Is your company racist? How about anti-racist? Are you confident you would know?

The recent upsurge in the Black Lives Matter movement following the killing of George Floyd has shone a spotlight on race relations in recent weeks. Like feminism, there are some battles it is easy to convince ourselves we are winning until something shakes the fragile veneer, exposing the ugly truth.

Many companies are uncertain about how to respond to the Black Lives Matter movement. Some have made statements opposing racism, some have stayed silent (on social media at least), and others have started to take action in the form of charitable donations or investing in new policies and programmes. While some responses have been welcomed, others have backfired, and companies have been called out for ‘talking the talk’ without ‘walking the walk’, with critics quick to point the finger at hypocrisy when they see it.

As the government’s new ‘Commission on Race and Ethnic Disparities’ is established, business leaders can be clear on one thing: It is no longer enough to be ‘Not Racist’ and hide behind a banner of ‘equal opportunities for all’.

What you do behind the closed doors of your organisation right now is far more important in the long-term than what you tweet about over the next few weeks. Now is the time to step back, listen, evaluate, plan and implement lasting change. Only then will you have earned the right to talk about it.

In a moment, we will suggest twenty things that businesses can be doing right now to tackle racism in their organisations but let’s firstly reflect on the systemic racism entrenched in UK society. Whilst most of us wouldn’t describe ourselves as racist, the unintentional racism and implicit bias we are all sometimes guilty of are just as damaging because they reinforce hardwired social prejudices that mean racial discrimination remains rife in the UK workplace. The research makes for uncomfortable reading:

A study called ‘Is Racism Real?’ by the TUC in 2017 found that:

More than a third (37%) of the Black or minority ethnic (BME) workers polled had been bullied, abused or experienced racial discrimination by their employer.

• 43% did not feel able to report their experience of discrimination to their employers, and 38% did not report incidents of bullying and harassment.

It's also true that people of colour:

• are less likely to get an interview when applying for a job, and research has even shown that people with white-sounding names are more likely to be called back for an interview.

• are disproportionately in low-paid jobs and on zero-hour contracts.

• are also less likely to get promoted, and one wage audit at PWC revealed an ethnic pay gap between BAME and white employees of 12.8%.

Diversity and inclusion efforts often focus on recruiting underrepresented employees, conducting diversity training, and hosting empowerment-focused events such as all-day conferences and diversity celebrations. The problem with this approach is that it risks making diversity a tick-in-the-box exercise that doesn’t challenge the day-to-day operations of an organisation.

20 actions to ensure your organisation is anti-racist

Ask questions

1. Speak to ethnic minority employees and colleagues. Ask them how they feel and how they could be better supported. Make it a priority to address any issues they raise. If you don’t have any ethnic minority employees, now is the time to ask why.

2. Collect data about equality and diversity and publish it regularly. You can't change what you don't measure, but what you measure is hugely important. The Carnegie UK Trust suggests using an internal race disparity audit. This will reveal racial disparities regarding senior staff and the ethnic minority pay gaps. These disparities can then be directly addressed and mitigated.

3. Get all your staff to take an anonymous implicit bias test, analyse the results and address any issues head-on.

​4. For larger organisations, consider creating a network for BAME people to raise issues and put forward ideas.

Diversify

5. Check the profile of your area or region and make sure your company matches it. If your workforce is in London or a metropolitan area like Birmingham or Leeds, it’s more reasonable to expect a greater percentage of your workforce to be non-white than if you are based in a predominantly white area like Cornwall or Wales.

6. Work with community-based organisations that operate at the grassroots level to deal with racism, like Radiant & Brighter and employ them to help you challenge and overcome your internal bias.

7. Consider how implicit bias might be impacting your recruitment processes. Do you need to do blind shortlisting? Use a recruitment company like Diversifying to advertise roles or a mobile platform like Knack to help you identify the human potential of people from all walks of life.

8. Build relationships with diverse professional organisations of under-represented ethnic groups to help build a truly diverse talent pipeline.

9. Set up an apprenticeship scheme and actively encourage BAME employees (and those in your supply chain - for example, do you outsource your facilities management?) to apply or share the opportunity with the networks and families.

10. Actively make efforts to employ ex-offenders – more than half of the inmates held in prisons for young people in England and Wales are from a black and minority ethnic (BME) background.

Be open and inclusive

11. Focus on inclusion and diversity, so your staff feel their unique talents and perspectives are valued. A diverse staff and inclusive workplace have been proven to help companies retain staff.

12. Communicate your vision, rationale and metrics for changing the demographics of your workforce, as well as having transparent recruitment, hiring, and human resources processes. The internal backlash against hiring people from more diverse backgrounds is often the result of a push for diversity without inclusion.

13. Encourage conversations in the workplace about diversity. Allow people to speak out in a safe environment.

​14. Use your intranet, newsletter or company community pages to share articles like this: “There’s no such thing as race”. Help improve people’s understanding of anti-racism.

Responsible representation

15. Adding ethnic minorities to your headcount is one thing, but businesses need to demonstrate to what extent ethnic minority employees feel part of decision-making and resource allocation. Include more diverse employees in business decisions at all levels and reap the commercial benefits.
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16. Studies like these ones by Green 2.0 and the Center for Talent Innovation show that diversity makes organisations smarter and improves results. A more diverse leadership team will also help you better represent your stakeholders, potentially leading to improved engagement and broader reach.

17. Look at your advertising campaigns – do you proactively encourage diversity in the images you use? This isn’t about having a tokenistic approach but understanding your responsibility to represent society proportionately. Last year Proctor & Gamble released a powerful Conversation Guide for brands addressing their responsibility to combat bias in advertising and communication.

18. Insist on diverse speakers at ALL company events, and refuse to send speakers if all panellists are going to be white men of a certain age. There are some useful tips on how to make panels more diverse here.

Look beyond your organisation

19. Recognise the importance of having a diverse supply chain and the benefits that it can bring to your business.

20. Be demanding of your existing supply chain. Don’t turn a blind eye when you see racism and discrimination. Refuse to work with organisations that don’t have anti-racism policies in place.

Be honest and take action

Most people don’t want to think about their organisation as racist, but look around your company and be honest. Is your business failing ethnic minorities? What can you do to tackle the halo effect where it might exist and any cognitive bias that might unintentionally result in discrimination against people who aren’t white.

It’s not just up to politicians, governments or ethnic minorities to change the system. We all need to be the change we want to see, and we all have a role to play.

​No matter who we are as individuals or our roles as workers in our organisations (whether private, public or third sector), there is always something that we can do, and it’s about time we took action.

How we can help

At Samtaler, we understand the importance of your social value commitment. You’re here because you care about the impact your business has on society and want to be better. We want you to succeed, and we know from experience that achieving social value requires skill, strategy, and support.

To find out how we can help send an email to hello@samtaler.co.uk

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