It can be a challenge to figure out where to get started, but it's important to narrow things down. Setting clear priorities helps you to focus strategically on the things that matter most so that the team doesn't spread themselves too thin.

The following areas all impact your Equality score within D&I. We've included a high-level introduction on how they impact Equality within D&I to help you choose areas of importance. Click on any area to learn more.

By implementing the building blocks of equitable hiring, you can make sure bias doesn't get a chance to impact decisions. A strong set-up for hiring will ensure that you attract the top talent, make high-quality decisions and level the playing field for everyone, no matter their background or identity.

Onboarding is a crucial part of the employee experience. Helping new hires to feel quickly settled means that they will hit the ground running and you'll retain the top talent. Work on standardised onboarding processes that make new hires feel welcomed to boost your scores and set everyone up for success straight away.

Employees place a lot of value on the feedback they receive from managers. But if you're not careful, performance reviews can lack clarity and be tainted with bias. It's key to keep feedback focused, constructive and clear so that employees know exactly what to shoot for. This gives everyone a sense of the bigger picture while also focusing on what they can do individually to contribute.

Pay and bonus is a sensitive area, and it's important for these decisions to be made fairly. Without transparent and equitable foundations, bias can proliferate and skew pay decisions. Your pay & bonus recommendations will help you build a culture of openness where employees trust in these decisions. You can also look forward to happier employees — fair pay practices are linked to increased satisfaction and improved individual performance.

Develop a culture of mutual trust with fair and transparent complaints processes. Providing multiple avenues for employees to raise complaints will allow issues to be dealt with early, before they snowball into something more serious. This way, employees will feel safe raising concerns and trust they will be dealt with sensitively.

Whenever an employee leaves your company, whatever the reason, it's important that it's dealt with sensitively. Keeping track of employee exits will help you identify any patterns of exclusion and deal with them accordingly. Your recommendations here will help you set up practices to learn from the past so that you can improve for the future.

To retain and develop the top talent, you'll want to provide exciting L&D opportunities that cater to everyone's learning needs. This will give all employees space to flourish in their careers, no matter their learning styles or preferences. Providing excellent L&D programmes is also linked closely to employee satisfaction, so by embedding these changes, you can look forward to a happy, loyal and highly skilled team.

Your promotion process would benefit from more structure and transparency. Not only will this boost your equality scores, but it will also motivate employees as they'll know exactly what to strive for. Implementing the recommendations in your report will reassure employees that they get ahead because of skills and capabilities, not who they know or where they come from.