Your company has changed its branding or logo to include the LGBTQI+ flag for Pride month, and your colleagues include their pronouns on their email signature, but are these outward displays of solidarity and allyship a good way to tell if an organisation is really invested in fostering a more diverse and inclusive workplace?
Chances are they’re simply paying lip service to tick the diversity box without making any real change to workplace culture because the reality is that 55 per cent of people are too scared to talk about diversity and inclusion for fear of saying the wrong thing.
Lack of education is one reason for this lack of dialogue—a separate study by data and market research company Savanta has uncovered that only three in 10 businesses in the UK have undertaken some form of diversity and inclusion action in the workplace, either by establishing a formal D&I policy or offering training to all staff.
This figure was higher in businesses with younger owners or women at the helm.
Then there’s the disparity of real diversity at executive or management level among Black, Indigenous or People of Colour (BIPOC) workers—in 2019, Black people held just 1.5 per cent of the 3.7 million leadership positions across the UK, compared to 1.4 per cent in 2014. Conversely, 89.6 per cent of UK leaders are white.
And when diversity dishonesty exists, the message it sends to BIPOC and LGBTQI+ workers is clear: real change has yet to come.
So, what can organisations do to ensure they are truly committed to moving the needle and creating stable and sustainable diversity and inclusion policies that will make a meaningful impact now and in the future?
Implementing a professional mentorship programme is one way to address the issue of diversity dishonesty and give both leaders and more junior members of staff to learn from each other and include minorities in decision making.
Similarly, a graduate recruitment programme aimed at successfully hiring across the board has been found to have a positive influence: a U.S. study found that when companies implement a college recruitment programme targeting female employees, the amount of Black, Hispanic and Asian-American women in management rose by 10 per cent on average.
However, if the company you work for doesn’t look like it will be making strides anytime soon and a culture of bias—unconscious or otherwise—persists, it could be time to move to a company that is dedicated to diversity.
And if you are starting your search, The London Economic is the perfect place. It features thousands of jobs in progressive companies, like the three below.
In 2021, Sky announced its ambitious plans to increase its ethnic diversity and representation by setting itself a target of 20 per cent of roles in the UK and Ireland filled by those from a Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic background, and 5 per cent of the roles in Sky’s UK and Ireland workforce should be filled by Black employees. It has also pledged that by 2025, its leadership will be 5 per cent Black and 20 per cent Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic overall. It has also revised the language it uses in job adverts to be more inclusive. View all open roles at Sky here.
EY has been awarded a global equality standard (GES) recognition certificate. The first of its kind, GES is used to provide an in-depth diagnostic tool in terms of all aspects of D&I. EY’s Neuro-Diverse Centres of Excellence (NCoEs) has also been recognised by the World Economic Forum’s Global Alliance as a leading diversity, equity and inclusiveness initiative. On the company website, it stipulates that “social equity means that each person at EY has access to the resources and opportunities they need, given different starting points and different needs. It also means removing barriers to opportunities and inclusive experiences that may lead to unequal outcomes. Learn more about a career at EY here.
As well as creating an annual Impact Report, Bloomberg is committed to hiring more diverse teams and uses data to address gender, ethnic, disability and LGBTQI+ inclusivity. Every department must also develop an annual diversity and inclusion plan, and has also partnered with the UK government to improve gender pay gap reporting and gender equality in the workplace. “This partnership is an encouraging step towards higher levels of gender equality disclosure and accountability,” Kiersten Barnet, Manager, Bloomberg Gender-Equality Index, said. “While gender pay is just one of the issues to overcome in the fight for parity, offering employers a standardised framework to measure their progress reduces the burden of reporting and creates a common global language for discussing gender equality.” See all opportunities at Bloomberg here.
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