External Reports
Actions for Leaders: in summary
1. Break the silence
2. Change the story
3. Measure it, manage it, report it
4. Tap into the power of sponsorship
5. Build diversity through 'next up' leadership
6. Be inclusive and adaptive
7. Benchmark and collaborate
Recommendations
SENIOR LEADERS
1. ‘Break the silence’ and speak up with strong leadership on BAME diversity. Communicate a clear business case and build employee buy-in to organisational change. Senior leaders must show inclusive leadership by calling out any bias in their organisation, and encouraging all managers to do likewise.
2. Talk publicly and use all the company’s communications channels to make clear the organisation’s commitment to
diversity. Can your people articulate the company’s diversity culture when talking to clients?
3. Commit to collecting better data to enable change. Set aspirational targets to measure the company’s progress. Be accountable for the results. And listen to staff views on how to achieve change and tackle barriers to progress.
4. Benchmark across your competition and collaborate to share good practice and accelerate change. Make diversity a company KPI.
5. Make every manager and leader accountable and identify champions across senior and middle management levels so it has
ownership beyond the CEO. Embed diversity as a factor in business decisions.
6. Seek out talented BAME employees to sponsor and mentor. Get your senior managers and direct reports to do the same.
7. Implement the ‘pathway to development’ for BAME diversity.
HR/D&I LEADERS
1. Measure and monitor diversity in HR processes and set targets for progress, from recruitment right through the talent cycle.
2. Make diversity real by using case studies and stories to engage colleagues across the company, BAME and non-BAME alike.
Celebrate cultural events to promote a culture of inclusivity.
3. Develop managers’ capability to talk about race. Integrate diversity training into management development, at senior levels and throughout the pipeline, to give managers the confidence to talk about race and diversity.
4. Ensure all high potential BAME employees are actively mentored or sponsored to support progression.
5. Work towards measuring and addressing any BAME pay gap, building on the gender pay gap rules already in place for large business.
6. Engage with employees on why it is vital to disclose background information to HR. Explain why data is so important to driving change and earn trust in how it is used.
LINE MANAGERS
1. Celebrate cultural diversity in your team. Be curious and ask questions about cultural differences.
2. Don’t be afraid to ask for help on how to break the silence on race and ethnicity. Take the lead with your professional development and seek out training, for instance, in unconscious bias or inclusive leadership.
3. Focus on developing others. Act as a next-level role model for inclusive leadership and support others’ development through mentoring.
4. Signal your availability to talk about difference, and make it possible for all employees to do the same. Actively call out biased behaviour with a focus on learning and development, and encourage your team to do so.
BAME COMMUNITIES
1. Help break the silence, including colleagues who fear making mistakes to discuss difference. Engage with business initiatives to support and discuss diversity. Share your background information with HR when they collect ethnicity data and encourage others to do the same.
2. Put yourself forward. Differences in organisational norms and expectations can prevent BAME employees from asking for support or guidance. Ask for more, from line managers, mentors and sponsors, and from the business.
3. Seek formal opportunities to develop new skills. Network with, and learn from, peers.
4. Challenge outdated cultural norms in your company. Nobody has to accept a company’s culture just the way they find it. Talk about differences and question the status quo.
POLICY-MAKERS
1. Encourage transparency through reporting on the BAME pay and progression gap. Work closely with the management community to shape policy, champion industry leaders, and share emerging good practice on this complex challenge.
2. Champion progressive employers and encourage others. Work with business to develop aspirational targets for BAME representation in all levels of management, not just the boardroom, and for action on pay.
3. Address inequalities in educational access and attainment for BAME students. Businesses’ ability to shape the management pipeline is influenced by the intake: government can help ensure a focus on growing employability skills among all students, including BAME groups, and should look, in particular, at the skills needed by growth sectors.
1. Break the silence
2. Change the story
3. Measure it, manage it, report it
4. Tap into the power of sponsorship
5. Build diversity through 'next up' leadership
6. Be inclusive and adaptive
7. Benchmark and collaborate
Recommendations
SENIOR LEADERS
1. ‘Break the silence’ and speak up with strong leadership on BAME diversity. Communicate a clear business case and build employee buy-in to organisational change. Senior leaders must show inclusive leadership by calling out any bias in their organisation, and encouraging all managers to do likewise.
2. Talk publicly and use all the company’s communications channels to make clear the organisation’s commitment to
diversity. Can your people articulate the company’s diversity culture when talking to clients?
3. Commit to collecting better data to enable change. Set aspirational targets to measure the company’s progress. Be accountable for the results. And listen to staff views on how to achieve change and tackle barriers to progress.
4. Benchmark across your competition and collaborate to share good practice and accelerate change. Make diversity a company KPI.
5. Make every manager and leader accountable and identify champions across senior and middle management levels so it has
ownership beyond the CEO. Embed diversity as a factor in business decisions.
6. Seek out talented BAME employees to sponsor and mentor. Get your senior managers and direct reports to do the same.
7. Implement the ‘pathway to development’ for BAME diversity.
HR/D&I LEADERS
1. Measure and monitor diversity in HR processes and set targets for progress, from recruitment right through the talent cycle.
2. Make diversity real by using case studies and stories to engage colleagues across the company, BAME and non-BAME alike.
Celebrate cultural events to promote a culture of inclusivity.
3. Develop managers’ capability to talk about race. Integrate diversity training into management development, at senior levels and throughout the pipeline, to give managers the confidence to talk about race and diversity.
4. Ensure all high potential BAME employees are actively mentored or sponsored to support progression.
5. Work towards measuring and addressing any BAME pay gap, building on the gender pay gap rules already in place for large business.
6. Engage with employees on why it is vital to disclose background information to HR. Explain why data is so important to driving change and earn trust in how it is used.
LINE MANAGERS
1. Celebrate cultural diversity in your team. Be curious and ask questions about cultural differences.
2. Don’t be afraid to ask for help on how to break the silence on race and ethnicity. Take the lead with your professional development and seek out training, for instance, in unconscious bias or inclusive leadership.
3. Focus on developing others. Act as a next-level role model for inclusive leadership and support others’ development through mentoring.
4. Signal your availability to talk about difference, and make it possible for all employees to do the same. Actively call out biased behaviour with a focus on learning and development, and encourage your team to do so.
BAME COMMUNITIES
1. Help break the silence, including colleagues who fear making mistakes to discuss difference. Engage with business initiatives to support and discuss diversity. Share your background information with HR when they collect ethnicity data and encourage others to do the same.
2. Put yourself forward. Differences in organisational norms and expectations can prevent BAME employees from asking for support or guidance. Ask for more, from line managers, mentors and sponsors, and from the business.
3. Seek formal opportunities to develop new skills. Network with, and learn from, peers.
4. Challenge outdated cultural norms in your company. Nobody has to accept a company’s culture just the way they find it. Talk about differences and question the status quo.
POLICY-MAKERS
1. Encourage transparency through reporting on the BAME pay and progression gap. Work closely with the management community to shape policy, champion industry leaders, and share emerging good practice on this complex challenge.
2. Champion progressive employers and encourage others. Work with business to develop aspirational targets for BAME representation in all levels of management, not just the boardroom, and for action on pay.
3. Address inequalities in educational access and attainment for BAME students. Businesses’ ability to shape the management pipeline is influenced by the intake: government can help ensure a focus on growing employability skills among all students, including BAME groups, and should look, in particular, at the skills needed by growth sectors.
If you would like to find out more about the Investing in Ethnicity Conference or the working groups that are currently taking place, please contact Margaret Tapping on 020 7258 1777 or via email to margaret@squarepegmedia.com
