Doug Betts of Sure Betts HR On How To Create More Inclusive Workplaces

Creating inclusive workplaces is crucial for any organization that wants to get the most out of its talent. This means creating an environment where everyone feels like they belong, has equal opportunities, is empowered to do their best work, and feels comfortable making requests and contributing ideas. In this series, we asked prominent HR and business leaders about the steps they take to create more inclusive workplaces. As a part of this series, we had the pleasure of interviewing HR expert Doug Betts.

Doug Betts is the founder of his own independent HR Consultancy, Sure Betts HR Solutions Ltd where he provides outsourced HR Services and helps his clients create great workplaces where people feel valued, can do their best work, and don’t want to leave to work for the competition. Doug is passionate about helping his clients save time and money whilst remaining compliant with UK Law and best practice.

www.surebettshr.com

Thank you so much for your time! I know that you are a very busy person. Before we drive in, our readers would love to “get to know you” a bit better. Can you tell us a bit about your ‘backstory’ and how you got started?

I started working in HR back in 2001. Prior to that I had worked in Retail and Insurance, but I soon quickly realised I didn’t want a career in either of those areas. What inspired me to start in HR was when I was in my first insurance job I never received any proper training. I was just told to “get on with it” and learned through trial and error. As someone who liked to understand not just what to do but why I was doing it and be able to be allowed to come up with better ways of doing things, I found it odd that this particular business, along with other workplaces seemed happy to take this risk rather than invest in proper training. I knew I didn’t want to be a School Teacher but had an interest in wanting to help adults learn in the workplace — which is why I started to research about HR careers.

I started working as an HR Assistant in the public sector, and over the next 20 years worked my way up to an HR Director’s role in the Private Sector, via a period working for a local HR Consultancy firm.

The Pandemic in 2020 inspired me to change direction with my life and career and whilst I had started to do HR Consultancy as a sideline in addition to the day job from 2017, decided to see if I could grow it so it became my full time occupation. I was lucky enough to have an employer who enabled me to do this so by the time I left and went all in on my HR Consultancy business at the start of 2023 I had enough clients and work to keep me busy providing organisations with outsourced HR services .

It has been said that our mistakes can be our greatest teachers. Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?

I had to deliver a presentation to a board of governors and the slides didn’t work and it got stuck on a screensaver of me meeting the cast from Neighbours. Nothing relevant to the topic we were discussing, (and I’m not ashamed of my interest in the popular Australian Soap!) But I learned how important it was to have a backup plan. Thankfully, I had a paper copy of what I was going to say in front of me and I was able to just talk openly and honestly with them which was better than boring them with lots of slides.

None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful for who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story?

There are so many people I am grateful to who helped me, and continue to do so in the business world who’ve taught me about building an expert HR business, and how I can continue to grow it. However when it comes to my HR expertise I have to thank my former manager, Mandi who was the Group HR Director in the last Company I was employed by. She hired me in my first Head of HR position which was a step up for me, but she supported me, shared her knowledge with me, trusted me to lead my team in the right way without micromanaging but was always on hand for advice and support when it was requested. Mandi also allowed me to try things out and make mistakes, but not so much that things got to the point of no return or high risk. She also taught me about the strategic side of HR and how HR aligns with wider business goals. Without her help and knowledge I couldn’t have got to where I have today. When she retired she gave me a handwritten thankyou card which I still have to this day.

Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?

“If you bury your head in the sand, all people see is an a***hole.” The quote actually comes from the sitcom “My Family” but it’s one I’ve always remembered and use in my training sessions. It’s so relevant to the work I do as so many problems at work, come from managers ignoring problems hoping they will go away by themselves and not solving them before they turn into bigger issues. Mainly because no one’s taught them how to have a difficult conversation. It’s relevant to me in my own life too outside of work as it reminds me I will get further in my life and business if I confront issues and deal with them sooner rather than later.

Thinking back on your own career, what would you tell your younger self?

Believe in yourself more, be your authentic self, stop procrastinating so much and just get out there and do it, and be seen doing it. Push yourself forward as no one else will do it for you — and don’t be afraid to stand up for yourself when you need to.

Let’s now move to the central part of our interview. What systems do you have to ensure your workplace is as inclusive as possible?

I’m still growing as a business, but I put my own values of Honesty, Acceptance, Disruptor, Reliability and Trustworthy across everything I do and how I hire, and how I speak to my clients, partnerships and suppliers. I’m also the HR Trustee of a local charity that helps people arriving in the UK learn English and supporting young people with music and media projects. I’ve helped that workplace by making sure we have clear anti discrimination and anti harassment policies in place, clear job descriptions and transparent pay structure, along with the right training for people leaders in place. As an HR Consultant providing outsourced HR services to businesses my job is to put all these things in place for my clients, which I regularly do giving them peace of mind that they’re doing what they should be.

Based on your experience and success, what are your top five tips for creating more inclusive workplaces? Please share a story or an example for each.

