According to the government-backed, McGregor-Smith review on ‘Race in the Workplace, the UK employment rate for Ethnic Minorities is only 62.8% compared with an employment rate for White workers of 75.6% – a gap of over 12 percentage points. This gap is even worse for some ethnic groups, for instance the employment rate for those from a Pakistani or Bangladeshi background is only 54.9%.
Findings from the Green Park Business Leaders Index (2021) showed a decline in the number of black leaders and the ‘black pipeline’ to senior management for FTSE 100 companies. A wealth of evidence suggests that ethnic minority individuals struggle to achieve the same progression opportunities as their counterparts in the UK (McGregor Smith review, 2017), and, fewer than 1 in 10 management roles in financial services are held by Black, Asian or other Ethnic Minority people.
As a professional recruitment agency that works closely with organisations such as Babbasa, we are doing our best to re-dress the balance. We work in the diverse urban community of Bristol, and therefore represent and place candidates from all backgrounds and ethnicities, while specialising in accounting and finance recruitment – which is, traditionally, a very ‘white’ career path. We recognise the pitfalls which await us, and any professional recruitment agency working in our field should recognise that too.
In 2023, our founder Leo, teammate Richard, and Babbasa CEO, Poku, completed The Three Peaks Challenge and raised over £3,500 to help disadvantaged young people into employment with mentorship support. The team decided to tackle this challenge to raise awareness of the inequality that exists in Bristol – all funds raised are being donated to Babbasa, so they can continue the excellent work they do in supporting under-represented 16–25-year-olds into the workplace.
Since Poku founded Babbasa in 2010, the social enterprise has worked with over 2,000 young people and has the aim of supporting one person from each inner-city household in Bristol to achieve median salary by 2030. This vision is not just making a difference in the here and now, but also for generations to come. With a disproportionate number of disadvantaged and inner-city youngsters being from an ethnic minority background, Babbasa are making a difference to inclusivity in the workplace where it’s needed most – at entry level.
This message and approach is something Poku intends to take with him as he moves into consultancy this year. Babbasa have got the ball rolling, and Poku intends to now use that momentum to ensure lasting impact, and continued improvement in businesses’ inclusivity strategy.
But how exactly do you create a truly inclusive culture?
Well, you first have to understand what inclusivity means, and then acknowledge how important it is – not just to your organisation, but to society as a whole.
Inclusivity is defined as:
The practice or policy of providing equal access to opportunities and resources for people who might otherwise be excluded or marginalized, such as those belonging to minority groups.
Denise Hamilton, an inclusion strategist, explains how she has often been the first or only black person in many of her jobs, and this inevitably set her off on a discovery exercise to see why that was so, and how that statistic could be reset. One thing that she says is important to differentiate from the beginning, is whether you are a ‘truth seeker’ or a ‘keeper of the story’ kind of organisation:
In order for inclusivity to become central to an organisation’s culture, one must become a truth seeker – someone who faces facts and asks ‘why?’ Too often, the biggest barriers to inclusivity are the keepers of the story – those who don’t ask questions, who believe the narrative that has been passed down, and who think ‘well, this is what we’ve always done’.
The truth is, ethnic minority groups are under-represented in the UK workplace, and as a result, it is not an inclusive place to be. Additionally, 2 in 5 workers from ethnic minority backgrounds have reported facing racism at work according to a report published by the Trades Union Congress (TUC) in 2022. (TUC say this report is the largest study into the issue that has ever been conducted in the UK).
The racism these workers have faced is not just things such as jokes, ‘banter’, stereotyping, comments about appearance, or outright bullying and harassment, but worryingly, almost half of those interviewed said they had “experienced at least one form of discrimination consistent with institutional racism” too. Institutional racism is often defined as systems which perpetrate discrimination and bias in organisations.
With this as the background, it really is a sad state of affairs that so many organisations are trying to reframe the truth by telling an alternative story – one that seemingly ticks all the inclusion boxes – perhaps a rebrand with multi-cultural staff in advertising, or a new seven-point policy in the HR handbook, or even donating money to organisations such as Babbasa so they can ‘do the work’.
But, telling an alternative story is not the same as seeking the truth.
A new story, even one told with the best intentions cannot honestly be framed as the truth – the truth needs to be found, faced, and taken responsibility for.
Organisations can start seeking the truth by seeking answers to questions such as:
- What are we currently doing to ensure that people of all racial backgrounds have an equal chance of being hired?
- How are we assessing individual workers’, as well as new candidates’ commitment to racial equity?
- How diverse is our organisation’s leadership?
- What have we done as an organisation to support racialised employees?
- What accountability framework is currently in place?
Poku’s heart in his consultancy work is to help organisations become truth seekers rather than storykeepers. And as a professional recruitment agency working alongside him and Babbasa, our heart is to do the same and we are not afraid to ask these questions of ourselves. Recruitment is a critical point on the path to inclusion – the truth we find, face and take responsibility for at this point, can shape individuals, the companies they go on to work for, and ultimately, the society we all live in.
