Alex Naylor

I am one of the founding directors of Gravitas and a Talent Management Director, so the term Gravitonian fills me with a huge sense of pride.  Knowing that we have built an organisation where people feel connected and part of a bigger community means so much, as one of our goals in the early days was to ensure that the people we took on the journey of developing Gravitas would always feel part of the family.

 I love my job as I get to work and spend time with so many of our special team members.  They inspire me every day to ensure that we are building an environment and culture that allows them to be the best versions of themselves, alongside working hard to ensure that they have the drive and determination to reach their own goals.  Passion is my favourite of the Gravitas values because it comes from within. You can't pretend to be passionate, you either love something or you don't, and is such a powerful value that has always struck a deep chord with me.

Another role that I am very proud of is one of a Gravitas D&I Committee member. I am from a middle-class white background; brought up in a small village in North Yorkshire, so my exposure to anything that was classed as diverse was pretty much non-existent through my childhood and education. 

It was only when I started working in recruitment that I started to understand more about diversity and the challenges that so many people face. I have always felt that I am unprejudiced however, I am aware that due to my background, I may have unconscious bias.The idea of unconscious bias was a relatively new concept to me and one which actually shocked, which prompted me to want to learn more about all things D&I to enable myself to be more conscious and more aware of what is going on around me, so that I can be part of supporting the changes that are needed.

It is fundamentally important that everyone in Gravitas feels that they are included & accepted, to enable them to be the best versions of themselves, and as Gravitas employees are on the front line of driving change across our client base, it is pivotal that we are building our D&I strategy to support everyone both internally and externally. There’s no one D&I day that stands out among the others for me, my quest to further educate myself means that I am simply looking forward to learning as the years progress!