Equality is about treating everyone the same regardless of their differences and characteristics.

It is built on the creation of a fairer society where everyone has an equal opportunity to participate and to fulfil their potential.

It is underpinned in most countries by legislation and a framework to address unfair discrimination, harassment, and victimisation. The legislation only protects people of the characteristics identified by the laws in that country.

However not all countries that do have legislation have parity in the characteristics covered.

Equality is the basic level and should be mandatory in organisations.

Diversity reaches beyond tolerance of differences to recognising and valuing the differences between people.

Frequently organisations will act in a binary silo manner where a person does / doesn’t reflect a characteristic. In reality people will have a number of characteristics and cannot be defined by one.

Diversity should also extend beyond the ‘protected’ characteristics covering other attributes.

This means diversity is embracing & appreciating the rich differences of people and their thinking.

Inclusion is bringing diversity of people and diversity of thought together, creating cultural intelligence through empowered and engaged employees.

Inclusivity means being collaborative. It is about sharing best practices and embedding inclusion within an enterprise’s DNA.

By having greater empowerment and collaboration enables creativity and innovation. All of this results in better customer relationships where employees reflect and understand their needs.

The benefits of inclusion include delivery of better products / services, greater productivity and better financial performance.

This is where there is an open, honest and authentic culture.