“Being inclusive opens up new opportunities.” We talk to diversity and inclusion expert, Kevin Bowsher

A spur-of-the-moment invitation to join a diversity taskforce led Kevin Bowsher to pursue a career in Diversity and Inclusion (D&I). Since that fateful invitation, Kevin has gone on to a long and varied career in D&I, and contributed to the development of a new ISO standard, ISO 30415: 2021.

We caught up with him to discuss how things have changed since the 1990s, why diversity is an asset for organisations, and how the new D&I standard will influence attitudes to the issue.

Where did your journey with D&I begin?

“I started out as a police officer in London. The Stephen Lawrence investigation and enquiry had recently been published and the police were experiencing the aftermath.
“By chance, I happened to go past someone’s office at the right time and was called in by a senior officer who said: “We’ve been asked to provide someone to work on a big UK-wide taskforce to understand what the police need to do to address racism. Would you like to be involved?
“I joined the taskforce and ended up on secondment to the Home Office around 1997. That opened up various other doors within diversity and inclusion, and my eyes were really opened by meeting the Lawrence family and other activists.”

Where did your career lead after the Met?

“When I left the police, I was ready to embark on a new career path. At that time, many organisations still didn’t have a D&I function, and I ended up working for a major constructor as their first ever D&I Manager. From there, I went on to work for London 2012 following the successful Olympic bid, and worked there for four years.
“Today, I’m back in the world of construction, working as a D&I Lead on the HS2 project. There’s no typical day, and my tasks can range from servicing a diversity and inclusion steering group, to producing awareness material for learning and development opportunities. There’s also a lot of policy reviewing, and ad hoc issues such as finding prayer rooms for people to use, or giving input on the design of facilities to ensure they are accessible. It really is very varied.”

Thinking back to the early days, what’s changed in D&I between now and then?

“There have been significant changes. There are more interests that fall within D&I now. When I started out in the aftermath of the Stephen Lawrence case, everything was about race equality.
“Now there are far more aspects of D&I such as sex equality, disabilities and so on, which make it a difficult and complex field to work in. In some ways, broadening the scope has led to a reduced focus on race equality.”

What’s changed in the way companies engage with D&I?

“Organisations now see the benefits of D&I much more than they used to. Being inclusive means that organisations can open up new opportunities, it’s a two-way street. It makes companies more attractive to staff and benefits everyone.”
“When did you become involved with creating standards?
“At one stage in my career, I was working in a D&I role for Network Rail, giving a talk at the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) in Wimbledon. One of the attendees was Heather Bond, who was involved with the creation of the British Standard on D&I. Through her, I got involved in committee meetings and the creation of BS 76005. As soon as that was published, I got involved with developing ISO 30415.”

What are the benefits of using BS ISO 30415 globally?

“So many organisations now operate globally, and local standards are not always appropriate. The approach to D&I varies widely around the world, however the adoption of ISO standards is pretty consistent. That’s great, because means that an ISO standard on D&I will bring the issue to the fore in countries that maybe don’t have quite as mature an approach as in the UK.
“Another important benefit is that the standard is not prescriptive, meaning that it can provide value in different countries, with different legal frameworks and local norms.”

What’s your advice to smaller companies taking early steps in developing D&I approaches?

“Firstly, it’s not an expensive standard to buy. For the price, you get a significant piece of guidance with a self-assessment checklist to measure where you are and indicate what you should do next. It’s a really good investment that promotes the idea of continuous improvement. Getting external accreditation is slightly more time consuming, but also well worth it.”

You can read more from Kevin in his blog for BSI about D&I as a strategic imperative. Watch an in-demand webinar about BS ISO 30415 here or buy the standard from the BSI online shop.