McGregor-Smith Review
Race in the Workplace: The McGregor-Smith Review
Independent review examining the barriers faced by people from black and minority ethnic backgrounds in the workplace and recommending action by government and employers to unlock the economic potential of a diverse workforce.
26recommendations
26Not Yet Responded
Recommendations
Recommendation 1
Listed companies and all businesses and public bodies with more than 50 employees should publish five-year aspirational targets and report against these annually.
Recommendation 10
Senior leaders and executive board members should undertake reverse mentoring with individuals from different backgrounds, to better understand their unique challenges as well as the positive impacts from diversity.
Recommendation 11
All employers should ensure proportional representation on long and short lists, and reject lists that do not reflect the local working age population.
Recommendation 12
All employers should critically examine entry requirements into their business, focusing on potential achievement and not simply which university or school the individual went to.
Recommendation 13
Job specifications should be drafted in plain English and provide an accurate reflection of essential and desirable skills to ensure applications from a wider set of individuals.
Recommendation 14
Larger employers should ensure that the selection and interview process is undertaken by more than one person, and should ideally include individuals from different backgrounds to help eliminate bias.
Recommendation 15
Employers should ensure that all elements of reward and recognition, from appraisals to bonuses, reflect the racial diversity of the organisation.
Recommendation 16
All organisations (public and private) should use contracts and supply chains to promote diversity, ensuring that contracts are awarded to bidders who show a real commitment to diversity and inclusion.
Recommendation 17
Employers should seek out opportunities to provide work experience to a more diverse group of individuals, looking beyond their standard social demographic (this includes stopping the practice of unpaid or unadvertised internships).
Recommendation 18
New entrants to the organisation should receive a proper induction, including basic and clear information on how the career ladder works, pay and reward guidelines and how promotions are awarded.
Recommendation 19
Senior managers should publish their job history internally (in a brief, LinkedIn style profile) so that junior members of the workforce can see what a successful career path looks like.
Recommendation 2
Listed companies and all businesses and public bodies with more than 50 employees should publish a breakdown of employees by race and pay band.
Recommendation 20
Employers should establish formal networks and encourage individuals to participate, incorporating the networks' objectives into the mission of the company.
Recommendation 21
Mentoring and sponsorship schemes should be made available to anyone who wants them.
Recommendation 22
Government should work with employer representatives and third sector organisations to develop a simple guide on how to discuss race in the workplace.
Recommendation 23
Government should work with Business in the Community to establish an online portal for employers to source the information and resources they need to take effective positive action.
Recommendation 24
Business in the Community should establish a list of the top 100 BME employers, to identify the best employers in terms of diversity.
Recommendation 25
Government to write to all institutional funds who have holdings in FTSE companies and ask them for their policies on diversity and inclusion and how they ensure as owners of companies that the representation of BME individuals is considered across the employee base of the companies where they hold investments.
Recommendation 26
Government should assess the extent to which the recommendations in this review have been implemented, and take necessary action where required.
Recommendation 3
All employers should take positive action to improve reporting rates amongst their workforce, explaining why supplying data will improve diversity and the business as a whole.
Recommendation 4
Government should legislate to ensure that all listed companies and businesses employing more than 50 people publish workforce data broken down by race and pay band.
Recommendation 5
The Government should create a free, online unconscious bias training resource available to everyone in the UK.
Recommendation 6
All organisations should ensure that all employees undertake unconscious bias training.
Recommendation 7
Senior management teams, executive boards and those with a role in the recruitment process should go further and undertake more comprehensive workshops that tackle bias.
Recommendation 8
All businesses that employ more than 50 people should identify a board-level sponsor for all diversity issues, including race. This individual should be held to account for the overall delivery of aspirational targets. In order to ensure this happens, Chairs, CEOs and CFOs should reference what steps they are taking to improve diversity in their statements in the annual report.
Recommendation 9
Employers should include a clear diversity objective in all leaders' annual appraisals to ensure that they take positive action seriously.