Personnel Today
  • Home
    • All PT content
  • Email sign-up
  • Topics
    • HR Practice
    • Employee relations
    • Learning & training
    • Pay & benefits
    • Wellbeing
    • Recruitment & retention
    • HR strategy
    • HR Tech
    • The HR profession
    • Global
    • All HR topics
  • Legal
    • Case law
    • Commentary
    • Flexible working
    • Legal timetable
    • Maternity & paternity
    • Shared parental leave
    • Redundancy
    • TUPE
    • Disciplinary and grievances
    • Employer’s guides
  • AWARDS
    • Personnel Today Awards
    • The RAD Awards
  • Jobs
    • Find a job
    • Jobs by email
    • Careers advice
    • Post a job
  • Brightmine
    • Learn more
    • Products
    • Free trial
    • Request a quote
  • Webinars
  • Advertise
  • OHW+

Personnel Today

Register
Log in
Personnel Today
  • Home
    • All PT content
  • Email sign-up
  • Topics
    • HR Practice
    • Employee relations
    • Learning & training
    • Pay & benefits
    • Wellbeing
    • Recruitment & retention
    • HR strategy
    • HR Tech
    • The HR profession
    • Global
    • All HR topics
  • Legal
    • Case law
    • Commentary
    • Flexible working
    • Legal timetable
    • Maternity & paternity
    • Shared parental leave
    • Redundancy
    • TUPE
    • Disciplinary and grievances
    • Employer’s guides
  • AWARDS
    • Personnel Today Awards
    • The RAD Awards
  • Jobs
    • Find a job
    • Jobs by email
    • Careers advice
    • Post a job
  • Brightmine
    • Learn more
    • Products
    • Free trial
    • Request a quote
  • Webinars
  • Advertise
  • OHW+

Equality, diversity and inclusionLatest NewsEthnicityRecruitment & retention

Top companies urge firms to set ‘clear and stretching’ racial diversity targets

by Ashleigh Webber 2 Oct 2020
by Ashleigh Webber 2 Oct 2020 Shutterstock
Shutterstock

Companies should have at least one BAME board member and set ‘clear and stretching’ targets for increasing racial and ethnic diversity in senior leadership, the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) and a group of major organisations have insisted.

The CBI and organisations including Microsoft, Aviva, Deloitte, Linklaters and Brunswick are urging businesses to sign their Change the Race Ratio commitment, which will launch at the end of this month and commits signatories to driving tangible change at senior level.

Racial and ethnic diversity

Black barrister misidentified many times in one day at court

Network of ‘allies’ needed to address racial prejudice at work

Covid-19 job losses disproportionately hit ethnic minorities

‘Is it because I is black?’ Why Ali G’s catchphrase is a tragic reality

It encourages firms to set targets for greater racial and ethnic diversity on boards, executive committees and at “ExCo minus one” level. They should also publish those targets and their progress towards them.

Earlier this year it was revealed that 37% of FTSE 100 companies surveyed by the Parker Review (31 out of 83 companies) and 69% of FTSE 250 companies surveyed (119 out of 173 companies) still did not have any ethnic minority representation on their boards.

“The time has come for a concerted campaign on racial and ethnic participation in business leadership. Progress has been painfully slow. We want to do for racial and ethnic diversity what the 30% Club has done so successfully for gender equality,” said Lord Karan Bilimoria, CBI president.

Richard Houston, chief executive of Deloitte UK, said: “The energy of the Black Lives Matter movement has given a fresh sense of urgency around racial diversity in business. Change the Race Ratio aims to grasp this moment to create real and lasting change.”

Signatories to the campaign must commit to the following:

  1. Increasing racial and ethnic diversity among board members and setting targets to achieve at least one racially and ethnically diverse board member by end 2021 (FTSE 100), or by 2024 (FTSE 250).
  2. Increasing diversity in senior leadership (executive committee and the level below the executive committee), by setting clear and stretching targets and publishing them within 12 months of making the commitment. They should also establish a separate target for black participation at both levels.ng
  3. Being transparent on actions, by publishing a clear action plan to achieve the targets and sharing progress in their annual report or company website. They should also disclose ethnicity pay gaps by 2022 at the latest.
  4. Creating an inclusive culture in which talent from all diversities can thrive, by focusing on recruitment and talent development processes; data collection and analysis; fostering safe, open and transparent dialogue, with mentoring, support and sponsorship; and working with a more diverse set of suppliers and partners, including minority owned businesses.

