Former McDonald’s chief people officer warns against dropping D&I during the pandemic

Prominent HR practitioner David Fairhurst has spoken to Personnel Today about the potential negative effects of organisations dropping D&I initiatives during the global health crisis.

The former global chief people officer at McDonald’s says that deprioritising D&I could risk ‘re-marginalising’ disadvantaged workers and result in talent shortages in the near future.

Fairhurst ‘believes young people, older workers and people from other underrepresented groups – who have benefitted in recent years from inclusion initiatives – could be “pushed back to the fringes of the world of work” if employers withdraw these programmes because they feel they are not an immediate priority’.

Before the pandemic, UK employment hit a record high of 76.3%, and D&I initiatives were helping to expand pools of talent. Fairhurst had predicted this “workforce cliff” would happen in 2014 in an interview with the Financial Times: that declining birth rates and the departure of older workers from the jobs market would lead to acute labour shortages that would hamper economic growth.

Fairhurst argues this will still happen, and “the faster the recovery, the faster the challenges of labour supply and demand will return”. Organisations that have continued to invest in diversity or outreach programmes during the pandemic will have a “significant competitive advantage”, whereas those who did not “risk falling into a talent trap they will struggle to escape from”.

Personnel Today reports that diversity consultant, Stephen Frost, estimates that almost three-quarters of UK companies have either cancelled or postponed their D&I programmes.

During his time at McDonald’s, Fairhurst was involved in widening access to the labour market through ground-breaking schemes. The company was one of the first to offer employer-accredited training; adapted its practices and recruitment pipelines to suit older workers; and even offered workplace language lessons in Germany to attract migrant workers. While these were socially responsible initiatives, they also helped to build a pipeline of employees in a talent market that was fast contracting.

Fairhurst is now the founder of a new consultancy, OrgShakers, and is keen to support organisations to engage with under-represented groups, enhance employee wellbeing and ensure that D&I strategies remain firmly on the agenda.

He understands why organisations might be reconsidering investments in D&I now when revenues are squeezed and resources pushed, but adds that it is important to consider the long-term consequences.

“It’s a workforce availability issue. If we lose these people now it will cause problems in a relatively short space of time – maybe the next two-to-three years.”

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