Black History Month

This October, the UK celebrates Black History Month - a time to recognise and celebrate the history, culture, and achievements of our black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) communities.

Although Black History Month has been celebrated every February in the United States since 1970, it was not officially celebrated in the UK until 1987 following a campaign led by the activist Akyaaba Addai Sebbo who, at the time, worked for Greater London Council (GLC).

GLC selected October as Black History Month to coincide with the London Jubilee and also to engage school children early in the school term. The first Black History Month was celebrated only in London, but in the years since, the celebration has spread across the country.

The aims of Black History Month are to:

• Promote knowledge of black history, culture and heritage
• Disseminate information on positive black contributions to British society
• Heighten the confidence and awareness of black people to their cultural heritage.

Andreyana Ivanova, head of diversity and inclusion, said: ‘Black History Month is an important part of our annual diversity calendar and is a great opportunity to celebrate the diversity, contributions and achievements of our colleagues and teams.

‘Throughout October, we will be profiling a number of colleagues from the BAME community on myroyalmail.com, hearing their inspiring stories and learning how they make a difference in their teams, for their customers and their wider community.’

Sonia Strang, head of our Group change management office, and chair of our BAME steering group, said: ‘Our BAME steering group was set up to support our BAME colleagues and help them thrive in an environment where they can bring their whole selves to work and celebrate their cultures. 

‘We want to do as much as we can to grow and support local BAME networks throughout the business so that we can develop an inclusive culture and attract, retain and nurture BAME talent.’

Royal Mail’s ethnic profile is broadly representative of the UK population. According to our 2017–18 Employee Survey, around 10% of colleagues declared themselves to be from ethnic minority backgrounds. However, that percentage declines sharply at more senior levels in the business and we want to do something about this.

We work with Business in the Community’s (BITC) Opportunity Now and Race for Opportunity campaigns to ensure we are benchmarking against and are aligned to external best practice. We are a member of the BITC BAME mentoring circles programme and, this year, a further 10 colleagues will benefit from the support of an external BAME mentor. The BAME steering group is also registering interest for our internal BAME mentoring circles so if you would like to sign up for these, please get in touch.

Supporting BAME colleagues

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Making our business a place where black, Asian and minority ethnic colleagues can achieve their potential remains a priority.

Career progression is a key focus as we work towards improving the representation of colleagues from BAME backgrounds across all levels of the business. We need to build greater awareness that the network exists and is there to support our people and shine a light on all the good positive things we are doing across the business. 

If you are thinking about holding a BAME cultural event in your unit, and need some help please reach out to us. To contact the BAME steering group, or volunteer to help out with their activities, please email bame@royalmail.com.