Race at Work: Black voices - Business in the Community

Race at Work: Black voices

Leadership: allyship and connecting to employees and communities. This report calls for employers to take six actions to ensure inclusion of their black talent.

This report, Race at Work: Black Voices reviews how employers can benefit from ensuring inclusion and effective engagement of their black talent.

Accelerating the economic recovery

Research shows that the potential benefit to the UK economy from full representation of Black, Asian, and minority ethnic individuals across the labour market, is estimated to be £24bn annually.

Economic recovery for the UK will accelerate if it is inclusive, draws on all talents and capability in the workplace.

Leadership: allyship and connecting to employees and communities.
Race at Work: Black voices report calls for the following actions

  1. Senior leaders to actively sponsor black talent in their workplaces.
  2. Employers to convene significant conversations in the workplace for active listening.
  3. Make plans on agreed actions together with their black employees.
  4. Government and employers to support the Race at Work 2021 survey.
  5. All employers to set targets to increase the representation of black people at senior levels within their organisations.
  6. All employers to ask their suppliers to demonstrate how they are including black enterprise and service providers within their supply chains.

Evaluate impact by changed outcomes, learn from mistakes, and celebrate successes. Examples of how to use this report.

  • Share this report with your chief executive, executive sponsor for race and human resources (HR) director. Agree the next steps for action.
  • Examine issues within your organisational structures including any processes and behaviours that contribute to disparities in access to opportunities.
  • Examine barriers to fully utilising the skills and abilities of black employees.
  • Share the report with all employees and your ethnicity focussed employee network groups. Convene conversations or focus groups to explore aspects of its findings that are relevant to the organisation. Do not get stuck on terminology — agree what works for the organisation and start talking to move to action.
View the infographic: A Sustained Responsible Business Approach to Race

seven actions to improve
workplace equality