Staff diversity

Staff diversity relates to the risk that staff do not have a sufficiently diverse set of knowledge and experiences to call upon to support work in dealing with, and communicating the nuances around, potentially upsetting histories.

Lack of diversity

Lack of diversity in the workforce. Without a variety of voices, lived experience that reflects modern Britain is detrimental in the service it can provide.

Mitigations for risk

  • Actively recruit and disseminate opportunities beyond usual pool of applicants. Think about digital advertisement and use of recruitment bodies, connecting recruitment with the diversity of collections. A stated aim in recruitment should be to directly reflect the multi-cultural and intersectional life in the UK.
  • Be empowered to use the Equalities Act Section 159 to rectify under-representation of certain communities within staff and participants to actively pursue positive action recruitment.
  • For increased awareness, disseminate diversity statistics on your organisation’s employee and staff demographics – as far as they are declared, and maintaining anonymity.
  • Be aware of and actively address skills shortages in your organisation. Pursue ways to increase digital capacity in the archive workforce, and explore apprenticeship schemes that look to diversify routes into archival profession.
  • Explore routes to support diverse leaders and managers, to boost the impact of diversity at decision making levels.

Reliance on lived experience

Communication of potentially difficult and upsetting histories is based on, or relies on, a singular individual’s lived-experience and standpoint. This offers an unreliable narrative and can cause strain and distress to the individual whose experience is being used, resulting in them feeling objectified. As well as to those with relevant lived experience whose perspective differs feeling misrepresented.

Mitigations for risk

  • Do not objectify service users, staff, or persons to whom records relate, based only on elements of their identity. Focus communication less on person’s identities and more on themes, or moments in time.
  • Put a clear working statement in place, recognising the risk of objectification of employees and staff, and commit to ongoing CPD support for all.
  • Ensure clear guidance is available to participants on the risk of objectification and how this has a practical effect in reading or having exchanges, particularly around potentially upsetting histories.
  • Seek explicit consent when gathering, receiving or sharing stories related to lived experiences from staff and archival service users, or before they agree to participate in work requiring emotional labour.
  • Protect confidentiality of staff by not disclosing identity or personal information. Follow Data Protection guidance.
  • Provide equal levels of training across teams so multiple persons may be empowered to work with potentially upsetting histories, regardless of how they identify.

Difficulty displaying awareness of issues

Inability to communicate and demonstrate wider awareness of issues, and the institution’s relevancy in potentially upsetting narratives about marginalised experiences. Access to communities communicating openly about complicated narratives is compromised.

Mitigations for risk

  • Actively recruit and disseminate opportunities beyond the usual pool of applicants. Think about digital advertisement and use of recruitment bodies, connecting recruitment with the diversity of collections. A stated aim in recruitment should be to directly reflect the multi-cultural and intersectional life in the UK.
  • Create a panel of critical friends, representative of communities you wish to engage with, enable to them to make changes and remunerate them for their time and expertise.

Trouble finding representation

An inability to find representation (as employee, staff or visitor) in the institution. This can create alienation and boundaries to accessing the collections, strain communication, and instil feeling among staff of limited opportunities for progression.

Mitigations for risk

  • Actively recruit and disseminate opportunities beyond the usual pool of applicants. Think about digital advertisement and use of recruitment bodies, connecting recruitment with the diversity of collections. A stated aim in recruitment should be to directly reflect the multi-cultural and intersectional life in the UK.
  • Work with community leaders in equitable partnerships that provide channels of communication about concerns, and avenues for advice between your institution and marginalised communities.
  • As an institution, acknowledge a duty of care to stakeholders and recognise that cultural differences impact on a sense of belonging.
  • Explore routes to support diverse leaders and managers, to boost the impact of diversity at decision making levels.

Historical anniversaries unacknowledged

Practitioners and/or the institution miss or do not acknowledge historical anniversaries, religious or spiritual celebrations/ memorialisation, or other dates of significance to diverse communities, in content clearly accessible to the public. The organisation seems out of touch or disconnected from larger parts of society.

Mitigations for risk

  • Create, regularly review and update FAQ documents on difficult and potentially upsetting histories and links to national or international calendar events.
  • Have an assigned responsibility within your service for researching and updating a document of significant dates, and relevant material in the collection. Do not rely on individual responsibly or activism, instead have a role and budget in place to maintain responsibility.

Misrepresentation of diversity

Staff and participants feel exploited in the use of their likeness to promote an aspiration for diversity that doesn’t currently exist, directly effecting retention of diverse labour.

Mitigations for risk

  • Time stamp or mark the date of images in publications.
  • Where possible, reference the longevity of the project when representations of diversity are included in content/communications. Was this image taken on a long term or short-term project basis?
  • Be aware of and avoid continuing historically disproportionate labour for marginalised groups working in non-diverse organisations, to promote inclusivity.
  • Consider creative ways of promoting inclusion and belonging through art, design and language that doesn’t objectify individuals.

Incompatible recruitment principles

Recruitment principles directly affect institutional staff and stakeholder diversity. Use of freelance staff, short term contracts or finance systems in place result in a lack of diverse staff retention. This directly impacts institutional service provision and accessibility.

Mitigations for risk

  • Consider finance systems in place and flexibility to maximise who can work with your institution. Consider also how this work is valued and remunerated. For example, can expenses be paid for interviews? Is you overall payment process simple, timely and easily understood?
  • Monitor pay gaps between gender, race and other protected characteristics and the comparable impact, influence, power and stability that those from marginalised backgrounds have in your organisation, based on their contract type.
  • Actively recruit and disseminate opportunities beyond the usual pool of applicants. Think about digital advertisement and use of recruitment bodies, connecting recruitment with the diversity of collections. A stated aim in recruitment should be to directly reflect the multi-cultural and intersectional life in the UK.
  • Work with community leaders in equitable partnerships that allow channels of communication about concerns, and avenues for advice between your institution and marginalised communities.