Despite all the talk of encouraging diversity, two thirds of ethnic minorities working in UK financial services have experienced discrimination in the workplace, according to a sweeping survey highlighting how far the sector still has to go on racial diversity.
Workers from ethnic minority backgrounds remain sceptical that their organisations are committed to diversity and inclusion, while nearly half the 800 respondents surveyed by Reboot, a network of senior financial services professionals, believe that their career progression has been slower than that of their white colleagues.
Reboot, a group aiming to increase conversations around race in the workplace, surveyed eight hundred financial services professionals from 440 firms for its Race to Equality report. It found that 66 per cent of respondents from ethnic minority backgrounds said they had experienced discrimination in their careers.
“The figures in this report are sobering,” said a senior non-white financial services professional working in financial regulation.” They added: “They indicate that we’re still only just starting down a very long road and that much has to be done by senior leaders – and I include myself in that – to build trust and define what a healthy, inclusive culture truly looks like.” Many financial services organisations have been more vocal about their commitment to racial diversity in the wake of the Black Lives Matter movement, revived by the killing of George Floyd by police in US last year, and have pledged to increase Black representation.
However, the survey shows that financial services professionals from ethnic minority backgrounds remain unconvinced that senior leaders within the companies they work for are really pushing for change. Just 36 per cent of respondents said they believed their organisations were “fully committed” to diversity and inclusion, while 51 per cent thought their senior leadership believed diversity was critical to the future of their organisation. Meanwhile, 48 per cent said that their career progression was slower than that of their white peers.
A former HSBC banker, Ian Clarke, who produced a 48-page report into race at the UK lender and now runs diversity group DEllight consulting, said ethnic minorities are excluded from the helping hands often given to their white colleagues that help career progression.
“The managing director who takes a white analyst under his wing because ‘that was me when I was young’; the CEO who offers a white associate a leadership position after playing golf with her parents – these systems don’t exist for ethnic minorities because glass ceilings block the path to MD and they aren’t welcomed at the golf club,” he said.
Reboot has called for a five-step process to become more inclusive employers, which includes shaking up recruitment processes, listening to employees, updating training and development programmes, and having visible senior sponsors throughout the firm.
“What we need to see is clear direction and action from senior leadership, coupled with a culture shift that empowers middle management, introduces accountability within companies themselves, and ultimately encourages people in the industry to acknowledge there’s an issue and embrace the benefits that racial and ethnic diversity can bring,” said Sachin Bhatia, head of core institutional and consultants at Invesco.
“Business leaders need to listen more closely to their employees and pay particular attention to the individual needs of each, not applying a one-size-fits-all approach,” said Justin Onuekwusi, head of retail multi-asset funds at Legal & General Investment Management.
“Organisations must enact effective targeted policies, procedures and initiatives that can mitigate the systems of discrimination, otherwise they face deteriorating productivity and mounting systemic risk alongside an exodus of minority talent,” said Clarke. (The writer is our foreign correspondent based in the UK)
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