Improving diversity, equity and social mobility in the workplace

The Centre event brought together representatives of the public sector- local authorities, a health organization and national bodies- professional service firms and professional bodies and City employers in finance and insurance to discuss ways in which they can together think innovatively and progressively about how to reduce the inequalities which Black individuals face in these sectors, focusing specifically on career development and progression.

Unemployment rates and progression for young Black men in London

Research in financial and professional services has highlighted that socio-economic background, gender and ethnicity can interact to create multiple layers of inequality[1]. In the context of London, young Black men face some of the highest unemployment rates in the country: approximately 30%, which is more than double that of young white men[2,3]. Despite high levels of educational attainment, these disparities have not been addressed: graduate unemployment for young Black men stands at between 13 and 35% (dependent on the data), approximately four times that of their white counterparts[2,3].

Regardless of whether Black men are born into households that are poorer, their social mobility trajectory is different, harder, and less likely to deliver outcomes commensurate with their qualifications and their aspirations. Whilst some work has been done to understand and address structural inequalities faced by Black communities, less has been done to highlight the role employers can play in making their workplace more inclusive, particularly for young Black people – tomorrow’s Black talent.

Summary of discussions

This report represents an unattributed summary of the discussions held at the February Centre for Social Value event. This includes the reflections and perspectives of individual panelists at different points of their career in the financial and professional services sectors. The Centre for Social Value doesn’t wish to represent the experiences and identities of particular groups of people as universal, or summarise systemic issues in their entirety.

This report highlights evidence of inequalities across our sectors, alongside challenges and long-standing barriers to improving diversity, equity and social mobility. Alongside these significant challenges stands the sincere enthusiasm and commitment of participating organisations to listen, foster genuine dialogue, and learn together to make a real difference.

Is it time to challenge claims of meritocracy?

Meritocracy underpins the theory of social mobility: the idea that everyone who has the right skillset will have the same opportunities made available to them. Panel members invited attendees to challenge the view that London businesses practice meritocracy, presenting the fact that very few senior positions across the private and public sectors are held by Black leaders[4].

Communication and fit

The event highlighted the struggles Black employees face in ‘fitting in’ to a corporate workplace, including:

• the feeling of having to work harder than those around you to get the same recognition, reward and development opportunities;
• the exhaustion of spending so much of your life trying to fit in or justify yourself;
• the feeling of being the only person of colour in a room and the negative impact this has on being able to share experiences or explain issues to senior colleagues; 
• how being ‘well spoken’ can help you fit into certain environments, with Black peers feeling the need to change their voice in order to get hired; 
• the cumulative impact of accent and race on being trusted and respected in the workplace, and the subsequent consequences around progressing into senior roles;
• the feeling that young Black people may be less willing to change their true voice and then be disadvantaged by this due to a lack of progression within the sector.

“All of my peers of colour sound like me because they have to. You don’t get a job like mine working in finance if you don’t talk like this. I feel like I need to show a certain side of myself that clients would be comfortable with.”

“Your websites say you want people to bring their authentic selves to work – do you mean that?”

Important challenges were raised for those attending:

• What do we really mean when we say ‘fit’?
• Is there a ‘type’ of Black person that firms are more comfortable with? 
• Do communication skills and the legacy of perception affect a Black employee’s ability to thrive in certain settings?

The legacy of perception

The importance of our history and the stereotypes still seen today was emphasised. It may not be so much about accent, or being your authentic self, but more substantively about how people perceive individuals who are Black in terms of talent and progression.

Research tells us that people are often judged against a stereotypical view of what they are expected to achieve[5]. Whilst we need to understand the Black experience and the experience of people of colour, we also need to look to those influencing the careers of the people of colour; their judgements need to be made more visible and accountable and at an individual as well as an organisation-wide level.

The following were among the issues raised by participants:

• the feeling of being further back in careers than they thought they would or should be;
• Black men who are leaders in their fields taking longer to get there than their white counterparts;
• the very low number of Black representation on FTSE350 Boards[6]; 
• systems being claimed as meritocratic, but progression and Black representation figures seeming to tell a different story[7]; 
• the need to confront and address harmful historical stereotypes of Black people ‘being aggressive’ or ‘not being of leadership capacity’; 
• that some Black employees may be fortunate in having mentors helping them gain promotion, but this seemed to be a matter of chance.

“We don’t need to be fixed. We need to pay attention to the context, which acts as a barrier to our advancement, and hold that context to account.”

“There are certain people within our race who have risen above these racial perceptions, like Barack Obama for example. But you shouldn’t need to be extraordinary.”

