Inclusion and Diversity at Kerry Foods

With Inclusion and Diversity coming to the forefront of a lot of businesses minds, DRM spoke to Kerry Foods to find out about their strategy…

AT Kerry Foods, Inclusion and Diversity has been forefront of the agenda in recent months. With the appointment of their Inclusion and Diversity Lead, Natasha Mosscrop, in September 2020, their ambitions and commitments in this space are gathering momentum.

Natasha states, “starting the inclusion and diversity journey for a large organisation like Kerry Foods is no easy undertaking, but the progress that has been made already, is testament to how committed our employees are at embracing change and pushing to be ‘better together’.”

Since September, the Kerry Foods Inclusion Champions network has grown from 15 employees to over 50, with 8 sub-groups formed. One of those sub-groups, The Power of (Dis)Ability, has a very simple objective— to raise awareness of the challenges that disabled people face within the Kerry workplace, and the many dimensions that disability encompasses.

The Power of (Dis)Ability sub-group also aims to support employees of Kerry Foods on how they can be an ally for colleagues with any type of disability. The group are currently working on both the recruitment of more employees with intellectual disabilities and on raising understanding and awareness of nonvisible disabilities like autism and ADHD.

Lizzie Hardy, who leads The Power of Dis(Ability) subgroup, has a personal passion for raising awareness of disabilities that aren’t perhaps as visible, well known or talked about as others. In particular, neurodiversity. Lizzie says, “neurodiversity is a relatively new word being used within the topic of Inclusion and Diversity.”

There is great diversity in how peoples brains are wired and work, and these neurological differences should be valued in the same way we value neurotypical individuals. There are many ways to describe someone who may be neurodivergent. The terms more typically

“NEUROLOGICAL DIFFERENCES SHOULD BE VALUED IN THE SAME WAY WE VALUE NEUROTYPICAL INDIVIDUALS.”

used include Autistic, ADHD, Dyslexic or Dyscalculia. It’s what makes everyone of us human and unique. But sometimes just because you are seen as ‘different’ this can be viewed as a disability.

Lizzie Continues: “My passion comes in helping to raise awareness and challenge those points of view, so that no matter what Dis(Ability) you have you should feel valued and very much included no matter where you work. This is what makes me so proud to work in a progressive business such as Kerry Foods who are making great steps in influencing change”.

Kerry Foods has also made its pledge to driving disability inclusion by becoming part of the Valuable 500 community. This has opened up a plethora of networks and access to best practice ideas for them. They also recently extended their partnership with the Special Olympics where their key focus areas in recent months have been employee engagement, creating more inclusive communities and athlete leadership and wellbeing.

Author: Natasha Mosscrop, Inclusion

and Diversity Lead