IGPP Race Inclusion Event, May 2022

In May 2022, I joined the IGPP Race Inclusion Event.

According to IGPP, a BITC Report showed under-representation of minority ethnic groups in employment still remains an issue, and minority groups only take 6% of high-level positions in the public sector. Increasingly, more organisations have reported ethnicity pay gaps, with the majority of ethnic minority employees still earning less than their white counterparts overall. Furthermore, according to a Route2 study (2020), 37% percent of minority ethnic workers have been bullied, abused, or experienced racial discrimination at the hands of their employer. 19% have experienced discrimination in the form of being denied training or promotion.

The Second Annual Race Inclusion and Diversity in the Workplace 2022 event provided organisations with practical and actionable insights to determine the next steps in their race related inclusivity and diversity journey. Through a combination of policy updates and case study examples, delegates received a range of information on topics such as encouraging company-wide inclusive leadership, addressing ethnicity pay gaps, attracting, recruiting and maintaining ethnic minority talent, and developing new models of diversity practice.

Jason Ghaboos, Deputy Director of Civil Service Inclusion discussed how he wanted people from diverse backgrounds to thrive in public service. They have set up a new strategy to tackle bullying, harassment and discrimination and aim to recognise talent from wherever it comes. They also want to move away from siloed D&I to a mainstreaming approach which is evidence led and delivery focused.

The Civil service is focusing on key aspects of the employee lifecycle, using data and evidence from those areas. For example, they know that they have better representation of ethnic minority staff in lower grades than in higher grades. Their key priorities are recruitment, progression and lived experience and have found that talent programmes, sponsorship and mentoring are effective.

Embedding sponsorship for ethnic minority staff helps to remove barriers to progression, although so far this has worked best when it’s informal. They have learnt to establish clear expectations, set up good matches and track impact. Data dashboards help to understand recruitment gaps and sharing lived experience tackles myths and equips and empowers line managers.

They are keen to walk the walk, not talk the talk, and Jason Ghaboos feels that the horizon has much hope. To tackle the devastating effect of discrimination and work place culture, we must be proactive, constantly campaign and take action. They plan to embrace pay gap reporting and aim for measures that are successful and sustained.

Dr Darren Ralph, West Midlands Police, spoke about intersectionality and overlapping systems of oppression, such as class, gender and race. There is not always protection in law for intersectional identities and it’s hard to know where to start and stop with policies. That’s why we tend to put people in boxes when we formulate policy.

Shumailla Dar, Harrow Council, discussed wanting to provide a voice to ethnic minority staff – previously they had just one employee group that covered everyone. This has created a space for honest and constructive dialogue. Remote working allowed for more confidential discussions via Teams. Not all workers had devices, so they did do some face to face meetings, plus drop ins for front facing workers.

They commissioned an independent review and internal data collection exercise on workforce profile and gender and ethnicity pay gaps to identify trends, including a staff race survey plus 1:1 interviews and focus groups. The report and the response from the council was published. This has been a useful blueprint for future work on EDI to make sure the workforce represents the community it serves.

Raising the profile of black staff was very important for example by marking Black History Month with webinars, the Steven Lawrence Day and flying the Windrush flag. A listening exercise by the EDI team has led to putting new policies and interventions in place, such as a race equality action plan, guidance for managers, a zero tolerance statement and anti-racism training. They have set up a diversity talent programme to accelerate progression at all grades, especially to first leadership positions.

Bell Riberio-Addy, MP pointed out that while voluntary ethnicity pay gap data sharing is helpful, only 13 of the FTSE 100 revealed their figures. Overall, the ethnicity pay gap is about 2% but this is much wider for certain groups e.g. Pakistani/Bangladishi, black men. In his view, not providing mandatory pay gap information should result in fines.

Darrell Coker from Flair summarised where we are today in terms of race equity. He outlined some common mistakes in EDI practice and recommended four steps to racial equity. He sees a number of pitfalls that organisations fall in to when trying to address this.

Pitfalls:

• Grouping together EDI initiatives e.g. surveys
• Focusing on the wrong types of data (or no data at all) to measure progress and understand pain points. For example, diversity of representation is just one of the parts of racial equity. Some of the most diverse organisations still have issues with behaviours. How do we capture the views of those who don’t engage with focus groups?
• Poor prioritisation of solutions

For Flair, there are four key steps to addressing racial inequity.

