How diversity and inclusion can positively impact development

All our development opportunities are available to all colleagues, regardless of role and where they work. We have democratised our talent strategy, and all colleagues can now join a development network to help them grow their skills and development.

Our development programmes, aimed to support under-represented groups, embRace Your Talent and Women in Leadership, are driving real impact for our colleagues, with those having completed the programmes achieving positive steps forward in their career.

To celebrate the theme of this year’s National Inclusion Week, ‘Impact Matters’, we’ve spoken to some of our colleagues who have completed embRace Your Talent and Women in Leadership to find out how the programme has benefitted them.

embRace Your Talent

Our embRace Your Talent is our first bespoke development programme for ethnically diverse colleagues and aims to provide critical skills for career planning and development such as communication, purpose and identity.

We’re proud to be welcoming our second cohort to the programme this month after the first 30 colleagues completed the programme earlier this year. embRace Your Talent has driven real impact for those who took part with around 10% of these colleagues having been since been promoted and even more sharing the positive impact the programme has had on them and their career development.

Aneeka Sidhu, Finance Analyst, said: “I’ve found the embRace Your Talent programme to be quite eye-opening when listening to the various experiences people have had and it has given me food for thought not only about myself, but how I could potentially help others on their journey and the embRace network in general. What I can see the programme is doing is building confidence in individuals and enhancing their skill set in order to achieve their career aspirations and creating a sense of belonging and purpose at work.”

Alex Charlton, Senior Business Improvement Analyst, added: “I’ve loved being part of embRace Your Talent, it’s given me the opportunity to validate my ways of thinking through the courses provided and find that I’m not alone in my thoughts. This has really helped me, and encouraged me, to think on becoming more open to celebrating my successes that have brought benefit to my colleagues which I have previously seen as “just doing my job”. In turn, being able to change my mindset has helped me towards achieving my potential, and since joining the network I've secured a secondment as a Senior Business Analyst which is one step closer to my dream role!”

Bukky Makinde, Digital Operations Energy Specialist, agreed: “It’s amazing how a programme can make a dynamic turn around to a person. embRace Your Talent has done that by helping me bring my authentic self to work. It has changed my perception about inclusion and diversity. It has given me a sense of belonging. I have gained a lot from the programme starting from communication and self-advocacy.”

Nicola Dormer, CRM Manager and embRace network lead said: “I'm passionate about making a positive impact, and the embRace network gives me the opportunity to wholeheartedly support racial equality within our organisation while celebrating the beauty of everyone's unique qualities. As the network lead, I'm thrilled to share that we've achieved some wonderful milestones. We've successfully introduced a development programme that specifically caters to our ethnically diverse colleagues, and we've also established a network of voluntary ambassadors. This ensures that our colleagues have a safe and confidential space to turn to whenever they encounter issues related to their ethnicity or culture.”

Women in Leadership

Our Women in Leadership programme aims to help our female colleagues to develop, grow, network, progress and build confidence - realising their own potential and creating growth opportunities. In fact, since launching Women in Leadership in 2022, over 250 women have completed the programme and over 50% of them have had a lateral career move or promotion since completing.

Here just a few of the women who have completed the programme share how the programme has positively impacted them and their career.  

Jessica Ham, Head of Mid-Market Performance and Insight, shared her thoughts on the Women in Leadership programme: “The course is not just about developing women’s leadership skills; it’s about changing mindsets and breaking barriers. It’s about creating an environment where women can thrive as leaders. This experience has been transformative for me, and I am a huge advocate of the programme.”

Bennet Warburton, New Connections Operations Manager, said: “I loved celebrating my official graduation as a Woman in Leadership with a truly inspiring bunch of women. I am grateful to work for a company getting behind the challenge of the gender pay gap and can’t wait to utilise the tools I have gained this year to continue my career progression!”             

Emma Hodgson, Project Administrator in Green Funding Solutions, added: “Honestly, I'm sad the course is over, but I’ve been given all the tools I need to keep the momentum going. Meeting like-minded women in different fields to my own has been brilliant in growing my network and it was great to see everyone in our cohort grow in confidence. I believe in myself, and my own capabilities, so much more than I thought possible in three short months.”

Sandip Vaghela, Head of UK Solutions Finance and Women in Leadership coach, said: “Being marginalised, excluded, not listened to for reasons of gender, ethnicity or any other characteristic hurts! That's not the world I want my boy and girl to grow up in and that's why I got involved with the Fast Forward Network. It's been great to see the progress we've made in driving gender diversity and balance and I'm proud to be a cohort coach and share my experiences and advocate for women in the workplace.”

Our bespoke development programmes are just one of the ways we’re leading the way in creating a supportive and inclusive workplace environment where everyone can be their best and thrive.

As a leading UK employer, we’re proud to not only support our own colleagues and their families, but also drive a wider positive societal impact by inspiring other organisations to join us in creating better workplaces across the country.

To find out more about diversity and inclusion at E.ON, visit eonenergy.com/inclusion