How we are creating a more inclusive company

“Together, we will deliver a responsible energy future” - this is our vision at Xodus, and we believe that diversity and inclusion sits front and centre to achieving this.

We are proud to employ people from a range of diverse backgrounds and attributes. By attracting and nurturing diverse high-calibre personnel and deploying their capabilities in an integrated, innovative and intelligent way, we can make our vision a reality.

We know that a diverse and inclusive environment fosters creativity and innovation, and improves decision making. We also recognise diversity of our people as a major part of our continued success as an energy consultancy and key to our future. However, most importantly, diversity and inclusion for us is about our people: understanding individual needs and experiences, respecting and welcoming differences and ultimately, equity and equality.

This year, we set out clear, concise ambitions for diversity and inclusion targeted at improving opportunity, representation, progression and potential for females and underrepresented groups in the energy industry. Our ambitions include 50/50 female/male graduate intake across all divisions, increasing the percentage of women to make up at least 30% of our business at all levels, halving our gender pay gap, improving the ethnic diversity of our leadership team and making it possible for project managers to work part-time.

Our first gender pay gap report showed a 42.5% difference in median pay between our male and female workforce. While there are many societal, industry, and historical skill trends contributing to this narrative, this is not good enough, and we need to do better.

We want to ensure Xodus is a company where every person feels valued, included and that they belong. Our focus on inclusion is to ensure all people, regardless of gender, race, sexual orientation, age, background, religion, beliefs, and disability, can belong at Xodus.

Our Principles, Ethos and Approach

Our inclusion journey, led by our managing director, Steve Swindell and the leadership team with support from myself, have committed to work with all parts of the organisation to deliver on our vision and ambitions.

We are tailoring and underpinning our D&I approach to who we are to ensure it’s authentic. We started our D&I journey with communication as it is important for our people to have safe spaces and avenues to talk and be listened to. We’ve spent time having conversations to understand experiences and gain insights. These discussions have identified the broad range of diversity we have across the company, including attributes which might not be readily visible, such as vocal fluency. We are conscious and thoughtful about how we navigate issues, because we know D&I topics can impact people differently and to ensure we can provide support.

Our people leaders (line managers, project managers etc.) play a critical part in this journey. They are involved in hiring, managing and oversight of people and execution of work. They play a key role in how we implement and sustain changes through our employee life cycle, and can leverage enablers such as training, inclusive recruitment, working practices and flexible working.

We’ve also established Employee Resource Groups which comprise of a range of individuals with various perpectives and views from across the company to ensure actions are followed up.

Right Partners. Right Providers. Learning from Industry

We support evidence-based best practice and knowledge in diversity and inclusion. We have therefore sought out the right expertise from consultants, training and resource partners. For this reason, we have joined organisations such as AXIS Network Aberdeen and UN Global Compact – Target Gender Equality.

Internally, we are providing interactive training across the company to cover a range of aspects such as inclusive leadership, communication, language and behaviours. We believe understanding and allyship are critically important and take the opportunity to share information and increase awareness around key inclusion dates and events such as Pride, INWED and religious holidays.

Make no mistake, Xodus is already a great company but we still have aspirations to be better and become even more inclusive where everyone is welcomed, has a voice and thrives in our team.

Read the latest issue of the OGV Energy magazine HERE.