1. Be aware of your own unconscious biases. Many hiring managers will naturally recruit people who they perceive to be “just like them” even if they don’t realise they’re doing it. Someone who went to the same School, grew up in the same town, studied the same course at College/University. This leads to everyone being “just the same” rather than hiring what can really make an Company’s reputation and profits grow — people from different backgrounds with varying experiences that bring new ideas and can set somewhere apart from the competition. I personally love a positive disruptor and having hired one of those in the past, I can tell you it definitely works!
2. Hire for the right skills set and cultural fit — but make sure the culture is welcoming to all at all levels. I dislike those companies that feel they’ve ticked the “diversity box” because there’s a token person of colour on the payroll and/or photo proudly displayed on their website. And whilst we’re talking about being welcoming you have to make sure your onboarding process is as welcoming and inclusive as possible too.
3. Create the right environment where people feel they can speak up and challenge biases. Workplaces fail if people don’t feel they can be honest, or if the anonymous staff survey isn’t that anonymous and they fear that if they speak out they will find their job has mysteriously disappeared from the structure chart. This happened to a friend of mine where they found themselves ostracised because they spoke out about what they saw as favouritism in their department. The danger here is that leaders then just hear from yes people who tell them what they want to hear rather than hearing feedback which has the potential to change things for the better.
4. Make sure you’re not inadvertently putting people from different backgrounds off. Here’s where it’s vital to get your recruitment practices right and create a good experience for all candidates regardless of background — from how the advert and recruitment packs are worded and appear, through to how you interview candidates and treat them through the process. There’s some great free tools out there such as a Gender Decoder (https://gender-decoder.katmatfield.com/) which specifically lets you put advert wording into a box so you ensure it’s not unintentionally too male or female biased.
5. Celebrate people who are different — we can all bring our “quirks” to work which can set you apart from your competitor. It goes back to getting people leaders in companies to recognise that it’s OK to be different and not just because of a protected characteristic like age, gender, ethnicity but also neurodiversity which can give you a different perspective on things which can be valuable. I understand from my own experience what it was like to be seen as “different” because I didn’t like football growing up (and still don’t!), but I realise that it’s OK to not like something and be comfortable with people having a different opinion to you. We’re all somewhere on that spectrum — and it gives usunique skills. For me, I can remember phone numbers, car registration numbers, people’s payroll numbers and dates off by heart which made a lot of my old roles easier to do! Now, I’m good at remembering employment law cases and updates from memory.

Can you share 3 or 4 of the most common mistakes you have seen businesses make while trying to become more inclusive? What should one keep in mind to avoid that?

• Stop thinking that’s being inclusive is just about race and ethnicity — consider wider things including neurodiversity, age, sexual orientation, gender, educational background, and religion to name but a few.
• Not holding leaders to account if they don’t behave in the right way.
• Thinking that the organisation gets everything right already — there’s always room for improvement and self reflection.

The biggest thing to keep in mind is to keep an open mind and be open to feedback. Making changes to how you do things don’t have to be big projects they can be small gentle nudges in the right direction. I’ve helped many of my clients to make these changes by highlighting issues with how they do things now and can show them how they can be more inclusive and saving them money and time in the long term by operating in a better way.

How do you measure the effectiveness of your DEI efforts?

At a purely quantitative level you’d measure it by your employee turnover rate and diversity figures that make up the demographics of your workforce. However the real measure comes from the qualitative data around your culture e.g. do you practice what you preach with your values, are your workforce engaged, happy and feeling psychologically safe? Do your line managers/people leaders live those values in how they behave and nurture their teams, regardless of background. Do you find individuals respect each other’s differences and generally get along.

Are there other organizations you admire for their approach to DEI? Can you please explain why?

UK Power Networks is one as they actually practice what they preach. Not only do they say that they want to value employees as individuals with what they can bring to their roles but they go further by achieving the National Equality Standard which is the benchmark in this area. They train their hiring managers in unconscious bias and also support through a partnership an organisation called Urban Synergy which helps young people from under represented groups improve their futures.

What do you do to address Proximity Bias? How do you ensure remote workers are treated the same as onsite workers and have equal access to opportunities?

Again, this comes down to having the right culture and training people leaders in how to lead remote teams and ensuring that they provide equal opportunities to remote and hybrid workers as well as those who are more site based. Businesses need to stop behaving like we’re still in the Industrial Revolution period and think that work has to be carried out on site between the hours of 9 and 5. We now have technology which enables effective remote working and leaders need to start from a position of trust and measure people on output and quality, not how many hours they’re seen to be on site.

To create a level field for remote workers companies need to base pay on the role not the location, create a culture where leaders work remotely too, adapt meeting/team bonding practices to include everyone, and to also review benefit packages so people who aren’t site based don’t feel left out of on site benefits. Finally to consider allowances so that people can create workspaces that work best for them, where roles allow hybrid working.

We are very blessed to have some of the biggest names in Business, VC funding, Sports, and Entertainment read this column. Is there a person in the world whom you would love to have a private lunch with, and why? He or she might just see this.

I would like to meet James Timpson the CEO of Timpson group as I admire his approach to DEI by employing ex offenders and focusing on wellbeing.

How can our readers further follow your work?

They can go to www.surebettshr.com to get free guides and sign up to my weekly updates about all things HR.

My first book “From New Line Manager to Great People Leader” can be found on Amazon.

Thank you so much for sharing these important insights. We wish you continued success and good health!