As a responsible employer, you are likely to have within your staff handbooks and procedures information on anti-racism within your equality, diversity and inclusion policies, but perhaps not to any great detail. You may perceive your employees as holding the same values and beliefs of fairness and equality that you would expect as reasonable.
But in the interests of avoiding any misunderstanding, The Equality Act of 2010 lists race as one of the nine protected characteristics, and so any race discrimination is illegal.
Earlier this year, the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development set out ‘The 6 Cs’ to clarify expectations:
- CLARIFY – organisations should enable zero tolerance with clear policies and procedures.
- CO-CREATE – scrutinise all practices and operational processes, and tackle any racism.
- COMMIT – make your actions visible, or they will be worthless. Senior management buy-in goes a long way.
- CRITICALLY APPRAISE your people management approach. Set up a working party to analyse a typical career lifecycle, from recruitment processes to career progression, and look at ways to eradicate unconscious bias in any of these areas.
- CONNECT YOUR PEOPLE – create safe spaces to voice opinions from all areas of the organisation. Encourage informal discussions to address issues head-on.
- COMMUNICATE – keep discussions consistent, constructive and two-way. Larger organisations could benefit from forming BAME groups to give safe passage to relay matters of concern to senior management.
For an employer to be able to stand any chance of defending any discrimination claim, their policies must be up to date and relevant to the organisation, comply with legislation, reviewed and most importantly communicated to staff.
For more information, contact hbelton@morganlaroche.com