Other founding members of the initiative include Cranfield University, City Mental Health Alliance, Business in the Community and Russell Reynolds.

Business in the Community’s race director, Sandra Kerr, said: “We know that the conversations in the boardroom set the tone for the rest of the company and more diverse representation around those top tables is long overdue.

“The shocking events of 2020 have led to some great-sounding promises from business – serious steps like capturing ethnicity data, publishing their ethnicity pay gap and setting ethnicity targets for improvement for executive level within their organisations show that a company is thinking about more than just jam tomorrow.”

In August, in a report looking at next steps following the Black Lives Matter movement, BITC urged organisations to form a network of “allies” who were willing to collaborate on solutions to help firms be more inclusive of their black colleagues.

Hugh Milward, general manager, corporate external and legal affairs at Microsoft UK, said: “We are on a journey to increasing diversity across Microsoft, and in particular at our most senior levels. But when more than a third of leading organisations still don’t have any ethnic minority board representation, the pace of chance is too slow.”

D&I opportunities currently on PT Jobs

Sign up to our weekly round-up of HR news and guidance

Receive the Personnel Today Direct e-newsletter every Wednesday

OptOut
This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

More D&I jobs

 

Ashleigh Webber

Ashleigh is a former editor of OHW+ and former HR and wellbeing editor at Personnel Today. Ashleigh's areas of interest include employee health and wellbeing, equality and inclusion and skills development. She has hosted many webinars for Personnel Today, on topics including employee retention, financial wellbeing and menopause support.

previous post
OH&W Awards 2019 – ‘You need good managerial and clinical leadership, visibility and credibility’
next post
CPD: Don’t make a dog’s dinner – maintaining health and safety when cleaning streets

You may also like

Fewer workers would comply with a return-to-office mandate

21 May 2025

Redefining leadership: From competence to inclusion

21 May 2025

Consultation launched after Supreme Court ‘sex’ ruling

20 May 2025

EHRC bows to pressure and extends gender consultation

15 May 2025

Culture, ‘micro-incivilities’ and invisible talent

14 May 2025

Why fighting the DEI backlash is about PR...

9 May 2025

So what does the election of a new...

9 May 2025

Rethinking talent: Who was never considered in the...

7 May 2025

Reform UK councils’ staff face WFH ban

6 May 2025

Lincolnshire doctor awarded £250k in race discrimination case

2 May 2025

  • 2025 Employee Communications Report PROMOTED | HR and leadership...Read more
  • The Majority of Employees Have Their Eyes on Their Next Move PROMOTED | A staggering 65%...Read more
  • Prioritising performance management: Strategies for success (webinar) WEBINAR | In today’s fast-paced...Read more
  • Self-Leadership: The Key to Successful Organisations PROMOTED | Eletive is helping businesses...Read more
  • Retaining Female Talent: Four Ways to Reduce Workplace Drop Out PROMOTED | International Women’s Day...Read more

Personnel Today Jobs
 

Search Jobs

PERSONNEL TODAY

About us
Contact us
Browse all HR topics
Email newsletters
Content feeds
Cookies policy
Privacy policy
Terms and conditions

JOBS

Personnel Today Jobs
Post a job
Why advertise with us?

EVENTS & PRODUCTS

The Personnel Today Awards
The RAD Awards
Employee Benefits
Forum for Expatriate Management
OHW+
Whatmedia

ADVERTISING & PR

Advertising opportunities
Features list 2025

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Instagram
  • Linkedin


© 2011 - 2025 DVV Media International Ltd

Personnel Today
  • Home
    • All PT content
  • Email sign-up
  • Topics
    • HR Practice
    • Employee relations
    • Learning & training
    • Pay & benefits
    • Wellbeing
    • Recruitment & retention
    • HR strategy
    • HR Tech
    • The HR profession
    • Global
    • All HR topics
  • Legal
    • Case law
    • Commentary
    • Flexible working
    • Legal timetable
    • Maternity & paternity
    • Shared parental leave
    • Redundancy
    • TUPE
    • Disciplinary and grievances
    • Employer’s guides
  • AWARDS
    • Personnel Today Awards
    • The RAD Awards
  • Jobs
    • Find a job
    • Jobs by email
    • Careers advice
    • Post a job
  • Brightmine
    • Learn more
    • Products
    • Free trial
    • Request a quote
  • Webinars
  • Advertise
  • OHW+