The CIPD has continuously campaigned for race equality through our public policy work, engagement with government, and guidance to employers. The CIPD viewpoint on race equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI) is a belief that: “People from all black, Asian, minority ethnic, mixed and other race equalities backgrounds should be able to achieve their full potential at work where their difference is valued, celebrated and where they feel safe and a sense of belonging.” 

The CIPD also believes that it is vital to take a more intersectional and personalised approach to EDI interventions and actions, given that a person from a diverse racial background can also experience barriers relating to their gender, disability, age, sexuality, neurodiversity, social class, religion and so on. The CIPD believes that, like mandatory gender pay gap reporting in the UK, there should be “ethnicity pay reporting, which can serve as a catalyst”. 

The CIPD’s views on race align with the Race at Work Charter and the belief of BITC that: 

“Every employer must prioritise action on race equality, inclusion and diversity (EDI), where race EDI is part of a wider EDI strategy in organisations.” 

The Race at Work Charter requires signatories to make seven commitments to help tackle ethnic disparities in the workplace. Below we’ve outlined advice on how to meet each of these commitments.

Senior management sponsorship is key to getting real momentum behind EDI initiatives. CIPD research has shown that lack of progress on EDI is often linked to senior executives not prioritising it as a business imperative. The CIPD report, Diversity Management that Works, identified three levels of commitment to EDI from senior executives: 

• level 1: advocacy, communicating values and recognising that the culture and values of the organisation need to integrate EDI and change 

• level 2: advocacy and resources to support activity that promotes EDI, recognising that it needs investment 

• level 3: advocacy, resources and holding people to account, both through KPIs that incentivise managers and being willing to “call out” and act upon bad behaviour, applying sanctions when needed. 

To meet this part of the Race at Work Charter, we recommend that organisations should: 

• Ensure executives have KPIs specifically related to race inclusion. 

• Champion race equality throughout the organisation and ensure race is firmly on the agenda. 

• Task executives to lead on race equality strategy with oversight of the delivery of programmes of work. 

• Encourage senior leaders to question the lack of diversity at senior levels and commit to taking firm action. 

• Initiate ethnicity pay reporting to encourage action to redress pay differences. 

Further advice and calls to action on each of these points are outlined below. 

Executives must have KPIs specifically related to race EDI 

Senior leadership accountability is key to fostering any significant change on race EDI. Requiring leaders to report on their performance on improving race EDI at work will encourage them to commit to and deliver measurable positive outcomes. 

Champion race equality throughout the organisation and ensure race is firmly on the agenda 

Senior leaders championing race throughout an organisation will lead to all parts of the organisation taking race equality and inclusion seriously. This could take many forms, including discussing race EDI implications of all agenda items at senior management meetings, sponsoring ethnic minority staff networks, or actively participating in race inclusion events such as Black History Month. This, in turn, will lead to more action on the ground around race. 

Task executives to lead on race EDI strategy with oversight of the delivery of programmes of work 

Senior leaders need to have oversight of EDI initiatives to ensure outcomes are delivered on time and to budget. They can provide impetus for the organisation to support EDI. 

Key behaviours and actions include: 

• accessing, researching and understanding the different ethnic minority communities and businesses with a view to collaboration, joint problem-solving and partnerships 

• developing a programme of colleague volunteering, engagement and outreach activities with ethnic minority businesses 

• sharing ongoing contract opportunities information through targeting networks, local ethnic minority media and organisations 

• establishing targets to improve supplier EDI and integrating in wider governance, business planning and performance management and reporting to senior leadership. 

• effectively monitoring supplier contracts by ethnicity, timely payment, and fair remuneration 

• training procurement teams and wider colleagues about the benefits of supplier diversity, including reducing volatility in supply chain, contribution to local economy, job creation, access to new markets including in the context that ethnic minority businesses have international networks and customers 

• developing and delivering race EDI inclusion training, which includes conscious and unconscious bias detection and elimination for all teams 

• monitoring and publishing procurement data by ethnicity, location and, supplier size to ensure equity of access, treatment, outcomes and accountability. Additionally, introduce key performance indicators to track supplier performance linked to internal goals 

• developing and encouraging reciprocal mentoring with ethnic minority businesses to help build better understanding and relationships. 

