Poll: More than a third use unconscious bias training to encourage racial equality at work

Employee Benefits poll: More than a third (36%) of respondents have introduced unconscious bias training in order to encourage racial equality at their organisation.

A straw poll of www.employeebenefits.co.uk readers, which received 11 responses, also found that a further 36% of respondents are addressing their workplace culture to build better racial equality at their business, while 18% are opting to review their recruitment practices in order to tackle this.

An additional 9% of HR, benefits and reward professionals have implemented employee networks to encourage racial equality within their workforces.

In March 2019, financial services organisation TSB signed the voluntary Race at Work Charter, making a commitment to address the barriers that ethnic minority staff face in the workplace.

The Charter, developed in partnership with the UK government and business outreach charity Business in the Community (BITC), asks employers to take practical steps to tackle the barriers that ethnic minority individuals encounter within the recruitment or career progression processes within their organisations.

As part of a wider campaign to address inequality in the workplace, the Charter also aims to ensure that organisations are representative of British society today.

The Race at Work Charter commits employers to five calls to action: appointing an executive sponsor for race, capturing data and publicising any progress, ensuring zero tolerance of harassment and bullying, making workplace equality the responsibility of all leaders and managers, and taking actions that support ethnic minority staff with their career progression.

TSB opted to sign the Race at Work Charter as part of its focus on building an inclusive workplace culture. This commitment will be supported by TSB’s existing programmes and initiatives that work to increase black, Asian and minority ethnic (Bame) representation at the organisation, such as using external mentoring to aid career progression.