“It’s not a fair ‘race’ within our professional circles, we are at the mercy of other people. Leadership doesn’t see in us what they perceive to be ‘successful’ – because our background and culture is so different to theirs that they don’t recognise that ours can also lead to success.”

Penalties of race in progression in employment

The 2020 Bridge Group Report, Socio-economic diversity in the financial services, involving data from 8 major financial services employers found that employees from lower socio-economic backgrounds took 25% longer to progress through job grades. This increased to 33% when an individual also identified as Black, demonstrating the penalty of race applied to a trajectory[1].

Among the issues highlighted at the Centre for Social Value event were:

• the work of Nobel Prize winner Amartya Sen[8,9] economist and philosopher, in the context of aspiration: it is assumed that a family’s level of income is linked to their aspirations, but families want their children to have a better life than themselves;
• the fact that people want to fully function and flourish, but the ability to flourish is often disabled by our society and its institutions and structures; 
• Tower Hamlets is an example of an area where many ethnic minority children perform well at school and go to university, but this does not always translate into good employment[10].

Sharing what works

A number of ways that workplaces can be more inclusive and equitable were highlighted:

• create safe spaces to talk and share;
• include people of colour in your organisation’s discussions and co-create solutions together; 
• ask your employees what makes them feel valued and included, and what doesn’t; 
• consider inclusive recruitment practices like strength-based interview questions (which avoid disadvantaging those without certain experiences as can happen in ‘competency-based’ interviewing);
• hold leadership and each other accountable with clear diversity and inclusion targets and, for example, linking remuneration to their achievement – be aware that those in leadership roles are also expected to change; 
• create ‘next up’ mentorship opportunities (i.e. mentors who are one grade higher);
• enable dedicated networks to help hold organisations to account and shape internal recommendations designed to address needs specific to an organisation’s context;
• ensure data is collected - 83% of HR/Diversity leaders surveyed by the Chartered Management Institute said they needed better data to drive progress on race and ethnicity, a major lever of accountability and change[7];
• consider stronger collective lobbying to help build support for appropriate charters to hold sector CEOs accountable.

“The accountability of CEOs and Chairs is missing. It is not the problem of the people you have marginalised to fix.”

Key questions and next steps

The Centre for Social Value aims to bring people together to share best practice, build relationships to help move forward on diversity, inclusion and social mobility and to identify possible ways forward in particular areas. With that in mind, we will be pleased to organise future events, if participants would find it helpful, to build on key themes raised and discuss progress made alongside any emerging challenges. Areas for further discussion could include:

1. Challenging claims of meritocracy within the financial services sector when they do not seem supported by the figures on recruitment, development and progression
2. The impact of harmful perceptions and stereotypes
   1. The issues and pressure of ‘fitting in’
   2. Communications and accent – the ability to be authentic in the workplace
3. Building an inclusive workforce
   1. Creating safe spaces and consulting with colleagues
   2. Believing in and supporting your employees’ aspirations
   3. Creating a welcome and inclusive work environment
4. Holding ourselves and the sectors to account, fostering genuine and trusting dialogue, and sharing progress, learnings and best practice

We plan to reconvene later in 2021 and hopefully will be able to move the conversation forward and we will be very pleased if you are able to join us.

With sincere thanks to panelists

Akeem Bundu-Kumura, Strategy Manager in Product Commercialisation, FIS
Ola Adigum, Senior Manager, Mazars
Rob Anarfi, Global Head of Compliance, Beazley
Nelarine Cornelius, Professor of Organisational Studies, Queen Mary University London

Chaired by

Julie Hutchinson, Deputy CEO, East London Business Alliance

Hosted by

Anthony Carey, Partner & Chair of Social Mobility Group, Mazars
Philippa Lloyd, Vice Principal of Policy & Strategic Partnerships, Queen Mary University London

References

1. Who gets ahead and how? Bridge Group & City of London, November 2020
2. Inclusive Employers Toolkit Mayor of London, September 2020
3. Trust for London analysis of Annual Population Survey statistics April 2017- Mar 2020, November 2020
4. The Race at Work Black Voices Report Business in the Community, August 2020
5. Stereotyping, prejudice, and discrimination at the seam between centuries: evolution, culture, mind and brain European Journal of Social Psychology, June 2000
6. Ethnic diversity enriching business leadership Parker Review Committee, February 2020
7. Delivering Diversity Chartered Management Institute, July 2017
8. Inequality RE-Examined by Amartya Sen, Harvard University Press, 1995
9. The Idea of Justice by Amartya Sen, Penguin, 2010
10. LBTH Borough Profile: Education Tower Hamlets Council, 2018