• Discover where racial inequality exists e.g. by listening to lived experiences
• Understand what interventions are needed and how to apply them
• Demonstrate commitment by benchmarking and tracking progress over time
• Benchmark your progress year on year and how you compare to other organisations

The tools you can employ through Flair are:

• Question – using science backed surveys e.g. levels of racist behaviour
• Compare – using smart dashboards e.g. strengths and improvement areas
• Solve – drill down into the improvement areas using suggestions for actions taken by other organisations
• Repeat – track year on year

Discussing race equality at work

Equality data is not always something that people feel comfortable to share at work, particularly when it comes to mental health. Disability and faith or belief are particular areas where people feel their data might be used against them, especially if they have experienced harassment or discrimination in the past and don’t know where the data is going. Organisations need to build trust and provide strong stories around evidence based policy to support data sharing.

The fear of being impolite can get in the way of discussions, particularly about identities that you don’t share yourself. It helps to give managers a framework on how to do this so they can create psychological safety where difficult conversations can take place.

Others urge being realistic about target setting – only try to ‘eat the elephant’ in small chunks! Set up milestones on your way to the big targets. For managers, the top priority for recruitment is often speed and then they will then lament the resulting lack of diversity later. Be wholistic and strategic in your approach, rather than flip flopping between priorities from month to month.

The panellists recommended prioritising your actions based on evidence and don’t wait for platinum data before you start. Lead by example, be the change you want to see because this can lead to a ripple effect. Be brave!

Counting the cost of BAME exclusion – Race Inclusion and Diversity in the Workplace 2021

At the end of May, I joined over 400 delegates for the IGPP’s virtual event on Race Inclusion and Diversity in the Workplace. The Independent Race in the Workplace review by Baroness McGregor-Smith in 2017 identified that full representation of BAME individuals across the labour market could benefit the UK economy to the tune of £24 billion a year. The RIAD 2021 event set out to explore what the future could bring for employers enabling diversity, inclusion and equal opportunities for their employees.

Inclusive recruitment

Fitzroy Andrew from the University of East London hosted the event and was keen to focus on successes as well as challenges. “We are not where we were, we are a long way from those days. Are we where we should be? The answer has to be no.”

For Fitzroy, entry levels in organisations are becoming more diverse but progression is an issue. “This is not due to a lack of talent!” he emphasised. “Diversity is both an end in itself and also a means to end. The end goal is inclusion, where everyone feels that they belong.”

Kemi Badenoch, MP for Saffron Waldon brings a background in IT to her roles as Exchequer Secretary to the Treasury and Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Minister for Equalities). She outlined the Government’s aim to focus on measures that work, rather than those that might just make organisations look good. While BAME participation in the workplace has risen from 19% to 50%, few people from minority ethnic backgrounds are found in elite professions or at the helm of a FTSE 100 company. For her, it is not essential to have a mentor that looks like you but their feedback needs to be honest and constructive to be helpful.

Sandra Kerr of Business in the Community (BITC) introduced the Race at Work Charter, which includes 5 steps that organisations can commit to as a way to add their voice to drive change.  Jeremy Crook, as Chief Executive of Black Training and Enterprise Group supports programmes that help black and Asian young people to succeed in education and employment, as well as campaigning for better outcomes for BAME and Muslim groups in the criminal justice system.

As a panel, they agreed that the talent and training is there, and black and Asian people do not need to go on more courses. Unconscious bias training is not a fix to bias in the workplace, but it does at least get the conversation started – without conversation, there is no culture change. Overwhelmingly, industry is keen to see Ethnicity Pay Gap legislation implemented – this would be similar to the Gender Pay Gap calculation that organisations must complete each year by law. We need the data to understand where the drop off is happening.

For leaders, now is the time for them to develop a level of comfort with discomfort, to be clear on what they don’t know and be vulnerable and open. When polled, the majority of conference delegates were in favour of recruitment processes that anonymise applicants during shortlisting. However, if you do not also address bias, this will kick in as soon as you get face-to-face. EDI experts on boards are desperately needed, as is diversity on selection panels.

Organisational culture

Dr Winston Morgan at the University of East London reminded us that for universities, there is a clear business case for increased inclusion, includingbetter student satisfaction, higher attainment, reduced drop-out rates and improved employment prospects. However, without increased funding or opportunities, higher representation of black professors in academia becomes a zero sum game.

Jake Young from the Chartered Institute of Professional Development has a strong interest in organisational culture and has identified some key elements that promote inclusion. At an organisational level, you should setstrong values and high expectations of behaviour for leaders, using behavioural frameworks and guidance on local legislation and cultural norms for people working abroad. “Think global but act local,” he advised.

