BITCI Elevate Pledge, Advancing the Inclusive Workplace

A Five-Year Reflection and Call to Action for Business

Business in the Community Ireland (BITCI) has marked five years of its Elevate: The Inclusive Workplace Pledge, highlighting progress made by businesses in advancing workplace inclusion while calling for renewed and sustained action to address persistent labour market inequalities.

This campaign was launched in 2021 in response to inequalities exposed and intensified by the Covid-19 pandemic. BITCI identified a gap between commitment to Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) and tangible outcomes. The Elevate Pledge is designed to get Signatories to proactively measure, disclose and profile their workforce and embed inclusion across recruitment, progression, workplace culture and leadership.

The trends emerging from over 60+ signatory companies (spanning various sectors with a combined workforce of over 150,000) reveals progress in representation across multiple dimensions of diversity, while highlighting the fragility of gains.

• Female representation at Executive/C‑Suite level remains stronger than the national average, but a decline from 45% in 2025 to 41% in 2026 illustrates how quickly progress can stall. This reinforces that every hiring decision makes a difference.
• Disability, ethnicity and LGBTQIA+ representation show substantial increases, largely driven by improved disclosure and trust rather than transformational changes in hiring. Disability representation rose from 0.1% to 8% and ethnicity from 1.6% to 12%, broadly reflecting national trends, while LGBTQIA+ representation increased from 0.2% to 5% over the five years.
• Traveller Community representation remains extremely low, rising only from 0.02% to 0.09%, and continues to sit far below Census levels due to persistent societal racism and discrimination. Until these are addressed, real workplace representation will not happen.
• While living wage performance is strong, limited socio‑economic data may hide deeper inequalities in access, progression and job quality.

The DEI landscape has evolved significantly since 2021. Yet Elevate Pledge Signatories remain committed and are increasingly moving from intent to action and subsequently performing better in many diversity indicators than non-Signatory companies. While progress is not uniform, the evidence suggests organisations that commit to a structured, long-term approach are better positioned to improve inclusion outcomes.

Tangible actions undertaken by them to date include:

• Clearer inclusion strategies aligned with business objectives.
• Introduction of fairer recruitment and onboarding practices.
• Strengthened supports for employees experiencing socio‑economic disadvantage.
• Creation of inclusion passports to support employees with disabilities or caring responsibilities in accessing reasonable accommodations.
• Stronger leadership engagement and accountability on DEI.

Focus on Disability: At Tesco, their recruitment process has been centralised through the Global Careers site, creating a clear, consistent and inclusive candidate journey. Partnerships with Back to Work Connect, Business in the Community Ireland and the Department of Social Protection help reach alternative talent —bringing new perspectives and lived experience into the teams. A direct route for interview adjustments for candidates ensures timely support, with insights feeding straight back into their processes. The new recruitment hub has helped deliver consistent hiring across all roles, prioritised interviews for candidates who disclose a disability, and reliable DE&I data to help identify gaps and act quickly.

Focus on Ethnicity: PTSB is an early adopter of the Unified Business Program, a bespoke intercultural development initiative co-designed with GORM, Ireland’s award-winning social enterprise. The programme builds intercultural competence through short eLearning modules and in-depth manager training that explore unconscious bias, cultural values, and their impact on workplace behaviours. Participants develop practical strategies to increase cultural awareness and foster more inclusive, effective collaboration across differences.

Focus on Socio-Economic Status: A&L Goodbody is committed to supporting social mobility as evidenced through the scale of activity including colleagues volunteering to do mentoring, work experience, and careers support with DEIS students. Also having continued partnerships with university Access programmes (including Trinity, DCU, UL and others) to support students pursuing legal education. Provision of mentorship, paid internships and accommodation support, directly addressing financial barriers to participation are also supported.

However, research continues to highlight significant barriers for marginalised groups, including rising workplace discrimination, under-employment of skilled workers from ethnic minority communities, exploitation of migrant workers, widespread bullying and harassment affecting LGBTQIA+ employees, limited disability inclusion, and the continued impact of socio-economic inequality on employment outcomes.

Businesses must move beyond statements of intent. They must use data and employee insight to identify barriers, embed inclusion across leadership and systems, and commit to long-term cultural and structural change. BITCI’s Elevate: The Inclusive Workplace Pledge has proven to help companies move the dial from ambition to action because it provides a practical pathway for organisations seeking to lead with integrity, purpose and impact. Find out more: Elevate: The Inclusive Workplace Pledge – bitci