Race for Opportunity announces winners in workplace race equality index

BT is the most race-friendly organisation to work for according to Race for Opportunity’s annual investigation of race diversity practices in UK organisations, launched today. While the public sector has a legal duty to act on race diversity, private sector organisations BT and Pearson - who are Business in the Community members - came first and second respectively in the 2009 race equality index. 

If initiatives such as BT’s encouraging of its suppliers to sign-up to minimum standards on race diversity, were to become common practice, I am confident that the UK could make real progress on tackling the gross underrepresentation of ethnic minorities.

Top 5

The top 5 public and private sector organisations for race diversity revealed in the 2009 Benchmarking Report 'Transparency at the Heart of Diversity' are:

1) BT

2) Pearson

3) Ministry of Defence

4) Department for Business Enterprise and Regulatory Reform (BERR)   

5) Home Office

The Ministry of Defence is the most race-friendly public sector employer according to the benchmark. West Midlands Police and the British Army, also commended for their commitment to race issues, are ranked fourth and fifth place respectively.

The only detailed study of race diversity trends and best practice in the UK, Business in the Community’s Race for Opportunity campaign has been benchmarking organisations since 2001.

The benchmark index surveyed 79 organisations, representing 1.5m employees and equivalent to 4% of the UK’s working-age population.

Significant progress despite the recession

Despite the recession, the organisations benchmarking on race are making significant progress, particularly with engaging current and potential ethnic minority employees.

The report reveals that over 90% of those benchmarked are monitoring the ethnicity of their workforce and applicants; communicating race policies to recruitment agencies and suppliers; and demonstrating a commitment to engaging with ethnic minority stakeholders, including customers, clients and the local community.

However, despite the organisations taking part in the survey being amongst the best employers for ethnic minorities, the glass ceiling has not been shattered. Only 4.3% of board-level employees are from an ethnic minority, compared to 8.5% in the total workforce.  

Similarly, just over 60 out of every 100 ethnic minorities in the UK are currently employed, compared to 75 out of 100 of the white population.

Furthermore, ethnic minorities are predicted to fare worse than average in periods of redundancy, as demonstrated during the 1990s recession. 

Targeted action 

Sandra Kerr, National Campaign Director for Race for Opportunity, commented: “In tough times it’s easy for organisations to neglect diversity, particularly when it concerns race which is often seen as less of a priority than gender and sexuality. It is a huge credit that so many organisations have chosen to take part in this research.

“However, even amongst this elite group of employers, ethnic minorities remain worryingly far behind. Without very targeted action to speed up the progression of ethnic minorities in employment – programmes designed to get ethnic minorities into senior positions for example - the inequality that exists within organisations will persist. If initiatives such as BT’s encouraging of its suppliers to sign-up to minimum standards on race diversity, were to become common practice, I am confident that the UK could make real progress on tackling the gross underrepresentation of ethnic minorities.”