Happy new year! If you weren’t able to celebrate in the usual way this year, we hope that you were at least able to join us for #PurpleLightUp on 3 December 2020 which saw the whole world turn purple in celebration of the economic contribution of disabled employees. We will be publishing a report that catalogues the full range of engagement with #PurpleLightUp from all around the world. 

This month’s theme was all about laying the foundations for an impactful 2021 by learning the lessons of last year and reviewing, refreshing or confirming your purpose and priorities for the coming (and hopefully ‘post-pandemic’) year.

Let’s face it, 2020 was such a challenging year that many were happy to see the back of it. But as the UN’s theme for 2020 International Day of Persons with Disabilities reminded us, we have an opportunity to ‘build back better toward a disability-inclusive, accessible and sustainable post COVID-19 World’. 

Findings from our Great Global Impact Report 2020-2021 (sponsored by Barclays) showed that disability resource groups/networks had a central role to play in supporting employees and allies during the peak times of Covid-19 Lockdowns and remote working. As our Founding PurpleSpace Ambassador, David Caldwell reminds us in the report, ‘it is clear that those organisations who choose to listen to their employees with disabilities, will build back better and faster.’

You are what you eat…read, watch and listen to!

Perhaps like many of us, one of your new year’s resolutions is to adopt or maintain a healthy diet. Good for you. Remember though, that diet is about more than simply what we eat, it’s everything we consume or engage with including people, information, content, and ideas. So whether your network/resource group is starting out, stepping up or thriving and innovating, we’re here to help you maintain a healthy diet in 2021 by introducing you to the people and ideas that will help you build a high performing network and build the inner confidence of you and your disabled colleagues. 

This month we invited members to lay the foundations for an impactful 2021 by tapping into some of the amazing resources in the PurpleSpace Member Zone:

• Review. Whether your network is at the beginning of its journey or whether it’s well established and thriving, it’s good business practice to review how it is working. Our Annual Review Checklist helps you to ask the right questions to measure your network’s current performance and identify future priorities. 
• Clarify or confirm your purpose. Having a clear line of sight between your network/resource group mission and the business diversity and inclusion strategy is an essential prerequisite for success. Our ‘Working to Purpose’ resource explains the role the network can play in enabling the business to deliver its disability confident business objectives and helps you to position the network/resource group as a vehicle for change.
• Define your role as a Network/resource group leader. Disability Employee Networks or Resource Groups are all structured differently. The way that network leaders and chairs will work, how much resource they have, and how much support they get from others also varies. Our Employee Network or Resource Group Leader Role Description template helps you think through the range of tasks that might be involved, depending on which type of network you have.
• Identifying and collaborating with stakeholders. In the current business climate, networks or employee resource groups need every ounce of support they can get to help organisations understand the value of learning directly from their own disabled employees.
• Our ‘Working with Stakeholders’ resource explains how to identify your stakeholders, the role that stakeholders have in helping you develop your network/ERG and how to build relationships to get the best for your community.
• Check out our ‘Working with Stakeholders’ Webinar to hear about how disability employee networks/resource groups and Diversity & Inclusion teams at PurpleSpace members Allegis Global Solutions and the Financial Conduct Authority work together to deliver a joined-up D&I strategy. 
• Develop or refresh your strategy. Our Ten Point Plan is designed to help those in the process of setting up a network (or those who are thinking of doing it) and to be a useful reference for organisations that have had a network for some time and are looking to refresh their structure or activities. 
• Communicate your strategy. Networks that actively work with the business to ensure their plans are aligned find they are viewed by the business as a critical friend and positive agent for change. The most successful strategies are easily communicated and understood. Use our tried and tested template to help you to create a Strategy on a Page (SOAP) for your Network/Resource Group.

Learning and development opportunities in January

We encouraged members to maximise your PurpleSpace membership by making the most the full range of exciting learning and development activities:

• Learn directly from not one but two amazing leaders/allies in our ‘Spotlight on’ series as we spoke to Sally Blake from Zurich and Fleur Bothwick from EY.
• Two Peer Group Learning Sessions where this month we focused on “Purpose and strategy in a post pandemic world” at 10:00 GMT on 26 January and 14:00 GMT on 28 January.
• For those of you working in multinationals, we held our ERG Global Forum Meeting Roundtable on 27th January 2021 at 12:00 (GMT). The Global ERG Forum is chaired by Darren Rowan, Global Program Manager & Accessibility Lead at Eli Lilly and convenes members who have experience in establishing or leading global and / or local country ERG / BRG / Network chapters.

And finally…

Speaking of strategy…This month we welcome our new Director of Strategy and Networkology, Brendan Roach. As part of his work to review and refresh the PurpleSpace strategy, Brendan is keen to talk to as many ERG leaders, allies and champions as possible. Do feel to contact him any time at brendan@purplespace.org.