Diversity, Equity and Inclusion

3Search is a part of the 11 Investments group. Together, we’re committed to being pioneers of industry-wide change.

We are incredibly ambitious and uphold kindness and respect as key values. We are results-driven and ensure that inclusion and belonging play a key role in how we evaluate our success. In fact, we believe in the power of DE&I to propel our business forward.

We also believe that recruitment can be a vehicle for social change; by providing attractive career opportunities for ambitious people from all backgrounds and walks of life. Our DE&I goals demonstrate our commitment to being part of the change we want to see in recruitment and, ultimately, in society at large.

Actions we are taking 

As a company, we believe that the work starts at home. As part of our own DE&I journey, we are keen to ensure that we are educating our own employees, implementing our own strategies, and challenging our own biases in the first instance. Here's what we've done so far.

External Expertise

We knew that in order to do this work properly and achieve our goals, it was important to enlist the expertise of a DE&I specialist. That’s why we have been working closely with Ardent to help guide us on our DE&I journey. 

Workplace Assessment

We ran our first ever organisation-wide DE&I survey to get an accurate picture of where we stood as a company, and how our own employees felt about the experience of working at 3Search and 11 Investments. This data was instrumental in shaping how we built our DE&I mission statement and strategy. We will continue to conduct yearly surveys to track our progress.

DE&I Committee

We know that our employees are our most valuable asset, and many of our team members have insight and knowledge, diverse life experiences and passion for DE&I. That’s why we’ve formed an internal committee of volunteers who not only plan and execute key events throughout the year, but advise and consult on our overarching strategy. 

Code of Conduct 

We resonate with the quote “the standard you walk past is the standard you accept”. It became clear from feedback in our survey that we had work to do to build a culture in which everyone felt a strong sense of inclusion and belonging. With the guidance of our DE&I consultant and the feedback of our DE&I Committee, our leadership team drafted an inclusive Code of Conduct for all staff to live by. It applies to everyone, from our founders to our most junior staff members, and we are actively working on embedding its behavioural standards in our daily actions. 

Training 

Our DE&I consultant worked in collaboration with us to build a bespoke hiring plan that met our distinct business needs, and spoke to the key challenges we were looking to address. We have undergone a series of training workshops (some company-wide, some leadership-specific) to increase our knowledge and awareness, as well as our DEI competency at senior manager-level. We will continue to embed training regularly and into our onboarding process. 

Ongoing Hiring Process Review 

As a recruitment agency, hiring is our bread and butter. In order to be able to run diverse searches, and to apply inclusive best-practice in the work we do for our clients, we also need to practise what we preach within our own business, too. Since running our survey, we have identified key action-areas to focus on to increase the diversity of the talent we hire at all levels, and to thus ensure we are able to better service our clients.

An ongoing journey

The actions we have undertaken so far are just the beginning of our journey with DE&I. We will continue to challenge ourselves to be a pioneering, innovative recruitment agency with inclusion at its heart. We know that there’s work still to be done, and we take our responsibility seriously. 

By continuing to build strong DE&I foundations of our own, we continue to ensure that we are providing a world-class service for every business and employee that we work with.