OTD awarded Investors in Diversity Silver accreditation

This prestigious accolade reflects OTD’s dedication to embedding equality, diversity, and inclusion at every level of its organisation, ensuring all individuals feel valued and supported in their roles.

The IiD framework is underpinned by FREDIE – fairness, respect, equality, diversity, inclusion, and engagement. Developed through over a decade of research involving more than 1,000 organisations and over one million employee responses, FREDIE provides a robust structure through which inclusive practices are assessed and enhanced.

This marks the first year OTD has taken part in the IiD accreditation process, which involved gathering detailed feedback from a wide cross-section of stakeholders, including account managers, business coaches, suppliers, community partners, and the core team based at its Birmingham headquarters.

Lian Bemrose, OTD’s culture and compliance manager, played a key role in leading the organisation through the rigorous assessment process.

She said that feedback gathered during the process not only celebrated OTD’s strengths, but also identified key areas for development that will inform a measurable action plan for continuous improvement.

Lian said: “This process has offered us more than just recognition - it has provided invaluable insights. The FREDIE framework is incredibly important and is already helping us shape our future decisions, including how we choose our partners.

“Although we are proud to have secured IiD Silver, we see this as very much the start of our journey. It has sparked important conversations and laid the groundwork for ongoing progress, including participation in EDI leadership training this summer.

“It is also giving us direction and a benchmark to measure the opportunities that have been highlighted, allowing us to make intentional changes that will have a lasting impact on everyone involved with OTD.”

OTD also holds Investors in People (IIP) Platinum status – the highest level of accreditation, held by only a select number of IIP’s 15,000 global members – underlining its wider commitment to exceptional people management and organisational development.

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