RfO Three Recommendations

The  research RfO Race to Progress research  has also highlighted pronounced differences between the eight ethnic minority groups in terms of ambition and attitudes towards career progression. While this is hardly surprising, it challenges a longstanding approach from policymakers and employers to ensure equality between BAME workers and their white British counterparts. While this goal is still laudable, these findings show that Britain’s workforce cannot be seen as one homogenous unit.

The report points to the need for a new focus on areas of workplace management that will ensure that all workers are nurtured and promoted in line with their talents rather than their ethnic background. We highlight some short-term high-priority issues and a number of more long-term issues that the government and employers need to tackle.

This webpage outlines the three recommendations profiled in the research.

Race for Opportunity’s three recommendations are:

1. All employers should work together to establish a system of mentoring to encourage ethnic minority workers to progress and in particular urge those who currently hold leadership positions to take a more active role.  

• More than a third of workers want a mentor, but do not have access to one. We believe the RfO Mentoring Circles approach offers a good practice role model for organisations seeking to introduce mentoring schemes in the workplace.
• An ‘active’ sponsor approach is something businesses should consider as a valuable tool alongside their mentoring activities. The role a sponsor can play is to introduce individuals to different networks and actively promote the individual’s skills and talents within their sphere of influence to open doors and facilitate progression.

2. Feeling valued, proper pay and adequate training are the three basic demands shared by workers from all backgrounds. Employers must redouble their efforts to ensure that the rewards and training support in their organisations meet those needs. These changes can be simple and low-cost which makes them easy areas to focus on in these financially straitened times.  Race for Opportunity has developed a RfO Bridging the Value Gap Toolkit with simple steps for senior leaders, line managers and individual employees to adopt in order to bring about a culture of value and respect throughout a businesses’ hierarchy.

3. There is a need to engage with the recruitment industry head on, in the light of our findings on casual racial discrimination when dealing with ethnic minority clients. Regardless of whether these attitudes are unconscious or conscious, every individual must be assessed on merit, not race. All employers should review their own internal recruitment and promotion processes for transparency and fairness.

Pertemps Recruitment Partnership are very committed to working with RfO and taking forward the recommendations in the Race to Progress: Breaking Down Barriers report.  We are keen to ensure that there is fair outcomes for job seekers from all ethnicity groups and backgrounds within the UK talent pool.  We will be working on a collaborative project going forward that does a further investigation into the experiences of diverse candidates when they are put forward for roles to enable us to build on the Diversity Recruitment Guide with practical advice for Recruitment Agencies and Employers to deliver improved results and improved recruitment outcomes for all customers and clients.

Carmen Watson

Managing Director, Pertemps Recruitment Partnership

RfO Board member

Visit RfO Recruitment Toolkit for additional information and support.