By Jill Miller, Policy Adviser, Diversity and Inclusion

In February 2016 Baroness McGregor-Smith was asked by Government to undertake a review of the issues faced by businesses in developing black and minority ethnic talent. Past research has revealed significant underrepresentation of BME talent at executive level and inequality in progression opportunities. She launched a call for evidence last May, to which CIPD responded, and today the recommendations from that review are published, including a roadmap to inspire immediate action by employers.

We welcome the firm stance taken to move on from the established rhetoric and make real change happen on racial equality. For too long the need for change has been recognised but we haven’t seen it in action at the pace required. The report clearly sets out the reasons, both economic and social, why the time for warm words is over and why real action is required. Change is overdue.

As well as there being an undeniable moral case for change, the diversity of thoughts, ideas and ways of working afforded by people of different backgrounds and identities will benefit individuals, organisations and the economy. Without action to develop inclusive workplace cultures where people with a diverse range of identities and backgrounds feel able to perform at their best and progress in the organisation, we face an under-utilisation of talent through not enabling everyone to achieve their potential. And we should be further spurred on by the potential for change at a workplace level to influence wider societal change.

We welcome the Review’s recommendation for listed companies and all organisations with more than 50 employees, to regularly publish workforce data broken down by race and pay band, as well as set aspirational diversity targets. As the review points out, at the moment, employers may not collect this data and therefore may not know how diverse (or not) their workforce is. The transparency achieved through data reporting will help focus attention and should drive action. However, a critical point to make here is that this cannot be a ‘tick box exercise’. The insight gained from taking stock of and reflecting on the workforce make-up needs to be used by employers to make change happen to address racial inequalities at work.

Reporting needs to be against a set of defined measures and explained through a clear narrative, to help all of an organisation’s stakeholders to assess its performance on diversity. The population figures presented in the review will help businesses to establish the appropriate targets for their geographical locality and inform the necessary narrative around the data they report.

There is also a clear need for practical guidance and case study examples to kick-start and then maintain the employer-led action called for in the review. Employers may be uncertain about where to start, especially those without a HR professional to provide people insight and guidance. As a nation we talk openly about gender, but we’re often still reluctant to talk about race – shying away from these conversations won’t result in progress or challenge the unacceptable status quo.

Business listens to business, so it is encouraging to see Baroness McGregor-Smith’s call for organisations that are already ‘leading from the front’ to share how they are creating an inclusive workplace, and reaping the benefits of a wider and more diverse pool of talent. This is also an area where we at CIPD can contribute through our research, policy and employer-engagement work.

I’ve been speaking to organisations already on the front foot in this respect. Some of the practices they’ve adopted include senior level sponsorship and commitment to change, mentoring, unconscious bias training, reviewing recruitment approaches and examining what their HR data is saying about the work experiences of their BME employees to inform evidence-based decision-making.

To help drive action, we’re starting new research on the barriers to career progression faced by employees from BME backgrounds. Building on what we already know in this area from existing research, we want to examine these barriers in more depth. The aim of the work is to provide additional insight for employers about the practical ways they can identify and break down the progression barriers that exist in their organisation and enable a sustainable pipeline of people from all backgrounds to reach the top.

HR has central role in a making this change happen. Therefore we’ll be engaging with our 140,000 members to inform and inspire change as HR has a key role to play. Our profession is ideally placed to challenge and address people management practice at all stages of the employee lifecycle to ensure it is built on the fundamental principles of trust, equality, fairness and inclusion.

If your organisation is already taking action, and you’d like to share what you’re doing, do get in touch: research@cipd.co.uk