Capability not ethnicity

In 2018, the government announced a ‘Race at Work Charter’ containing a series of measures to tackle ethnic disparities in the workplace.

Developed in partnership with Business in the Community (BITC), the Charter sets out the below five key principles and actions for businesses to commit to publicly.

Five calls to action:

• Appoint an Executive Sponsor for race – Executive Sponsors for race provide visible leadership on race and ethnicity in their organisation and can drive actions such as setting targets for ethnic minority representation, briefing recruitment agencies and supporting mentoring and sponsorship.
• Capture ethnicity data and publicise progress – capturing ethnicity data is important for establishing a baseline and measuring progress. It is a crucial step towards an organisation reporting on ethnicity pay differentials.
• Commit at board level to zero tolerance of harassment and bullying – The Race at Work Survey revealed that 25% of ethnic minority employees reported that they had witnessed or experienced racial harassment or bullying from managers. Commitment from the top is needed to achieve change.
• Make clear that supporting equality in the workplace is the responsibility of all leaders and managers – actions can include ensuring that performance objectives for leaders and managers cover their responsibilities to support fairness for all staff.
• Take action that supports ethnic minority career progression – actions can include embedding mentoring, reverse mentoring and sponsorship in their organisations.

Royal Mail was one of the founding signatories to the Race at Work Charter when it launched in September 2018. As of 1 February, there were 233 signatories to the Charter.

Head of diversity and inclusion, Peter de Norville, said: ‘As one of the 233 proud signatories to the Race at Work Charter, Royal Mail has made five commitments that will form a big part of our continuing journey to become an inclusive and welcoming workplace for every single one of our employees.

‘With the appointment of Pooja Bagga, director business IT operations, as our Executive Sponsor for our BAME (black, Asian and minority ethnic) steering group, I am pleased to say that we are already delivering on each of the charter’s five commitments.

‘With the support of Pooja’s highly visible leadership at the Inclusive Action steering group, I will be able to deliver a number of key priorities in the year ahead. These include the setting of targets for ethnic minority representation, advising on inclusive recruitment strategies and providing specific career development programmes to help deliver these targets.

‘We will also be supporting reverse mentoring programmes that will enable senior leaders and our BAME colleagues to learn from each other and increase innovation across the business.’

Supporting our 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. We need to build greater awareness that the network exists and is there to support our people. 

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.