Will you acknowledge Black Lives Matter as your team returns to the workplace? Kazim Ladimeji sees this as an opportunity.
The Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement has had a profound impact on contemporary society. Controversial at times, it has, somewhat unapologetically, asked the world to stop and take a fresh look at racial inequality in society today.
Even though BLM started as a socio-political movement, it’s evident that employers have a central role to play in addressing racial inequality. This is because work-places often bring together a diverse collection of people and can not only reflect, but also play a role in sustaining societal racial inequalities, if they too adopt unfair practices. In Britain for example, racism in the work-place remains a live issue:
- A People Management Survey from March 2018 revealed that over 50% of UK employees have seen racism at work, and less than a fifth reported it to HR.
- A 2019 Diversity and Inclusion Study conducted by Harris Poll revealed similar findings as also showed that employed adults in the UK were witnessing/experiencing more discrimination than those in France or Germany.
In response to BLM well-known organisations including Sainsburys, Amazon, NHS, Asos, Etsy, have been publicly expressing support for BLM, self-examining and proposing reform agendas.
Employees return to work post-furlough at a unique point in time where there is a fresh expectation to address ongoing racial inequalities in the work-place and embrace the principles of BLM.
It could be a historical turning point for racial equality in the work-place if a critical mass of employers seize the opportunity and build organisational momentum for BLM.
Here are several ideas that can help you seize the initiative around BLM and take it forwards with real purpose in your organisation.
Focus on the principles of BLM, not the politics
A noisy existentialist debate in the media about BLM has threatened to stifle the movement. However, staying focussed on applying the principles of BLM, (and avoiding the complicated political agenda as much as possible), will help to maintain momentum and strategic focus.
Top-down support maximizes organisational engagement
Being such a challenging issue, unequivocal top down support for BLM is key to building support and sustaining momentum in your organisation. If you haven’t done it yet, a well-crafted BLM top-down memo is overdue to prime your staff body to engage with this process of change.
Be careful if using Twitter as a medium to champion the cause. The CIPD received a mix response from their BLM Tweet with some saying the CIPD’s stance was “weak” and “generic”. These out-of-context, pithy statements on Twitter are vulnerable to miss-interpretations that can detract from your core BLM message. We’ve seen some great examples of more detailed corporate memos on BLM that seem to hit the spot.
- Hayden Brown. CEO of Upwork outlined the practical steps the company is taking to create a more inclusive workplace in their company memo.
- Similarly, Prerana Issar, NHS Chief People Officer has written a powerful, honest, constructive, and committed and black lives matter statement for the NHS.
There are some useful takeaways in the these examples so they are worth a read. Both have been patiently constructed to reflect the organisational planning and resources behind the BLM response.
Find out what is it really like to be an ethnic minority in your organisation
With so much press coverage, many of your employees, (especially your BAME ones), will be expecting your organisation to engage with BLM. Many will be disappointed if you don’t. Now is the right time is to find out what the BAME experience is in your organisation. This should guide your strategy to a large degree.
How you do this may depend on a variety of factors, including: the culture of your business, the readiness of existing staff to engage, and the type of information you are looking to find out.
To really understand what it is like to be an ethnic minority in your organisation, you’ll need to collect examples of racial harassment, micro-aggressions, unconscious bias, and discrimination that has been experienced by your workers.
It’s understandable if you wince at the prospect, this is deeply sensitive information and some uncomfortable conversations may need to be had as part of the discovery process. However, much of this tension can be alleviated by offering a variety of feedback forums, so employees can choose the feedback process they are most comfortable with. This will maximise participation rates.
Such feedback platforms might include online pulse surveys, attitude surveys or an invitation to write an email. They offer anonymity and/or emotional distance which may give a voice to the shy and/or apprehensive. These surveys also increase accessibility amongst virtual workers which should increase participation rates.
The face-to-face feedback forum should be made available because the more gregarious types may want to engage in person in order to feel truly heard. Giving staff the option to bring a friend to a face-to-face a meeting will provide safety in numbers, increasing participation from the more reserved. A focus group run by a trained facilitator who takes a group of your employees through a structured conversation around BAME experiences could draw out additional insights.
Draw on any existing experience of anti-racist practices from within your HR or management teams, (and fill any gaps with external expertise). You may be surprised to find non-managerial employees who have useful experience gained from other organisations they have been previously associated with.
Your findings from this research can form the basis for your strategic change agenda which could involve overhauling policies and procedures, goal-setting and monitoring, and introducing targeted diversity training designed to impact the identified problems.
Do employees in your organisations feel comfortable calling out racism?
PersonnelToday magazine recently highlighted Psychologist John Ameachi’s appearance on Good Morning Britain, where he challenged individuals to ‘embrace the wince’ to stand up against racism they observe. However, social awkwardness may not be the only barrier to standing up to racism in a corporate environment. In fact, it might not be a barrier at all.
This People Management article shows that 40% of people who took no action when witnessing racism did so out of fear of the consequences, confirming that many UK employees do not feel safe escalating concerns about racism in the work. A recent public staff memo the NHS Chief People Officer acknowledged that staff confidence in diversity processes has been ‘affected’ by poor experiences (such as inaction or reprisal), when speaking up about racism. Creating a safe space for employees to call out racism is a priority, but is a multi-factorial process that needs carefully picking through. Do your employees feel safe calling out racism? Have you asked them recently?
A key part of changing behaviour so that employees feel more comfortable disclosing racist behaviour is by nurturing an inclusive culture. Speaking up about inappropriate behaviour shouldn’t lead to the discloser being blamed or left to fend for themselves during the grievance process. Like any grievance process if it is to be sustainable, appropriate confidentiality should be observed, justice should be seen to be served and victims should not suffer undue detriment.
Silence On the Ethnicity Pay Gap Is Deafening
The Resolution Foundation’s ‘Opportunities Knocked?’ report revealed that black male graduates earned on average 17% less than white men, and black women suffer a 9% penalty compared to their white peers. Similar gaps appear when comparing non-graduate, BAME workers versus white peers.
Ethnicity pay equality has been on the government agenda for some time, and it should probably be on yours too. This is because it has become a hot topic, partly due to BLM with a recent 100,000 signature petition for mandatory ethnicity pay gap reporting having triggered a debatein parliament.
Many of your BAME employees will be alert to this and will be curious about their own organisation’s pay gap and silence on this topic will be deafening. Ethnicity pay gap reporting is perhaps an area where most companies are playing catch-up, with research showing just 5% have carried out an analysis of their ethnicity pay gap reporting.
Legal concerns around data collection and GDPR has been the main obstacle, but BAME employees won’t see this is a valid reason for not addressing their equality pay gap. Understanding your ethnicity pay gap and ironing out disparities, (in advance of legislation), is the prudent and right thing to do.
What is inspiring about the current situation is although people have been calling for change for years, it now feels wholly different. CEOs, senior managers and politicians have never been more ready to listen and commit budget and resources to make it happen. Bolder, riskier initiatives that would have been turned down or winced at last year might today be approved. HR Staff, Managers and Employees should seize this timely opportunity that promises a greater return on investment from senior managers and staff around diversity and inclusion programmes.
The time is ripe for change, so let’s not waste it.
Note from Editor:
Over Black History Month we're giving away 50 Trainee Manager eCourse bundles to organisations who can demonstrate meaningful change in their employee engagement strategies, following a crucial year for the Black Lives Matter movement. Learn more here.
