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 2023 objectives are:
- Launch a video series highlighting the importance and impact of different religions and cultures within the workplace
- Following the success of the EmbRACEyourcareer video series and launch of the EmbRACEyourcareer toolkit, obtain the commitment of 50 firms to utilise the toolkit within their organisations
- Build an ethnically diverse community, connections and promote sharing of advice at senior levels, launch EmbRACE100 as phase three of the EmbRACEyourcareer initiative
- Collaborate with other workstreams and external Diversity Project partners to encourage firms to improve data capture and disclosure rates regarding their ethnically diverse employee population
- 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.
