Thales signs the BITC’s Race at Work Charter! But what is it?

Thales are committed to fostering a culture that promotes equity, diversity and inclusion.

The Race at Work Charter builds on the findings from Business in the Community’s 2021 Race at Work Survey, which found that while 76% of employers said that race recruitment and progression was a priority, only 46% had set targets to improve the racial diversity of their boards.

The survey also found that whilst 99% of employers have a zero-tolerance policy on racial harassment and bullying, Black, Asian, Mixed Race and ethnically diverse employees are twice as likely than White employees to have experienced or witnessed racist harassment from managers, customers, clients, and colleagues.

The Race at Work Charter calls on businesses to:

• Appoint an Executive Sponsor for race
• Capture data and publicising progress
• Ensure zero tolerance of harassment and bullying
• Make equality in the workplace the responsibility of all leaders and managers
• Take action that supports ethnic minority career progression
• Support race inclusion allies in the workplace
• Include Black, Asian, Mixed Race and other ethnically diverse-led enterprise owners in supply chains

The CEO for Thales UK, Alex Cresswell, reflected on this important milestone: “I am proud to share my commitment and sponsorships of both the Business in the Community Race at Work Charter and our REACH (Race, Ethnicity and Cultural Heritage) network - a network that aims to foster ally-ship with our senior management team and our business, for greater representation across all functions

We are taking steps in the right direction to have a workforce that is truly representative of our communities - from publishing our first Ethnicity Pay Gap in 2023, to sponsoring employees through the Solaris Executive Leadership Development programme and establishing the REACH Network. Looking forward, our aim is to make our organisation a vibrant, multi-cultural community that innovates and creates solutions for tomorrow.”

Thales internal REACH Network Chair, Ify Okolie, said “Alex’s sponsorship of the REACH Network and the Race at Work charter are huge achievements for us as a network. These milestones demonstrate the progress we’ve made towards fostering true collaboration between our ethnically diverse network of employees and executive leadership in a way that continues to drive our vision of employee empowerment, engagement and talent development, from the widest possible pool across Thales.”