-wide coaching culture, and has offered staff training and coaching led by experts in diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI). It has implemented a series of women’s development programmes to ensure women’s voices are heard at every level and now more women than ever are represented at senior levels.

The Evening Standard, the Independent and London Live TV want everyone to have a voice and have partnered with experts in DEI to learn how to implement long-term, permanent change. Initiatives have included workshops with senior managers, workshops and one-to-one coaching with staff, and coaching for senior managers. Respect at work sessions are mandatory.

Staff are supported by regular wellbeing events, obligatory mental wellbeing workshops for managers, and in-house mental health ‘first aiders’.

ESI is developing a framework and contacts to enable it to attract a more diverse range of candidates. In recent years, the Evening Standard and the Independent have become leaders in editorial diversity apprenticeships. Their mission is to widen recruitment in journalism and encourage diversity in the industry.

The group is strongly committed to developing a sustainable and lasting approach to DEI across all ESI companies, to meet the wider people strategy and achieve the means to have an inclusive, equitable and diverse workforce.

ESI’s approach is not to have a range of initiatives which do not last; it is to have the means to achieve an ongoing sustainable and viable approach.

The people strategy has as its core ‘People First’ and a coaching culture. Everything the group does is aligned to this.

ESI has worked to develop core values across the group which are key to delivering the wider people strategy, including DEI.

The values were developed through involving everyone in the business at all levels, who had the opportunity to feed into workshops to provide ideas as to what the values should be. This approach is important to ESI’s approach to having an inclusive workforce. ESI is working with Project 23, who are experts in this field, to develop the DEI strategy and the means to deliver it.

To gain further insights there have been:

• Workshops with senior managers
• Workshops with staff
• 1-1s with staff
• Coaching for senior managers in DEI matters

Going forward, ESI will have DEI steering groups comprising senior managers and People representative groups who will work with the steering group.

The representative groups will be voluntary and based on areas that ESI People want, so for example: disability, carers, women, LGBTQ. ESI is open-minded about what the groups will be.

ESI is partnered with Creative Access to work to deliver a wider pool of people to recruit from diverse backgrounds and is looking to strengthen recruitment.

The DEI work will be further supported through changes across all that the group does, from job descriptions to induction to reward to learning and development.

“Respect at work” workshops are mandatory for all. ESI is working with Project 23 to deliver more awareness workshops.

The Evening Standard and The Independent offer editorial apprenticeships with the support of a number of partners. These partners include the Aziz Foundation, which supports British Muslims in their careers. There is also a well-established partnership with the Stationers & Newspaper Makers livery company and separately with City University, both fostering diversity and inclusion. The Evening Standard/The Independent diversity scheme has resulted in many success stories. One apprentice, Abbianca Makoni, went on to win a national award from the National Council for the Training of Journalists (NCTJ). Makoni was also made a freeman of the City of London by the Stationers’ Company. She described the scheme as a “life-changing experience”.

A current scheme with the Aziz Foundation offered two editorial apprenticeships and two paid six-month internships at the Evening Standard and The Independent. The apprentices receive day-release training for the NCTJ Diploma during the 15-month apprenticeship.

The Aziz Foundation commented: “The candidates will be active within a British Muslim community and demonstrate intimate knowledge of issues affecting British Muslim communities as well as demonstrating long-term commitment to community/societal development within Britain.”

Similar apprenticeships are also running in partnership with the Stationers & Newspaper Makers livery company. Previous partners have included Goldman Sachs, the Peabody housing association and the NCTJ Diversity Fund.

The Evening Standard and the Independent schemes have received plaudits across communities and the industry.

Another recent training tie-up was with a sponsor and City University on a diversity scheme to put a post-grad candidate through a City University investigative journalism MA course, with the graduate going on to work for the Evening Standard as a trainee for 12 months. This was followed up with a similar diversity partnership, with a graduate of City University’s journalism course working for six months as a trainee journalist.

Ken Olisa, Lord-Lieutenant of Greater London, said of the Evening Standard and Independent diversity training schemes:

“Democracy depends on engaged electors making informed choices. It is the job of the press to provide the information and context for those choices. For this to work, the producers of that information must come from a diverse set of backgrounds, experiences and perspectives. If the profession of journalism is dominated by a narrow class of people, honest though they may be, their perspectives will be limited by their narrow aperture too. The Evening Standard Media Diversity Scheme is helping to defeat that danger of narrowing the aperture in two ways. Firstly, by sending a message to the readers and writers of news that journalism is open to all based on merit – and that a diversity of background is to be celebrated.”