Three changes businesses must make to improve diversity

As Black His­to­ry Month comes to a close, the con­ver­sa­tion about diver­si­ty mustn’t close with it.

“I want peo­ple out­side my com­mu­ni­ty to seize this com­mem­o­ra­tive time as an oppor­tu­ni­ty for change, to make an impact, to learn. That doesn’t all end on 1 Novem­ber. So let’s use this focal moment because it’s there and under­stand why it’s there,” says Jen­nifer Thomas, head of com­mu­ni­ca­tions, data and ana­lyt­ics at the Lon­don Stock Exchange Group.

At a round­table host­ed by Racon­teur, a pan­el of busi­ness lead­ers from the Black com­mu­ni­ty tack­led top­ics which includ­ed chang­ing recruit­ment strate­gies, improv­ing rep­re­sen­ta­tion in busi­ness and where the respon­si­bil­i­ty lies with­in com­pa­nies to ele­vate Black voic­es.

1. Re-examine recruitment practices

One of the most effec­tive ways of mak­ing an impact with the Black com­mu­ni­ty is a re-exam­i­na­tion of cor­po­rate recruit­ment prac­tices. For Dino Myers-Lamptey, founder of strat­e­gy agency The Bar­ber Shop, net­works play a key role in chang­ing recruit­ment.

He believes that com­pa­nies can no longer take the easy option of iden­ti­fy­ing peo­ple already with­in their net­works for ear­ly-career roles or using recruiters that do the same for high-lev­el roles for senior jobs. It might mean more work but ensur­ing recruit­ment is broad enough to reach wider net­works will enable com­pa­nies to draw from a wider pool of diverse can­di­dates.

He says: “There are enough qual­i­fied peo­ple who will take that job who are diverse, but they aren’t hear­ing about it or won’t get the oppor­tu­ni­ty. The slight­ly con­tro­ver­sial thing I would say is that you need to use nepo­tism but with­in dif­fer­ent net­works because it’s a pow­er­ful means of recruit­ment in ear­ly careers.”

Myers-Lamptey also calls on CEOs to take a stand and set the tone from the top. By accept­ing per­son­al respon­si­bil­i­ty for build­ing a more diverse busi­ness, CEOs can inspire change in their organ­i­sa­tions and include diver­si­ty in cor­po­rate objec­tives.

One of the pro­grammes which aim to build stronger and more diverse net­works of ear­ly-careers can­di­dates is 10,000 Black Interns. Its CEO, Rebec­ca Aju­lu-Bushell, adds that once diverse can­di­dates are hired, their careers need to be sup­port­ed.

“How do we cre­ate a sus­tain­able cycle of men­tor­ship, where these peo­ple ascend through career spaces? And what does mean­ing­ful net­work­ing look like?” she asks. The answer lies in the busi­ness­es them­selves recog­nis­ing the need to change from with­in.

Adao­ra Oramah, founder and CEO of media brand Ama­ka Stu­dio, believes that Black lead­ers also have work to do to avoid gate­keep­ing. “We run into that [men­tal­i­ty of] ‘I need to be the only Black per­son here,” she says. “There can be more of us. It’s not just one Black voice, there are many voic­es. The inter­sec­tion­al­i­ty of our iden­ti­ties needs to be rep­re­sent­ed as well.”

2. Improve Black representation

Her com­pa­ny is work­ing to tack­le the inher­ent bias­es with­in the media land­scape, by ensur­ing Black women are inspired and paid to work in media and pub­lish­ing. Ama­ka Stu­dio, while based in the UK, also oper­ates across Africa, to ensure both the dias­po­ra and African voic­es are rep­re­sent­ed.

With­in the UK, more work needs to be done beyond the major urban cen­tres to ensure busi­ness­es and recruiters are reach­ing inter­sec­tion­al, diverse can­di­dates, says Aju­lu-Bushell. “When you get into spaces like Glouces­ter­shire and Shrop­shire, the pro­file of rur­al Black­ness is so dif­fer­ent. Diver­si­ty means some­thing dif­fer­ent. To be Black and from the coun­try­side, you have such a dif­fer­ent expe­ri­ence. Diver­si­ty in this coun­try needs to be more spe­cif­ic.”

I’m con­scious as a leader about who I take into meet­ings. I make an effort to show­case diverse tal­ent. That’s what ampli­fy­ing our voice is

The pan­el­lists agreed that it wasn’t enough to hire from a diverse can­di­date pool because their voic­es must be heard.

