#FightRacism

The 2019 theme for today’s International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, is ‘Mitigating and countering rising nationalist populism and extreme supremacist ideologies’.

Racist extremist movements based on ideologies that seek to promote populist, nationalist agendas are spreading in various parts of the world, fuelling racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance, often targeting migrants and refugees as well as people of African descent.

In its recent resolution on eliminating racism, the United Nations General Assembly emphasized that any doctrine of racial superiority is ‘scientifically false, morally condemnable, socially unjust and dangerous’.

Royal Mail has long been a part of the fabric of the UK, delivering to every address regardless of the race, gender, sexuality, disability or religious beliefs of those who live there. As a company, we are committed to placing equality, diversity and respect at the heart of our business and creating a welcoming and inclusive environment for everyone.

Around 13% of our employees in Royal Mail identify themselves as being from a BAME background. That’s roughly representative of the national average of people from the BAME community who are of ‘working age’ (16-65 years). Whilst this looks at first glance to be a fairly positive place to be, our representation of BAME employees decreases significantly from middle management upwards.

Therefore, initiatives to help support BAME colleagues to progress their careers are crucial to ensuring we have a diverse representation across all levels of our business that reflects the diverse customer base we serve.

To help us improve the representation of BAME employees across our management structure, we have introduced two development initiatives, a Spring Forward management development programme specifically for BAME employees and mentoring circles both internally and externally to the business.

Supporting BAME colleagues

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.

Happy Holi to all those celebrating the Hindu spring festival. May you have a truly colourful year ahead.