7. Measuring, managing and improving your impact
Conduct independent research on the experiences of people with convictions at your organisation
Gain insights into the experiences of colleagues with and without convictions, fostering a culture of acceptance and encouraging more socially excluded individuals to apply for roles within your organisation.
What does success look like?
A better understanding of colleague experiences
Improved organisational culture and inclusivity
Increased engagement with socially excluded candidates.
How would Offploy do it?
Develop a research plan, outlining objectives, methodologies, and key areas of focus, ensuring alignment with your organisation's goals and values. This will inform the questions you ask, the methodology you use to survey colleagues and the language used.
Engage a neutral third-party researcher or consultant to conduct the research, ensuring unbiased and accurate results. Whilst you can do this yourself, using a trusted ex-offender specialist partner will ensure that the research is seen as independent and will encourage more open and honest responses.
Implement various research methods, such as surveys, interviews, and focus groups, to collect data from colleagues with and without convictions, capturing a diverse range of perspectives. A single one-off survey is a useful snapshot but will contain information from a single point in time and the method you use may limit the responses you receive. Using a range of methods of gathering information is key to getting the widest possible input, the broadest participation and the greatest number of responses. See: Conduct independent research on the experiences of people with convictions at your organisation and Run an annual ex-offender perceptions survey
Analyse the research findings, identifying trends and key insights to inform improvements in organisational culture and inclusivity. Getting great responses is just the first step. You will need to ensure that they are analysed effectively, a report created and key decision makers (such as the Board and Senior Leadership Teams) use that report to inform their decisions. You may also need to review your policies to take account of feedback received. See: Review essential policies in line with your strategy
Share the research outcomes with your team and stakeholders, initiating discussions to develop actionable strategies to enhance the experiences of employees with convictions and promote engagement with socially excluded candidates. As well as informing senior colleagues it is important that your findings and consequential decisions are shared with the wider team of colleagues. This will build trust in future research events and demonstrate that your culture is inclusive and responsive to feedback.
Examples in Practice
Nothing to see here... yet.
We're still putting the finishing touches on our new Employing With Conviction Guide.