You also need buy in and continuing support from senior leaders, who should hold middle leaders to account but also give them agency to take action. People data is essential – the better the data, the easier it is to target and measure impact. It is important to ask consent to collect data and explain how it will be used. Make sure you reflect on what data will best reflect progression, diversity and inclusion.

Diversity training can be effective if it is tailored to the organisation. Any change in behaviour post-training decreases over time, so it needs to be topped up regularlyand not seen as an end in itself. Training should form part of a wider strategy and be individualised to particular job roles. It can be more effective just to encourage contact between groups and “walk in another’s shoes.”

When hiring, the concept of organisational ‘fit’ should be defined narrowly so that it does not exacerbate affinity bias towards hiring those who are similar to the majority or trigger status quo bias to keep things the same. Recruiting someone to the requirements and as an ‘anti-fit’ to the existing culture can work, but only if that person is made to feel welcome and that they belong.

CEO of ACAS, Susan Clews described how Covid has seen a widening of workplace inequalities, especially for those in insecure and poorly paid jobs. It is now even harder for people to access their rights. Minority ethnic workers have been disproportionately impacted and are now experiencing higher levels of dispute.

Minority ethnic workers are more likely to be exposed to the virus (for example in health and social care), more likely to have got ill and more likely to not be able to work from home. They are a third more likely to be in precarious work, to have suffered reduced hours, furlough or redundancy.

ACAS’s recommendations are for leaders to be open and transparent about what they are business needs they are addressing as they emerge from the pandemic. What are people and the data saying needs to be done? Leaders should impact assess all measures, whether that is hybrid working, furlough, redundancy, new policies or restructuring to make sure that they do not disproportionately affect ethnic minority staff.

ACAS advice is to make your policies visible, clearly defining what bullying and harassment are. Train managers how to deal with complaints so the first conversation is not defensive or dismissive.

“Do not close your ears to complaints,” advised Susan. “Allow them to surface so they can be listened to and addressed sensitively. Workplace conflict costs £29 billion per year and 10 million people have experienced it.”

Shakhana Ramsden co-chairs the NHS “Turning the Tide Transformation and Oversite Board”, set up during the pandemic to address the stark differences in health outcomes for BAME people, who are 10-50% more likely to die as a result of catching the virus. For her, it was essential that BAME staff held board positions to address the crisis, for example by establishing BAME co-chairs alongside existing leaders.

Rozila Kana of Lancashire police pioneered a wellbeing strategy now adopted more widely in the UK and Canada. Lancashire have recruited more women and been voted best force by black police officers. She has made sure that EDI is not dropped when other priorities come along. Rozila compared diversity to mixing water and lemon juice. “They are both colourless liquids but if you put them together the taste really changes,” she said. “If you get the right leaders, then delivering EDI is effortless.”

Current challenges and hope for the future

The final panel featured a cross-generational blend of speakers to highlight current areas of challenge and signs for optimism. Linbert Spencer is an international consultant, trainer and coach and a veteran of community development. “I always have the same response when it comes to progress,” said Linbert. “Inclusion is the answer. What was your question?”

For Linbert, language has shifted over the years, but not yet understanding. The Black Lives Matter movement has reached out across all sectors and levels of society and now the emphasis is not just on diversity, but inclusion. “We struggle to describe such a diverse community, it is not just a ‘melting pot’,” explained Linbert. “Progress is about leadership not just HR.”

Rema Khatun from UEL described how growing up in a multi-cultural environment meant that disadvantage was more about class than race. Growing student debt, Covid restrictions and high accommodation costs can make young people from her community question the point of going to university. “Once at work, microaggressions definitely have an impact on career progression,” she said.

Amy Brese, an independent consultant on sustainability and financial inclusion described how hard it is to benchmark yourself against your peers when everyone is working in a virtual world. “How do I know who is getting the opportunities in the workplace for training, to step up from entry level tasks?” she asked. “I need to know what is expected of me for promotion. The requirements should be made transparent.”

Asked to describe their areas for optimism, the panel highlighted the opportunities for activism now available and the immediacy social media provides. They see less undervaluing of black contributions and a better understanding of what diversity looks like, in many more places. The new gig economy gives opportunities for entrepreneurship. “There have been no recent race riots,” pointed out Linbert. “There are still consciously racist voices but public opinion has changed. It is now rare to see an environment with no black and brown faces.”

For host Fitzroy, the take home message was clear. “Culture eats strategy for breakfast! These days, we can all be corporate activists.”

Diversifying school governing boards – some hints and tips

As schools tentatively throw open their doors for the first time since the March Covid shutdown, Governors for Schools turned their focus on anti racism and diversity on governing boards.

