The Race and Ethnicity workstream is committed to fostering an inclusive industry and workplace that cultivates an awareness and understanding of the value and competitive advantage that diverse talent brings to the industry, clients and communities we serve.
Our mission is to challenge the industry status quo so that people of different races, ethnicities and religions have the opportunities to fulfil their career potential and advance to senior positions in the industry.
Our 2024 objectives are:
1/ Promote the #PowerHour initiative with the aim of creating a scalable operation to achieve more matches, increase allyship and create more opportunities for this newly created community
2/ Build an ethnically diverse community, and promote sharing of advice at senior levels leveraging our #PowerHour community
3/ Collaborate with other workstreams and external DP partners to encourage firms to improve data capture and disclosure rates regarding their ethnically diverse employee population, in particular considering the focus placed on data disclosure by the regulators
4/ Along with the DP, engage with external stakeholders such as regulators and industry bodies with the objective of moving the dial on ethnic representation at senior levels within our industry
5/ Leveraging our #PowerHour community to create more opportunities for those at senior levels and our allies to work more closely to move the dial on ethnic representation at senior levels within our industry (e.g., networking, coaching)
6/ Continue to partner with City Hive’s cross company mentoring programme
To see our full Race & Ethnicity aims and objectives, please click here
The challenge we face
Diversity is invaluable to the success of organisations within our industry, yet the lack of ethnic representation in senior positions is commonplace. Although a diverse representation of people join the industry, we see the majority progress only to mid-level positions. Our aim is to challenge the industry status quo and work towards addressing this inequality through raising awareness, developing skills and building a community for ethnically diverse employees and their allies. Ultimately, we want to increase ethnic representation at senior levels within our industry.
Notwithstanding ethnic, religious, racial or cultural backgrounds, everyone should feel they can bring their true selves to work and have the same opportunities as others to succeed. To strengthen a collective voice, we endeavour to work with other industry partners who share our values and beliefs to further this mission.
We focus on some specific areas:
- Awareness
Share experiences and raise awareness. It is important to flag that we all have a different experience, but it is just as valid. - Religion and Culture
This will include raising awareness of different religions and the impact of culture within the workplace. - Intersectionality
To explore the layering of challenges of race and ethnicity with other intersectional diversity dimensions. There are overlaps with other workstreams that we will aim to explore to ensure that the race and ethnicity is considered within initiatives and campaigns. - Career progression
Recruit, retain and progress, with a focus on senior representation and progression.
