BITC: Redesigning ‘The Times Top 50 Employers for Women List’ assessment process

Dr Jana Javornik, Leeds University Business School

 The KEF will focus on the translation and application of previous research to the Business in the Community (BITC)’s highly profiled annual listing of employers championing gender equality in the workplace (TT50); this involves a comprehensive submission and assessment process and attracts a range of employers with over 3.9m people. Although recognised as a valuable recognition tool, the key challenge is to reduce TT50’s resource requirements while ensuring robustness, effectiveness and sustainability of its assessment process. Its 10-year anniversary in 2020 provides an excellent opportunity to redesign the process. Javornik already supported the BITC’s 2019 application cycle when we co-developed and tested the new process, which KEF will seek to develop for the 2020 cycle.

I will work with BITC for one day a week for six months to provide evidence-based tools that better assess organisational practice around equality and inclusion. The secondary focus will be to develop a strategy for aligning this with other reporting mechanisms and processes.

It is anticipated for KEF to generate a strong basis for a long-term partnership between LUBS and BITC, with significant research impact on public policy and business’ organisational practices. It will also support a LUBS-funded project, our large grant application, and student research projects, which makes KEF impactful beyond the project.

Dr Jana Javornik can be contacted by email: J.Javornik@leeds.ac.uk