Hannah Stolton, CEO of Governors for Schools welcomed a diverse panel for a discussion on diversifying governing bodies. As a member of a network of governors and a former Chair of Governors, I know that recruiting governors is a never ending activity and broadening the demographic of volunteers can be an added challenge.

Josephine Okokon, headteacher and governor, recommended the individual approach to bring people on board. “Think about what people are adding to the community as well as their leadership skills,” she advised.

Raj Unsworth is an advisor to a headteachers round table group and has been a governor in many settings, from schools in the proverbial ‘leafy’ areas to challenging inner cities. “In each case, I was usually the only black or brown face in the governing board,” he said. He pointed out that multi academy trusts have more flexibility in their governance structures than maintained schools, including reducing the number of parent governors or eliminating them altogether. “By phasing out the parent governors, you remove a common route for BAME governors into governance,” he warned. In his view, governing boards should reflect society in general NOT just the profile of a particular school. “It’s important for all students to see BAME governors in leadership positions,” reminded Raj.

Adrian McLean, a parent governor explained that ‘word of mouth recruitment’ tends to perpetuate the existing make up of the board. Personally, he said that he rarely encountered other black males in governance. “Schools can be intimidating places and if you have had negative experiences at school yourself, you may not be motivated to go back as a governor,” he said. His advice is to approach community leaders from a range of backgrounds to either take part themselves or to recommend others they know. “Put ads up in places you usually wouldn’t consider, like the local gym. Ask yourself whether you really require previous educational experience or a degree to be a governor? Offer training and mentors to bring people on board,” suggested Adrian.

Governor Rosemary Hoyle advocated establishing a “culture of everyone”, encouraging boards to have honest discussions about their diversity and to perhaps appoint an equality, diversity and inclusion link governor.

Sharon Warmington, founder of the National Black Governors Network warned that racism in secondary school could be subtle but still obvious. Black students may find themselves automatically placed in low achievement groups, or being given careers advice with limited aspirations, which happened to her at school. “Just the presence of black governors and leaders in school makes a huge difference,” she said. “That could be on websites, photo boards or at school events and in the staff.”

Key things to remember:

• Avoid tokenism
• Diversifying your governing body is NOT lowering the bar – it is about widening your reach and being more inclusive
• Reflect your school’s ethnic make up at least, but strive to represent society as a whole
• Reach out to professional networks e.g. Black Lawyers Society, BME groups at banks, black churches

Overall, if you want to inspire *all* your students, remember you cannot be what you cannot see!

BAME Equality in the Workplace with the Westminster Employment Forum

On 15 June, with the Black Lives Matter movement very much at the forefront of the news, I joined the Westminster Employment Forum for a workshop on BAME equality in the workplace.

Lord Sheikh, Vice Chair of the All Party Parliamentary Group for Race and Community opened the event and described how he had never personally experienced racism in the UK himself. That very morning, a new race commission had been announced by the Government and he was looking forward to clearer details on what that would entail.

David Isaac, Chair of the Equality and Human Rights Commission said that for him, the Public Sector Equality Duty and ethnicity pay gaps are key ways to assess inequality, even though pay gap reporting can be a rather crude tool. He called for ways to measure recruitment, retention and progression as well as pay and for data collection to be mandatory.

For example, only 23% of organisations collect data on pay and progression broken down by ethnicity and disability and only 3% analyse this data. Overall, the pay gap between white and BAME colleagues is 3.8% but this varies greatly between ethnicity, genders and whether employees were born in the UK. Black and Asian people are most likely to experience discrimination in recruitment, promotion and pay reward decisions. Office of National Statistics figures show that on average employees from Chinese and Indian ethnic groups are paid more than White British employees but this is not the case for Black employees. Isaac would welcome practical guidance for employers on collecting, reporting and using their data and a requirement to include a narrative and action plan with time-bound targets.

Sandra Kerr from the Race at Work Charter told us that there is a stubborn unemployment gap for BAME job seekers. Around 1 in 8 people in the UK are BAME, but they represent only 1 in 10 of the workforce. Representative employment could potentially lead to a £24bn boost to the economy. Organisations with ethnically diverse boards outperform non diverse boards by 33%. Currently, the Race at Work charter has 228 signatories across the UK, who have pledged to support 5 principles:

• Appoint an Executive Sponsor for race
• Capture ethnicity data and publicise progress
• Commit at board level to zero tolerance of harassment and bullying
• Make clear that supporting equality in the workplace is the responsibility of all leaders and managers
• Take action that supports ethnic minority career progression

During the COVID19 crisis, businesses should be aware of any disproportionate impact on furlough and redundancy pools for BAME staff. More generally, they should look at critical skills and capabilities and ask themselves whether BAME staff are in place to progress and pivot into these roles. Respondents to the Race at Work survey report increases in racial discrimination from other staff and customers. Organisations need to make managers responsible for equality and inclusion, throughout onboarding, training, performance appraisal and promotion. Kerr called on leaders to consult with staff, listen and act. Allies need to stand up and speak up and connection with employee networks and communities is vital.

