Race At Work Charter - Signatory

All organisations want to recruit from the widest pool of talent and to help them progress. It is key to their future productivity and performance. 

The Race Disparity Audit’s Ethnicity Facts and Figures website and the BITC Race at Work Survey highlight that people from ethnic minorities still encounter significant disparities in employment and progression. The McGregor-Smith review highlights that greater progress and positive outcomes are now needed to ensure all organisations benefit from the wealth of diverse talent on offer.

This Charter is composed of 5 principal calls to action for leaders and organisations across all sectors.  Signing up means taking practical steps to ensure their workplaces are tackling barriers that ethnic minority people face in recruitment and progression and that their organisations are representative of British society today.

The Charter – Five Calls to Action

Signatories will:

• Appoint an Executive Sponsor for race
  Executive Sponsors for Race provide visible leadership on race and ethnicity in their organisation and can drive key actions such as setting targets for ethnic minority representation, briefing recruitment agencies and supporting mentoring and sponsorship.
• Capture ethnicity data and publicise progress
  Capturing ethnicity data is important to establishing a baseline and measuring progress. It is also a crucial step towards an organisation being able to report on ethnicity pay.
• Commit at Board level to zero tolerance of harassment and bullying
  The Race at Work Survey revealed that 25% of ethnic minority employees reported that they had witnessed or experienced racial harassment or bullying from managers.  Commitment from the top is needed to achieve change.
• Make clear that supporting equality in the workplace is the responsibility of all leaders and managers
  Actions can include ensuring that performance objectives for leaders and managers cover their responsibilities to support fairness for all staff.
• Take action that supports ethnic minority career progression
  Actions can include embedding mentoring, reverse mentoring and sponsorship in their organisations.