Encourage senior leaders to question the lack of diversity at senior levels and commit to taking firm action 

Senior leaders genuinely holding organisations to account for the lack of diversity by reviewing policies, processes and systems through a race inclusion lens will lead to real and sustained change. Setting targets for the recruitment and promotion of ethnic minority employees can have a significant impact on increasing representation and inclusion across an organisation.

Initiate ethnicity pay reporting to encourage action to redress pay differences 

Experience from gender pay gap reporting in the UK has shown that this helped in reducing the pay gap in some organisations. Organisations are encouraged to introduce pay gap reporting and analysis for ethnic minorities. This will help with accountability into pay decisions and will start organisations on a course towards fairness in decisions on pay and progression for ethnic minorities.

The CIPD report, Diversity Management that Works, found data can help organisations understand the nature and extent of challenges and barriers in career progression. It also found evidence that suggests UK employers are poor at collecting data on workforce diversity. The McGregor-Smith Review established that a large percentage of FTSE 100 companies need to have better data to drive progress on race and ethnicity. The review outlines what organisations need to do to get progress on ethnicity inclusion, stating that: 

“Organisations need to establish a baseline picture of where they stand today, set aspirational targets for what they expect their organisations to look like in five years’ time, and measure progress against those targets annually.” 

One of the key challenges to achieving these aims is a lack of disclosure of ethnicity data, with employees citing a variety of reasons that hindered disclosure, including: 

• weak trust in their employer 

• being unsure how the data would be used 

• belief employers will claim to be acting on inequalities with no change evident. 

To meet this call to action, organisations should seek to: 

• Review the data you already collect and ascertain whether this is sufficient to measure the ethnic minority demographic of your organisation. If you don’t currently collect ethnicity data, set up processes for doing so. 

• Carry out meaningful analysis of the data, drawing out patterns of under- representation. 

• Identify internal and external channels to distribute the data; don’t just put it on your website. 

• Develop meaningful actions to address disparities found. 

• Lay out a clear plan to continue collecting data and reporting on progress as well as regularly evaluating the effectiveness of programmes to address disparities. 

Review your data 

To establish whether your data is sufficient to measure your organisation’s ethnicity profile, you need to review what you already collect. If you don’t currently collect ethnicity data, set up processes for doing so. 

According to a PricewaterhouseCoopers (PWC) study, 75% of organisations do not have enough data to support ethnicity pay reporting. To remedy this, organisations should: 

• Review the data you already have to see whether the categories used to self-identify align with the UK government’s list of black, Asian and minority ethnic groups. 

• Ascertain if you have enough data in each category to allow for aggregation and reporting while protecting individuals from being identified. 

• Establish how can you collect ethnicity data. According to CIPD research, the majority of ethnicity data is collected from application forms (44%) followed by onboarding forms (21%). An underutilised tool is the staff survey. A staff survey is a great medium for collecting data on ethnicity as there should already be a relationship of trust with those who make the effort to complete a questionnaire. 

Carry out meaningful analysis of the data, drawing out patterns of under- representation and barriers 

There needs to be a good reason for collecting ethnicity data; CIPD research found the top four steps employers can take to encourage disclosure are: 

• Give a clear explanation of how the data will be used. 

• Offer assurances of confidentiality. 

• Share visible evidence of the organisation’s dedication to creating a fairer and more inclusive organisation. 

• Ensure senior leaders show their commitment to EDI. 

Identify channels to communicate what the data means, both internally and externally; don’t just put it on your website 

A large proportion of employees (30%) believe their employer will not do anything with the ethnicity data. It is important to ensure that data is widely distributed internally using a variety of channels, such as a staff newsletter, promoting through social media, or information in the annual report. 

Develop meaningful actions to address shortcomings found 

More than a third of employees in our survey wanted to see evidence of their employer’s dedication to creating a fair and inclusive organisation. Employers need to develop an action plan to address the findings of ethnicity disclosure, such as how to increase representation at all levels of an organisation. 

Lay out a clear plan to continue collecting data and reporting on progress 

Communicate a clear plan showing how the organisation will continue to collect data and report on progress, as well as evaluating the effectiveness of programmes to address shortcomings. Employers should increase their efforts to collect ethnicity data and consider how they can encourage more disclosure. 