Katy Bennett, D&I Consulting Director at PWC is pro data collection but points out that employees cannot be required to provide this. Global companies may have additional issues with data collection, as the legal environment is very different between countries. Data collection is an exercise in trust and employees must be confident their data is gathered safely and kept securely and legally. It is important to communicate that data will be looked after, and that positive things will happen as a result. Building trust can be achieved through employee networks and by understanding your company and local culture.

While data collection is important, Adrian Hyyrylainen-Trett from ENEI (Employers Network for Equality and Inclusion) reminded us that insight comes from understanding intersectionality rather than siloed information, while avoiding the ‘small group’ data anonymity problems. An EHRC Research report found that 51% report barriers to collecting data on ethnicity. Karen Flynn Macfarlance said that Natwest has nevertheless achieved a disclosure rate of 78%, which enables them to put meaningful targets in place. This was partly achieved by adding a link to the data disclosure page into EDI training, and by reminding employees that better data collection leads to calculating accurate pay gaps.

Wilf Sullivan from the TUC was keen to point out that improvements in the workplace are not just about gathering data but also making a commitment to change people’s lived experiences. The TUC has used data to analyse trends and be transparent with the workforce about whether things were getting better or worse. Equality policies are useful but you need to be able to monitor whether they are working or not – people need to see the evidence of change or they won’t trust the system.

“You see a very different working population at 5am on the tube or bus than you do at 10am,” he pointed out. The increase in insecurity during the last and current crisis has disproportionately affected BAME employees.

Too often, Sullivan sees a deficit model at play, where BAME people are told they need to change to fit the organisation, not the other way round. When it comes to complaints, it’s important to take them seriously and analyse the trends and patterns to see how the company itself can and should change. “Diversity can be a nebulous concept if you don’t have targets or clear ideas on what you are trying to achieve,” advised Sullivan.

Dr Doyin Atewologun outlined the results of the Parker Review 2020. All-white FTSE 100 boards have reduced from 53% in 2016 to 37% in 2020, increasing BAME representation from 92 seats to 98 seats. However, only 7 or 8 companies account for the bulk of these changes. Few companies report ethnicity compared to gender, have objectives for ethnic diversity or mention it in succession planning, evaluation or pipeline initiatives.

He outlined 4 recommendations:

• Report figures on ethnicity and race that are not subsumed within culture, nationality or geography data
• Include the ethnic diversity of the board in board evaluation
• Focus on diversity at board level AND diversity in the pipeline to the board (not one or the other)

In reporting, he has seen an unhelpful focus on culture, geography and nationality rather than ethnicity and race, coupled with broadbrush statements that overlook actual data.

“We need to move to having confident, informed discussions about race. We need to build our race confidence muscles,” he said. “Meritocracy is not the opposite of diversity – they go hand in hand.”

If asked to pick three things that it would be vital to do tomorrow to make improvements, he would choose:

1.            Build awareness of the experiences within your organisation e.g lived experience data

2.            Articulate why this is important for everyone

3.            Develop people’s understanding of what is going on

Other ways to diversify your organisation are to include at least one person of colour in recruitment panels, listen to your network groups and then take action and reach out to universities to recruit graduate talent, perhaps through workshops.

Cynthia V Davis from a BAME recruitment platform, Diversifying Ltd said, “It is an excuse to say that there is no talent out there. There is unequal access to opportunities and we need equity in the process.”

Rob Neil, Head of Embedding Culture Change at the Dept for Education reminded us that it is a myth that homogenous teams are easier to lead. Vast sums of money are spent on EDI consultancy compared to just listening to in-house talent.

“Ask yourselves how widely do you advertise? Do you hire for difference?” suggested Neil. “The myth of meritocracy is rooted in the limited life experience of many senior leaders.”

For the panel, most of the debate around diversity is a distraction, leading to under-represented groups having to explain over and over again their reason for being. In their view, systemic racism is about discrimination plus power.

Rather than commission yet another report or review, now is the time read what has already been written, listen to your communities and start actioning the changes. Now is the time!