Discover the top Diversity Equity and Inclusion trends, challenges, and changes for 2025. Explore insights from our January 2025 monthly drop-in session.

What’s in store for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion in 2025?

We launched our first Monthly Drop-in, where we discussed the challenges and changes needed for this year.

Each month we will be inviting thought leaders to deep dive the most in demand topics, such as data, recruitment and supply chain. This month, we explored the ever-changing landscape of DEI, find out the top talking points.

Top Growth Areas

In discussing strategies to enhance DEI efforts, attendees highlighted the areas where they’ve seen the most growth:

Inclusion Training – Most effective when using a blended approach, particularly with the inclusion of a personal testimony

Ethnicity Strategy – Increased use of data to inform action plans that include ethnicity-specific measures.

Recruitment – Improved monitoring of the candidate pool at every stage of the recruitment process.

Main Challenges

Conversely, attendees identified four key areas of concern that have acted as barriers to implementing a strong DEI agenda within their organisations:

Anti-DEI backlash – Resistance and pushback against DEI initiatives particularly as a result of growing political polarisation

DEI fatigue – The overwhelming sense of burnout and disengagement from ongoing DEI efforts, leading to reduced enthusiasm and commitment.

Lack of resources – Insufficient funding, time, or personnel to adequately support DEI initiatives and ensure their sustainability.

Challenges in engaging senior leadership – Difficulty in securing meaningful involvement and commitment from senior leadership, which is essential for fostering a culture of DEI across the organisation.

Main Changes

In acknowledging these challenges, attendees have committed to the following key changes this year:

Refreshed Strategy – Updating DEI framework to better align with organisational goals, ensure effectiveness, and ensure long-term sustainability.

Embedding DEI Across All Workstreams and Policies – A renewed focus on DEI as a core organisational value. This involves integrating DEI principles into every aspect of the organisation, from recruitment and talent development to decision-making processes and programme delivery.

Get involved: Join our drop in

Thank you to everyone who attended this month’s drop-in session and contributed to the discussion. We look forward to continuing these insightful conversations in future sessions!

In the meantime, please keep an eye out for upcoming events and our next drop-in session on February 19th which can be found here.

On Wednesday, 22nd January, we held our first remote Monthly Check-in with DEI leads from partner organisations. This drop-in session provided an opportunity for attendees to ask questions about challenges or share best practices related to ethnicity inclusion. It also allowed them to connect with other organisations working towards a more focused IIE agenda, while we provided updates on new membership events and resources

If you would like to find out more: Contact admin@investinginethnicity.org