Member Spotlight: 50:50 Future Ltd

Author - Bethan McCoy

Date published:

This week we caught up with 50:50 Future to find out how they’re going further with Chamber membership.

Where are you based?

Newcastle

How many people do you employ?

Two co-founders, Lyndsey Britton-Lee & Lynsey Harbottle

Give us a brief overview of your business.

50:50 Future Ltd is a Diversity & Inclusion training and consultancy company that values difference.

We are different in that we approach Diversity and Inclusion holistically with our Seven Steps to Better Balance framework. There is no silver bullet so we work in partnership with you to improve organisational performance in a way that aligns to your vision, mission and values.

Our clients are wide-ranging in size, sector and geography. Any organisation can benefit from our approach to inclusion; rather than taking a segregated view of the diversity spectrum, we focus on intersectionality. We want everyone to challenge what they think they know and lead with action.

What has been your top tip for keeping business going during Covid-19?

During these challenging times, making sure we have an inclusive approach and attitude with colleagues, clients and stakeholders. Actively listening to others, ensuring they have the right support, checking in with them regularly and being as flexible as we can to meet their needs. We know individuals have various challenges which can be stressful as well as also being affected by events and circumstances during Covid such as BLM, home schooling, caring responsibilities, disability etc.

Tell us about a recent business success.

Sunderland Software City contracted 50:50 Future to deliver a series of training workshops to their Senior Leaders and wider colleagues to become more accessible as a business. Success for their organisation means having a team with different thought processes, backgrounds and experiences to contribute to the important work they do and customers they serve.  The training programme involved all colleagues in the business so that everyone started the ED&I journey from the same page and they were all responsible for the agenda. Our consultants also ran a separate session for SLT on Inclusive Recruitment so that they felt better equipped with tools to become a more inclusive employer both throughout their recruitment process and within their internal culture.

Since their training programme ended only six months ago, they have already seen a huge impact; generally as a team they are more mindful and have a better appreciation for difference, becoming more accepting of one another and utilising their diversity of thought which is aiding productivity. SLT have taken time to review and overhaul their recruitment process integrating inclusive strategies which has already seen instant success in reaching a wider talent pool with more diverse hires and a now ‘multidimensional’ team, who have brought a much needed injection of new perspectives and personalities to what was quickly becoming an echo chamber of the same people.

We can’t believe the huge progress the team at Sunderland Software City has made in such a short space of time which shows their commitment and investment to an authentic ED&I strategy and approach. We can’t wait to work with them again in 2022 on next steps and refresher training.

Why are you a Chamber Member?

We want to be able to learn from as many organisations as we can from various sizes and sectors to understand their approach, best practices and challenge areas in their Diversity & Inclusion (D&I) initiatives, strategies and interventions.

To read more Member Spotlights click here.

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