Equity, Diversity & Inclusion

At Student Beans, we empower students to thrive – and we also aim to empower our people to thrive too. To ensure we align with our values, we want to ensure that every one of our employees feel safe, supported and included during their time with us and beyond, as ‘we are all accountable’.

Our commitments

We’re the first to admit that we aren’t yet where we want to be; but we believe that by being transparent, we hold ourselves accountable to do better. Our efforts to increase representation at Student Beans are continuous and we are strongly committed to diversifying our team.

Talent

We score our interviews based on competency focused questions, and conduct them with a panel to ensure the process is as fair as possible. Additionally, we conduct anonymous CV screening, and ensure our advert copy is gender neutral.

Support & education

Our employee resource group gives everyone a safe space and platform to share their views and opinions. We’re also committed to continuous training throughout the business, from inclusive communications to assessing the accessibility of our platforms.

Accountability

From providing training for hiring managers on eliminating bias, to best diversity and inclusion practices and how to be an ally. We’d like to think we offer as much support and education to further foster an inclusive workplace environment. As well as sharing our journey and statistics internally and externally.

Transparency

As we mentioned, we’re not yet where we want to be, but we’re sharing the journey and updating on our progress every step of the way. We don’t hide our statistics, we don’t think it’s something to be swept under the rug but that sharing this can help us to have open and honest conversations about how we can do even better!

Empower our people to thrive

Mental health first aiders offer support and guidance when needed. Unlimited holiday and flexi friday ensure you have the right work-life balance you need. We also offer quarterly webinars in partnership with Everymind.

How we’re doing

Globally,

51.1%

of our workforce are women. 14.2% of our senior leadership team are women, and 48% of our general management team are women.

Globally,

25%

of our workforce are from minority racial and/or ethnic backgrounds. *

Globally,

13%

of our workforce identify as LGBTQIA+. *

Globally,

5%

of our workforce identify as having a disability (visible, non-visible, mental health, neurodiversity). *

We obtained the data from our internal ED&I survey we send out every six months. Following this we hosted focus groups to ensure we had input from all levels across the business to build their suggestions into our strategy, which led to creating our five pillars above.

*based on 186 participants of our ’23 survey

ERG

#beans-allies, our employee resource group, gives our employees the opportunity and the platform to challenge us on how we can be doing better.

All of our employees the chance to be involved in focus group sessions which help shape the way we approach ED&I at Student Beans.

Racial Diversity

We strive to create a more inclusive and racially diverse workplace. Not just attracting talent, but also retaining it as well. We ensure the conversation keeps going by making sure our team has the education and resources needed to be allies.

We also believe everyone should have the opportunity to progress and develop which is why we have competency based frameworks. 

We believe that it’s not just important to focus on equality, but going beyond that and being equitable. Recognising that everyone has different needs, and removing the barriers.

Supporting LGBTQIA+ 

We support sexual orientation and gender expression at Student Beans. We have worked alongside charities such as AKT and Not A Phase, and endeavour to provide our employees with the tools they need to accommodate, learn and understand.

Mental Health and Wellbeing

One of the most important things we do, as an employer, is ensure we are supporting and protecting our employees’ mental health and wellbeing for their time spent with us and beyond. We acknowledge and appreciate that all our employees have very unique and individual struggles and responses to the workplace and so there can never be a one-size-fits-all approach to wellbeing.

As an employee-led organisation, it’s no surprise that most of our wellbeing initiatives are influenced by our team. From unlimited annual leave to enhanced maternity/paternity schemes, from our schedule of wellbeing webinars with Everymind to being an Endometriosis Friendly Employer. We listen to what our employees have to say.