Promoting diversity

SASKIA BEWLEY
Head of Diversity and Inclusion,
Hachette UK

The Changing the Story programme at Hachette UK stepping up a gear

Reflecting the world as it is, through its staff and through its editorial production: this is the aim of Changing the Story, the programme launched by Hachette UK in 2016.

Major advances were made in 2019: in April, Hachette UK became the first publishing house to publish its
Ethnicity Pay Gap Report and committed itself to ensuring that within the next five years, 15% of employees within its teams will be from ethnic minorities. It also published its third Gender Pay Gap Report, which showed improvement in wage equality and an increase in the category of highly paid women.

Furthermore, in order to create the conditions for socially diversified editorial production and find out what people are thinking on a regional level, Hachette UK announced the opening in 2020 of an editorial satellite office in Manchester.

Lastly, on 3 December, a major Changing the Story campaign was organised at the London head office and at Hachette UK offices worldwide. All employees were invited to Changing the Story Day, which aimed to celebrate and encourage diversity and inclusion within the publishing sector. A total of 500 employees took part in discussion workshops led by groups of employees looking at a number of topics, in particular gender balance, professional integration of LGBT individuals, disability in the workplace, content accessibility and even employing the over 50s.

www.hachette.co.uk