They should also review the effectiveness of any actions taken to address any lack of representation identified and report the outcome to employees to help boost confidence in the employer’s commitment to creating inclusion. A data-driven approach is essential to both identifying areas of inclusion where improvements are required and monitoring the effectiveness of strategies, policies and programmes of work. 

Bullying and harassment can be major issues in the workplace, with some of it related to personal characteristics such as race and ethnicity. They can be detrimental to the performance of individual employees as well as affect their physical and mental wellbeing, be disruptive to teams and departments, and ultimately have legal implications. 

Bullying and harassment have a legal context that is important to understand for both employers and employees. In the UK, the Equality Act 2010 defines harassment as: 

“Unwanted conduct related to a relevant protected characteristic, which has the purpose or effect of violating an individual’s dignity or creating an intimidating, hostile, degrading, humiliating or offensive environment for that individual.” 

Although bullying doesn’t have a legal definition, the UK’s Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 and the Employment Rights Act 1996 place obligations on employers to protect employees from bullying. 

Acas – a UK public body offering impartial workplace advice – defines bullying as: 

“Offensive, intimidating, malicious or insulting behaviour, an abuse or misuse of power through means that undermine, humiliate, denigrate or injure the recipient.” 

The CIPD report, Managing Conflict in the Modern Workplace, found that 15% of employees had experienced bullying at work and 8% had suffered harassment. Bullying is more prevalent in the public sector, with 21% claiming to have experienced bullying compared with 14% in the private sector and 10% in the voluntary sector. Worryingly, 40% of employees say they have been bullied or harassed by their manager or supervisor, followed by 29% saying the perpetrator was a team member. 

To meet this call to action, organisations should seek to: 

• Develop an anti-harassment and anti-bullying policy and framework. 

• Run an organisation-wide campaign on dignity and respect in the workplace. 

• Create a network of anti-bullying champions to support victims and act as a first point of contact and signpost sources of help. 

• Ensure people managers have adequate training to be able to address race discrimination. 

• Carry out enforcement of a zero tolerance approach where harassment or bullying occurs. 

Develop an anti-harassment and anti-bullying policy and framework 

CIPD guidance on tackling bullying and harassment recommends the development of a well-designed policy on bullying and harassment. The policy should clearly explain what constitutes bullying and harassment and its impact on victims, highlighting that it is a disciplinary offence and can have legal implications, including personal liability. The policy should include a section on race-related bullying and harassment with examples of the types of inappropriate behaviours, such as jokes, banter, cyberbullying, threats and physical assault. 

Run an organisation-wide campaign on dignity and respect in the workplace 

Focusing on the positive aspects engendering dignity and respect is a better focus and more likely to elicit engagement. Creating awareness and clearly setting out how employees should behave towards colleagues, customers and partners will ensure everyone knows what is expected of them. Crucially employees will know what kind of behaviour is unacceptable and could lead to disciplinary action. Ensure that this campaign and supporting policies set out clearly how you want your customers, clients, contractors and service users to engage with your employees. 

Create a network of anti-bullying champions to support victims 

Allyship has been very effective in many areas of inclusion, including race and ethnicity. Creating a network of anti-bullying champions that can be the first point of contact for victims can be powerful in helping employees to come forward. These champions can also signpost to sources of help. 

Ensure people managers have adequate training 

Managers have an important role to play in preventing the escalation of incidents of bullying and harassment and can, if they address issues when they arise, foster informal resolution. It is important for managers to feel confident so that when they are faced with a conflict, they can address it. Resources for managers on dealing with conflict at work are available on the CIPD website. 

Carry out enforcement of zero tolerance approach 

Zero tolerance should mean exactly that. If there are still incidents after the organisation has developed and communicated its anti-bullying and harassment policy and made attempts to foster dignity and respect among the workforce, a firm approach should be taken in line with the organisation’s disciplinary procedures. This may include sanctions up to and including dismissal. 

Equality and inclusion are often the realm of people professionals and EDI leads, and maybe the chief executive, as well as staff networks. Yet the case for organisation-wide “buy-in” is strong and, by now, well known. Even within the executive team you may have the CEO and the HR director who have genuinely bought into the need for inclusion, with the rest repeating the same message. Starting at the top, senior leaders, and especially those from core/revenue-generating functions, need to have an understanding of what equality and inclusion means for them and their area of responsibility and why it is important. Some senior executives do believe the benefits outweigh the costs when it comes to EDI, despite the time, energy and skill required. That belief needs to be fostered across organisations to achieve genuine progress on equality and inclusion. 

