The words “Equality’’, “Equity”, “Diversity’’ and “Inclusion’’ are used with increasing frequency these days. We are living in a time where the focus is evolving from conversation and good intentions to a call for meaningful action and systemic change. As with many other industries, the nuclear industry is also going through this transition and finally awakening to its own responsibility to act. The momentum for action provides us all with an opportunity to share examples of best practice and lessons learned across industries. For the purpose of this article, the following definitions apply:

Equality – working towards a workforce where everyone feels equal and is treated equally

Equity – offering varying levels of support depending upon need to achieve greater fairness of outcomes.

Diversity – a workforce truly representative of the diversity in the community and wider population. In other words: “inviting everyone to the party” (Verna Myers)

Inclusion – the ability to bring your true self to work every day, work comfortably and feel valued   within the organisation. In other words: “asking everyone to dance” (Verna Myers)

Thomas Thor is at the front line when it comes to supporting Equity, Equality, Diversity and Inclusion. Our mission, “Building and Sustaining the Global Nuclear Workforce”, gives us a responsibility to lead the way and support organisations in the nuclear industry to evolve. We have core values that we live and work by – “Diversity & Inclusion’’, “Collaboration’’, “Excellence’’ and “Credibility’’.

Our organisation has established a global network of offices and a workforce that is gender balanced, including a diverse range of nationalities, backgrounds, identities and attributes. We realise that we need to lead by example before we advise and support other organisations in the nuclear industry.

We have developed and successfully implemented a range of initiatives and services to support organisations in the global nuclear industry to work towards a more equitable, diverse, equal and inclusive workforce. Below are some examples of the work we have done, and continue to do:

Leading and Funding E, D&I Initiatives:

• Our CEO is co-founder of ‘Inclusion and Diversity in Nuclear (IDN)’ (previously ’Diversity & Inclusion in UK Nuclear’), a not-for-profit initiative focused on the UK. The aims of IDN are to support the EDI efforts of the wider nuclear industry and enable the 11,000 people managers in the UK nuclear industry to strengthen EDI within their teams. So far, Thomas Thor has provided ongoing financial and resource support to the initiative, which is now also being supported by Industry Partners from the UK nuclear sector. Through this support, IDN were able to host two highly successful conferences and a webinar, publish a recurring newsletter focusing on various EDI topics, and put together a resource directory for professionals at all stages of their EDI journey.
• Thomas Thor hired a full-time Social Impact Coordinator, whose role is to provide organisational and administrative support for the social impact initiatives at Thomas Thor and our clients globally. This role is closely linked to the activities of IDN, as it entails project and administrative support, event management, marketing and communications. Through this new role, we are renewing Thomas Thor’s commitment to bring about real change in the industry.
• Thomas Thor has committed to the young generation in the nuclear industry, through a 10-year partnership with IYNC (International Youth Nuclear Congress). We support their mentoring programme, event organisation, communication strategy and provide sponsorship. We also sponsor interns to support IYNC for 6 month periods.
• We have entered a partnership with WiN Global (Women in Nuclear Global) to support their objectives in the coming five years. At a country level, we have been supporting WiN chapters across several countries, providing sponsorship and contribution to events as well as carrying out research projects.
• Thomas Thor hosts interns for EDI projects. We create project scopes for 6 to 12-month projects, hire suitable interns and manage them to deliver the projects from our offices.

Attracting and Recruiting a Diverse Workforce:

• Supporting organisations by writing/reviewing job descriptions and creating candidate information packs that are more accessible and attractive to a wide diversity of applicants
• Building and managing talent pools of candidates in rare skill areas where diversity is lacking (such as Project Controls) as well as Executive talent pools designed to enhance diversity in the pool of leaders on the succession track to Executive roles.
• Advising on how to reach a more diverse audience when recruiting – through advertising and through proactive searches.
• Acting as an ambassador for career opportunities in the global nuclear industry, bringing highly skilled professionals with diverse experience and perspectives from other relevant industries to the nuclear industry.
• We deliver diverse candidate shortlists and monitor the process throughout to make sure all types of diversity are reflected.

Employee Retention and Inclusion:

• We are currently working on a company-wide EDI report, which will help monitor and keep track of our EDI efforts in the coming year. This is also a way to keep ourselves accountable and make sure we are respecting our core values.
• Development and management of effective onboarding processes that ensure new starters are treated equally and feel included from the day they sign the contract until they are fully settled in the organisation.
• To provide additional value to the industry, we’ve put together a series of free webinars on the topics including “Inclusive Onboarding in time of COVID 19” and “Interview Skills in Recruitment”.

Training and Workshops:

• Training hiring managers in managing the full lifecycle recruitment process with EDI as a core objective, from writing job descriptions right through to onboarding new team members.
• Workshops focused on identifying the benefits to individuals, teams and organisations of EDI and establishing alignment across stakeholders in the organisation.
• Workshops designed to explore the EDI challenges and opportunities tailored to each of our clients and the industry.
• We have designed an induction programme focused on EDI, to be delivered to our workforce.
• Facilitation of workshops to bring together different organisations and stakeholders working together in consortia or projects with a view to defining and delivering on EDI objectives in multi organisation and stakeholder environments.
• Our CEO is a member of the UK Government’s Next generation Nuclear Industry Council, and is part of a team leading a series of ‘’2030 Future Workforce Consultations’’ – engaging with people that we hope to retain in the industry through 2030 and people that we hope to attract to work in the industry by 2030.