15 years - the feeling of belonging

I’ve been working at Hymans for nearly 15 years. Why have I stayed so long?

Is it because subconsciously I‘ve always felt I could be as close to ‘being me at work’ as I was to being ‘me at home’ – new experience? And that’s even before I realised I was neurodivergent (but I had this underlying feeling that I was different).

I work best in a nurturing environment and even before D&I was a popular business endeavour most people here in the early days had that supportive, nurturing, coaching approach. And as we’ve grown in size, we’ve not lost that culture.

Working here has always felt like coming in to my second family, I felt like I belonged. Even when things felt tough and I broke down from overwhelm a few times over the years (unidentified ADHD), the general support and understanding I received was invaluable.

I love my job, which is a win for my interest based ADHD brain. It means I’m constantly producing dopamine, as I love what I do. It also allows me to play to my strengths; problem solving, being creative, networking (although this does leave my fatigued at the end of a busy day) and hyper-focusing on projects. However, I get impatient for results and in the D&I world, things can move quite slowly and not always in a straight line to achieving any one goal.

Saying that, we’ve come a long way on our D&I journey and achieved great things although we still have loads to do!

So, what’s been going well?

• D&I is a strategic imperative, our leaders are fully onboard and it’s woven into everything we do.
• Making progress on our targets. We’re currently hosting workshops with our business area leads on how we ensure we meet our 2029 goals.
• Launching our Allyship programme, we’ve over 40 highly engaged Allies from our initial round of recruitment. Parul and John talk about their experiences and the programme here.
• 6 active Employee Network Groups.
• We've delivered diversity dialogues on; ADHD, Menopause and for Pride Month, ‘coming out’ at work. Sharing stories has allowed others to open up about their lives, therefore going some way to create a psychologically safe place to work.
• And expanded our external partnerships, engaging with Stonewall, GAIN and participated in the Social Mobility Index for the first time.
• We delivered a successful Returners Programme, together with hiring interns from both Black Professionals Scotland and 10K Black Interns.
• Educating on the importance of equity.
• Increased our Diversity & Inclusion employee satisfaction score.

And what could be better? Here are some of the things we’re striving to improve... 

• Continuing to embed D&I as a strategic imperative, where everyone in the firm has it at the forefront of their mind. The interest is definitely there, it’s a mindset change from a nice add-on to an essential add-in to everyday tasks and projects.
• Revisiting our targets in line with forthcoming census data and ensuring each office reflects the demographics of its local area.
• Creating a culture of permission for our Network Groups to take time to support each other, grow in numbers and move their inclusion work forward. 
• Ensuring firm wide understanding of equity, positive action and social-economic background.
• Senior representation from people of black heritage as well as from LGBTQ+ communities.

Even if you don’t see people like you here at Hymans just now, be assured we’re working hard to achieve that diversity. If you like what we’re trying to do then why not come on board and help us achieve our goals? You’d be thoroughly welcomed, supported and we’d love to make the most of your talent and insight. 

Carla's blog was originally published on her LinkedIn page here.