Diversity and Inclusion in Leadership
A strategy for Turley
The outcome
The project delivered a clear, actionable roadmap towards more representative leadership. Key outcomes included:
Defining long-term ambition: for Turley’s leadership to reflect the communities they serve.
Defining specific areas of diversity: adding clarity to the challenge.
Interim goal setting: milestones on the way to success.
Renewed strategic alignment and accountability among senior leaders around the targets on diversity in leadership.
A detailed set of recommendations, tailored to Turley’s ambition, business model and employee ownership culture.
Turley, a leading UK-based planning and development consultancy, had made notable progress on Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI), particularly around gender equality. However, they recognised a significant lack of diversity at leadership level beyond gender. Ethnic minority, LGBTQ+, socio-economic, and disabled representation was still low in senior positions.
While the company had previously invested in successful EDI initiatives, including its well-regarded Catalyst for Change programme, they felt they had reached something of a plateau when it came to EDI at the leadership level (a struggle that many organisations encounter). Leadership buy-in was strong in principle, and yet there had been limited progress. Furthermore, there was concern that the sector's traditional entry routes and qualifications might be limiting access to leadership for people from under-represented groups.
Turley commissioned On The Level to help them take the next step in their EDI journey: to develop a strategy that would help them build a more inclusive and diverse leadership team by 2030.
What we did
On The Level conducted a thorough consultancy project that combined insight gathering, stakeholder engagement, and strategic planning.
Our approach included:
Desk research to benchmark EDI practices in other sectors and organisations.
13 in-depth interviews with senior leaders across Turley to understand perceptions, barriers, and opportunities.
Barrier and opportunity analysis across three levels: societal, organisational, and individual.
Strategy development with short, medium, and long-term actions designed to embed EDI throughout the leadership pipeline.
“Claire Ebrey and On The Level provided invaluable expertise in helping Turley address our strategic aim of increasing diversity in leadership roles. Claire undertook a thorough review of our current EDI approach, including extensive desk research, interviews with our leadership team, and a detailed barrier and opportunity analysis. Her work culminated in a comprehensive set of high-level recommendations that were both practical and ambitious, tailored specifically to our business context.
Claire’s strategic approach and deep commitment to driving change have been instrumental in strengthening our EDI framework, and we are excited to continue building on the strong foundations she has helped us establish.
— Chrysta Poppitt, Senior Director, Turley