On the 13th of March 2023, we were shortlisted for Equality, Diversity & Inclusion (ED&I) Award at the fourth edition of the Wind Investment Awards. It is the second time Spencer Ogden has been nominated for the ceremony’s ED&I category, demonstrating our mission to ‘Create Careers Which Power a Sustainable Future’ and in line with our ED&I mission statement.
The Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Award recognises those organisations that are making a difference in harnessing a truly diverse workforce and that excel in their commitment to the promotion of ED&I across all strands of diversity. This includes gender, race, sexual orientation, disability inclusion and gender identity.
Each year, we conduct an ED&I analysis of the business, using HRIS data and employee feedback which we have received through quarterly engagement surveys. This helps us to identify our strengths and weaknesses in this area. From the most recent 2022 report, we can see that we have either held or improved our diversity representation in each region compared to 2021.
We also offer award-winning Learning & Development courses, one of which is our ED&I training module, hosted on our bespoke L&D platform, The Pod, to ensure all our people adhere to the policy.
In 2020, we launched our ED&I board, made up of colleagues from around the business who collaborate to drive change in this area. Our Chief People Officer, Donna Ramshaw leads this committee and is also a member of the APSCo Embrace Steering Committee which helps members start or continue their journey to become more diverse and inclusive.
“We are delighted to be short-listed for the Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion Award at the Wind Investment Awards 2023. Spencer Ogden has made great strides in the last three years, from launching Programme One in 2020 to pioneering our own people-led Diversity and Inclusion Board. As always, managing diversity and developing a culture of inclusion is a continuous process of improvement; It is not a one-off initiative and has to be something we as a business really commit to. Diversity and inclusion are also important assets to our sustainability efforts giving a foundation to make new, critical business decisions in line with our corporate purpose.”
Donna Ramshaw, Chief People Officer
To ensure our hiring process is fair and inclusive, we use AssessFirst psychometric testing. This represents the first stage of our application process, before our talent team take a look at a candidate's CV. Implementing this step has continued our progress towards removing unconscious bias and has led to 30% more females and 22% more diverse candidates joining the business.
Externally, our SoapBox Podcast Series provides a platform, allowing us space to educate the renewables industry on the importance of diversity. The series sparks thought provoking discussions and has accrued 5.2k downloads and 18k listeners to date.
At Spencer Ogden, we remain committed to providing equal opportunities to all our employees, clients, job applicants and contractors. We believe a diverse workforce powers innovation and is vital to our continued success. Developing relationships with people from a variety of backgrounds and cultures is intrinsic to our business and underpins our vision and strategy.
The Wind Investment Awards
The annual Wind Investment Awards celebrates best practice in the global onshore and offshore wind industry, incorporating innovation, financing, project development and asset management.
Hosted by global renewable energy and clean technology community, Tamarindo, the awards unite prominent decision-makers to enable opportunities to network and forge long-term business connections.
Click here for more about the Awards ceremony: https://www.windawards.com/2023/en/page/home
Click here to find out more about the Financing Wind conference: https://www.tamarindo.global/events/financing-wind-2023