Maybe a surprise coming from me, but I am unsure of the value of a focus on diversity in workplaces.

Here’s why...

(Please read to the end) https://twitter.com/guardian/status/1306463302978019328

Diversity is all about ensuring the makeup of your organisation reflects the demographics of society.

Sounds great, right?

But this tick boxy approach often requires hiring people largely with their race, gender, etc in mind.

As a minority I find this a problem because...

Hiring people with their DNA in mind, means people like me are *always* getting the criticism that we weren’t able make achievements on our own merit.

And once we are in the door, I find employers think that’s job done & don’t face tougher issues that actually make real change.

The number of times I have been asked to read pre written scripts verbatim, as if they were my own words.

If you point out that there may be a cultural or national bias in the wording, you are considered difficult or disruptive.

They often want our faces, but not our voices.

Hiring for diversity is really tricky anyway in industries like hort and agriculture, as there are huge cultural and social barriers that mean BAME people don’t study or apply for these jobs in the first place.

Which makes the aforementioned issues even more pronounced.

So what’s the alternative?

I think we need to focus less on tick boxy diversity, and more on addressing the much more fundamental issues of inclusion.

This is about identifying and removing barriers that stop people even applying in the 1st place. But is *far* harder to do.

So instead of hiring BAME faces at flower shows and then expecting them to act exactly the same as the status quo.

Maybe question what it is about the status quo that stops us going to them?

And guess what? Making things more inclusive, actually widens their appeal for everyone