How to get positive action right

I was the ben­e­fi­cia­ry of a pos­i­tive action scheme at the start of my career. I’ll always be grate­ful that the organ­i­sa­tion in ques­tion recog­nised the inequities that put peo­ple from less priv­i­leged back­grounds at a dis­ad­van­tage in life.

In this case, I was award­ed a bur­sary for a course with such a good rep­u­ta­tion that many pres­ti­gious organ­i­sa­tions were seek­ing to hire its grad­u­ates. The scheme was designed to sup­port some­one from a low-income home who would strug­gle to pay the £9,000 course fee. I had been con­sci­en­tious, proac­tive and entre­pre­neur­ial at school, co-found­ing a char­i­ty with six friends at the age of 18. This meant that, despite my socioe­co­nom­ic dis­ad­van­tages, I stood out in a high­ly com­pet­i­tive selec­tion process.

Yet even though I’ve ben­e­fit­ed from pos­i­tive action, it doesn’t make me blind to its risks. Hav­ing worked with a range of organ­i­sa­tions, I know how easy it can be to get the process wrong.

What positive action is and how you should talk about it

The Equal­i­ty and Human Rights Com­mis­sion explains it this way: “Pos­i­tive action is about tak­ing spe­cif­ic steps to improve equal­i­ty in your work­place – for exam­ple, to increase the num­ber of dis­abled peo­ple in senior roles in which they are cur­rent­ly under-rep­re­sent­ed. It can be used to meet a group’s par­tic­u­lar needs, lessen a dis­ad­van­tage they might expe­ri­ence or increase their par­tic­i­pa­tion in a par­tic­u­lar activ­i­ty.”

One of the biggest issues affect­ing this oth­er­wise noble pur­suit is how it is explained to the rest of the com­pa­ny. Mis­com­mu­ni­ca­tion, or a lack of com­mu­ni­ca­tion, can cause con­flict and even exac­er­bate the very inequities this method is try­ing to remove. 

Care­ful­ly con­sid­er your expla­na­tion for tak­ing pos­i­tive action. For instance, it can be help­ful to explain that the firm’s tra­di­tion­al recruit­ment process­es over­whelm­ing­ly and dis­pro­por­tion­ate­ly reduce par­tic­u­lar groups’ chances of suc­cess. Open­ly describ­ing the flaws in the sys­tem can demon­strate where inequity comes from and inspire change.

Why positive action is often misunderstood

Pos­i­tive action is often seen as tak­ing cer­tain priv­i­leges from one per­son and giv­ing them to anoth­er. It isn’t that. Ulti­mate­ly, it’s about giv­ing every­one what they need to be suc­cess­ful in a selec­tion process – and that looks dif­fer­ent for dif­fer­ent peo­ple. It’s about ensur­ing that all appli­cants are oper­at­ing under sim­i­lar con­di­tions, so that when we hire some­one we know that we real­ly are choos­ing the best can­di­date, not sim­ply the per­son with the pro­file and priv­i­leges that have eased their way through the process.

If the ratio­nale for pos­i­tive action isn’t clear­ly explained, it can under­mine the whole ini­tia­tive, par­tic­u­lar­ly if this break­down in com­mu­ni­ca­tion leads peo­ple to ques­tion the suc­cess­ful applicant’s abil­i­ties. 

I vivid­ly recall a white male col­league ask­ing me if I’d been hired to ensure that there were more Black employ­ees at the mag­a­zine we were work­ing for at the time. I’m sure he meant no offence, but I imme­di­ate­ly felt oth­ered and couldn’t relax for the next six months I spent there. I felt that no one real­ly rat­ed my skills. 

In anoth­er instance, some­one who’d been assigned to me as a ‘bud­dy’ to aid my induc­tion would often com­pare me with a white intern who’d impressed her and was seek­ing a per­ma­nent role at the firm. My bud­dy made com­ments such as: “She has worked real­ly hard. It’s unfair that you’re being offered things that she’s had to strive for.”

While it was dis­ap­point­ing that the firm seemed unin­ter­est­ed in devel­op­ing that intern’s poten­tial, to sug­gest that I’d been giv­en an easy ride was absurd. I’d writ­ten dozens of free arti­cles, often walk­ing sev­er­al miles to the office and for­go­ing lunch because I had so lit­tle mon­ey. More­over, I’d had to start a char­i­ty and write unpaid from the age of 16 with no finan­cial sup­port, just to secure the bur­sary that had placed me in the same tal­ent pool as her.

