Three years on from the murder of George Floyd, companies are failing to hire and promote enough senior business leaders from ethnically diverse backgrounds, a poll of 2,000 workers has found.
The survey commissioned by executive search and advisory company Zyna Search found that almost 70% of office workers feel their employers have not increased the number of Black leaders – despite countless businesses making anti-racism pledges after Floyd’s death in May 2020 and the rise of the Black Lives Matter movement.
Seven in 10 said their companies had “begun work” to address racism in their organisations, yet 57% of Black staff felt they had been passed over for promotion, compared to 34% of white staff.
Almost six in 10 of those employees who had been overlooked for promotion felt it was down to the colour of their skin, and 55% said they had applied for a promotion that had gone to a white colleague, the survey found.
The research, carried out by Perspectus Global for Zyna, also revealed that 60% of Black staff felt they had to “code switch” at work, for example adjusting their language or changing aspects of their appearance. Almost half (46%) said they had anglicised their names to make them easier for colleagues to pronounce.
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Across all respondents to the survey, almost 80% said they were happy in their current role. By comparison, 56.6% of Black staff said they were satisfied in their current position.
Three-quarters of Black staff polled for the survey thought they were “generally underrepresented” in the workforce.
Marcus Whyte, founder of Zyna Search said: “It’s a positive sign that work to address racism in the workplace had begun in offices across the country but the report shows more work still needs to happen especially in terms of senior leaders and those with influence and power in the workplace.”
Whyte pointed to the fact there are no Black CEOs or chairs in the current FTSE 100, despite pledges made in 2020.
“What I would like to see is meaningful and measurable progress with Black, Asian and ethnically diverse employees represented at all levels of businesses,” he added.
“It is also significant that it is important to Black employees to see representation. We know diverse organisations make sound business sense as it drives competitive advantage and ultimately performance and revenue.
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“In a labour market that is fighting for top talent there is a huge opportunity for diverse organisations to steal a march and appeal to different and broader talent pools.”
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