Thomas says: “I’m cer­tain­ly not see­ing enough progress there. And to even have a seat, let alone a voice, at the table you need diver­si­ty in the first place. I’m con­scious as a leader about who I take into meet­ings. I make an effort to show­case diverse tal­ent. That’s what ampli­fy­ing our voice is.”

Rep­re­sen­ta­tion can be sup­port­ed by data and sta­tis­tics, which help com­pa­nies set objec­tives and ensure diver­si­ty is a cru­cial part of their key objec­tives. Myers-Lamptey points to the adver­tis­ing indus­try, where cul­tur­al per­cep­tion might show the Black com­mu­ni­ty is well-rep­re­sent­ed. That may be the case on screen, he says, but behind the cam­era “it’s just ter­ri­ble. There’s not that rep­re­sen­ta­tion.”

Data from Media for All’s MEFA Mea­sures report in April reveals that 77% of respon­dents in the media and cre­ative indus­tries ”don’t see role mod­els like them in their organ­i­sa­tions. Addi­tion­al­ly, 37% of Black respon­dents agreed that their organ­i­sa­tions don’t do enough to allow diverse tal­ent to thrive.

The most damn­ing respons­es come from the 18- to 34-year-old cohort, who chart­ed less con­fi­dence in career pro­gres­sion, sup­port for diverse voic­es and fair­ness with­in com­pa­nies than their old­er coun­ter­parts. Rep­re­sen­ta­tion in senior roles mat­ters, the pan­el­lists agree. But it’s also a mat­ter of a broad swath of the Black com­mu­ni­ty hold­ing senior roles and inspir­ing young employ­ees from all diverse back­grounds to aspire for more.

Aju­lu-Bushell says: “It’s also about a cul­tur­al shift and improv­ing cul­tur­al lit­er­a­cy. We need peo­ple who are rep­re­sen­ta­tive of a more holis­tic vision of what diver­si­ty means, and that means social mobil­i­ty first and fore­most.”

Nev­er­the­less, com­pa­nies are mak­ing progress in both recruit­ment and sup­port­ing Black peo­ple through their careers. Where once the cham­pi­on of diver­si­ty might have been the head of diver­si­ty and inclu­sion – and the buck stopped there – now, cor­po­rate lead­ers are set­ting the tone from the top.

3. Prioritise diversity for everyone

Diver­si­ty is a proven fac­tor for eco­nom­ic suc­cess, mak­ing diverse recruit­ment prac­tices a no-brain­er. Sim­i­lar­ly, once Black employ­ees are in place, men­tor­ing schemes and net­work­ing events have been built to sup­port career devel­op­ment.

But with­in busi­ness­es, work needs to be done to ensure diver­si­ty is a pri­or­i­ty for every­one, not just mem­bers of diverse com­mu­ni­ties.

Thomas says: “It’s everyone’s respon­si­bil­i­ty. Whether you have direct account­abil­i­ty for hir­ing or not, we all have to be part of it.”

She says respon­si­bil­i­ty is often del­e­gat­ed to the D&I role when organ­i­sa­tions need to work on the role every per­son plays in build­ing a more diverse com­mu­ni­ty. To do so, she says, spe­cif­ic tar­gets and plans should be in place to avoid per­cep­tion bias and emo­tion-dri­ven deci­sion-mak­ing.

Cham­pi­oning Black voic­es also can­not just be the purview of Black peo­ple. “We need to look at the diver­si­ty of thought as well as back­ground,” Oramah says, adding that com­pa­nies should “have that in their think­ing and their diver­si­ty pol­i­cy and make it mea­sur­able and action­able. It shouldn’t be an after­thought. Diver­si­ty should be inte­grat­ed across the val­ue chain, not del­e­gat­ed to one per­son or a group of peo­ple.”

If a com­pa­ny tru­ly sup­ports diver­si­ty, then peo­ple across the busi­ness will engage in the objec­tive of a more diverse and inclu­sive cul­ture. That is then reflect­ed in the recruit­ment space, Myers-Lamptey adds. “Tal­ent will go to the places that are good,” he says, adding that com­pa­nies which are trans­par­ent about their diver­si­ty data will see more diverse can­di­dates apply.

Progress has been made across the recruit­ment, men­tor­ship and rep­re­sen­ta­tion land­scape. But Black His­to­ry Month offers a cru­cial moment to reflect on this progress and ensure it doesn’t end here. As Thomas says, it’s a time to reflect and learn but also to under­stand what fur­ther action is need­ed to ele­vate Black voic­es in busi­ness.

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