There is a say­ing that priv­i­lege is invis­i­ble to those who have it. The idea that hav­ing a sup­port sys­tem that could sub­sidise someone’s cost of liv­ing was a priv­i­lege hadn’t even occurred to my bud­dy.

I had also worked real­ly hard to get to that point; I’d sim­ply tak­en a dif­fer­ent route. The truth was that I deserved to be there as much as any­one else did. Under­stand­ing the many faces of priv­i­lege is essen­tial when estab­lish­ing suc­cess­ful pos­i­tive action – and it’s how we can cre­ate an envi­ron­ment where we prac­tise ally­ship.

Making a success of positive action 

The key to effec­tive pos­i­tive action is to ensure that no ben­e­fi­cia­ry of it is seen as ‘the diver­si­ty hire’. For this rea­son, it is worth shar­ing a recruit’s bio, pro­file and/or CV with the team they are join­ing, so that they’re intro­duced in the con­text of their apti­tude for the job. 

Cru­cial­ly, you don’t need to adver­tise a pos­i­tive action scheme as such. Using inclu­sive lan­guage; ask­ing about access needs; using alt text; choos­ing imagery that con­veys the myr­i­ad activ­i­ties you engage in as a com­pa­ny; and giv­ing insights into your organisation’s cul­ture will tell under-served appli­cants that you see them. These small changes to your exter­nal approach will help you reach a broad­er range of peo­ple organ­i­cal­ly. 

Adver­tis­ing vacan­cies in a vari­ety of places and using inter­est groups, social chan­nels, mem­ber­ship bod­ies and char­i­ties should also ensure that a wider range of peo­ple will see the oppor­tu­ni­ties you’re offer­ing. Work­ing with these groups to refine your adverts and hir­ing pro­ce­dures will also help to make your firm as inclu­sive and equi­table a recruiter as pos­si­ble. 

Hiring fairly is only the first step

I stand by the view that every­one needs an ally. Allies don’t have to iden­ti­fy with any of the char­ac­ter­is­tics pro­tect­ed by the Equal­i­ty Act 2010 and peo­ple don’t always need allies because of their iden­ti­ty. Some­times they sim­ply need peer sup­port, under­stand­ing and com­pas­sion – and ally­ship is a way to show it.

If you or your organ­i­sa­tion use pos­i­tive action to lev­el the play­ing field, don’t be afraid to sup­port any recruit who ben­e­fits from it. Reit­er­ate the pur­pose of this method and remind their col­leagues that tal­ent and hard work earned the suc­cess­ful can­di­date their place. Sys­temic bias and bad process­es would have kept them out, not a lack of abil­i­ty. 

Don’t shy away from actions that stim­u­late change when it comes to recruit­ment and pro­mo­tion. If nec­es­sary, you should feel empow­ered to say: “We aren’t reflect­ing the whole of the poten­tial mar­ket with our offer­ings and we could be fail­ing to reach cer­tain ele­ments of it, owing to the make-up of our team and its cul­ture.” 

And con­sid­er what you real­ly want from pos­i­tive action. Is it to feel that you’re doing some­thing to improve the diver­si­ty of your busi­ness, instil equi­ty of process or pro­mote an inclu­sive cul­ture? Will it lead to last­ing change or is it a tem­po­rary fix? Could the tal­ent you’re seek­ing come in, dis­like what they see and decide to leave in three months’ time?

A cul­ture that offers a ‘career with­out lim­its for every­one’ is inspir­ing – and it can change how a whole organ­i­sa­tion sees itself, not just those who ben­e­fit from pos­i­tive action.

I was the beneficiary of a positive action scheme at the start of my career. I’ll always be grateful that the organisation in question recognised the inequities that put people from less privileged backgrounds at a disadvantage in life.

In this case, I was awarded a bursary for a course with such a good reputation that many prestigious organisations were seeking to hire its graduates. The scheme was designed to support someone from a low-income home who would struggle to pay the £9,000 course fee. I had been conscientious, proactive and entrepreneurial at school, co-founding a charity with six friends at the age of 18. This meant that, despite my socioeconomic disadvantages, I stood out in a highly competitive selection process.

Yet even though I’ve benefited from positive action, it doesn’t make me blind to its risks. Having worked with a range of organisations, I know how easy it can be to get the process wrong.