Curious Vines, the UK non-profit and advocacy group, has highlighted the need for more inclusive hiring practices in the drinks trade. 

Addressing the issue at its inaugural Curious Vines Change Series event, trade professionals gathered last week for the debut workshop, ‘Building Best-Practice Inclusive Hiring – Together’. 

Created to help shape a common framework across the wine trade, the event featured a range of CEOs, managing directors, HR leaders, EDI representatives and commercial teams from wine companies of various sizes. 

Curious Vines said the workshop explored how inclusive hiring impacts the commercial, cultural and leadership aspects of a business. 

Participants were also introduced to the new G.R.A.P.E. framework, which has been designed to guide organisations through each stage of the recruitment process. The group said it was made with SMEs in mind, particularly those without dedicated HR teams. 

Attendees also received a toolkit made up of an inclusive hiring guide and a progress tracker. These will be supported by structured check-ins over the coming months. 

To incentivise change, organisations that complete the Core Foundations stage of the framework can receive recognition as a Curious Vines Inclusive Hiring Organisation. 

The programme was developed through a collaboration between Queena Wong and Jennie Norrish, founder of Yellow Shoes Identity Consultancy. Additional resources were created by HR organisation People Puzzles. 

Wong commented: “The long-term strength of wine depends on the people who choose to build their careers within it. Our hope is that this initiative helps create realistic, achievable ways for businesses to widen opportunity, strengthen talent pipelines and continue evolving for the future.” 

A statement on the Curious Vines social media page added: “Over recent years, we’ve had important conversations and data. Now it is time for action to make change.”