To meet this call to action, organisations should seek to: 

• Create an inclusive organisational culture. 

• Ensure that all leaders and managers take ownership for delivering EDI. 

• Make EDI a key responsibility in job descriptions (and assess it during interviews). 

• Assess performance on EDI during appraisals. 

• Ensure leaders and managers are plugged into EDI by developing networks and events, and ongoing communications. 

Create an inclusive organisational culture 

An inclusive organisational culture where employees bring their whole selves to work, where no one has to try to “fit in”, will lead to more authentic behaviour and improved performance. The CIPD report, Building Inclusive Workplaces, defines inclusion and makes the case for why it is good for everyone – not just people with protected characteristics – and how people professionals and wider business can become more inclusive. 

Ensure that all leaders and managers take ownership for delivering EDI 

The relationship between employees and managers is very important in building inclusion. Managers have the role of implementing EDI policies into day-to-day working practice. The way managers treat employees, consulting them in decision-making, is essential in creating an inclusive workplace. Senior leaders must “walk the talk” and champion inclusion as they set the tone for how the organisation behaves. Buy-in for EDI is important at all levels of organisations, including senior leaders, middle managers, team leaders and supervisors. Anyone that has people management responsibility and is in charge of resource and budget allocation needs to buy in to EDI. The CIPD report, Diversity Management that Works, provides evidence that progress on inclusion is unlikely without senior management support. Middle managers also need cues from the top to prioritise EDI. Gaining buy-in from managers requires involving them in formulating EDI initiatives and allowing autonomy on how initiatives are implemented locally rather than being prescriptive. 

Make EDI a key responsibility in job descriptions (and assess it during interviews) 

The trend over the last two decades is to have a customary sentence right at the end of a job description requiring a commitment to EDI. This is tokenistic at best and is sometimes tested at interviews where the panel expect a generic statement about the candidates’ commitment to EDI. It is very rarely tested as a competency. Employers need to develop competency-based questions on EDI that test the candidate’s approach to applying inclusion in day-to-day working practices. An example of this may be a question asking a candidate how they have inclusively managed a team. 

Assess performance on EDI during appraisals 

Accountability is key to getting progress on inclusion. While there is a slowly growing trend to include EDI KPIs for senior leader roles, that trend is yet to extend to all staff across organisations. The expected EDI performance of employees will be vastly different from that of senior leaders but should nonetheless be meaningful. This could include KPIs around inclusively working as part of a team, which may be assessed through 360-degree feedback, taking part in allyship programmes and supporting minority groups through advocacy and other activities. 

Develop networks, events and ongoing communications 

Ensure leaders and managers are plugged into EDI by getting feedback from “the shop floor”. This is very important for leaders to know that EDI initiatives and programmes are working and also to keep in touch with the reality on the ground in terms of what is not working or failing to make a positive change. 

The potential to progress one’s career is a key consideration when looking at jobs. 

More employees from ethnic minority backgrounds prioritised career progression as an important part of their working life compared with white British employees. Ethnic minority employees are also more likely to say that their identity and background has an effect on the opportunities they are given. The report also found evidence that ethnic minority employees feel the need to alter some aspects of their behaviour to fit in, and censor how much they tell colleagues about themselves and their personal life. Transparent career paths and seeing role models that have progressed would help boost career advancement, according to the report. 

Managers underestimating BAME employees’ career ambitions and making assumptions about their career paths were also reported as hindrances to advancement. This is echoed in the CIPD report Race Inclusion: Ensuring equality of career progression opportunities, which found that 22% of the BAME group respondents said that their career progression has failed to meet their expectations because they have experienced discrimination, compared with 15% of the white British ethnicity respondents. 

Against this backdrop it is important to identify what kind of organisational culture supports ethnic minority employees in advancing their careers and achieving their potential. 

To meet this call to action, organisations should seek to: 

• Offer opportunities for ethnic minority employees to build relationships across an employer organisation. 

• Provide employees from ethnic minority backgrounds the chance to work on a variety of stretching projects at work. 

• Provide high-quality management and support. 

• Give improved access to training and development opportunities. 

• Introduce positive action programmes to increase the pool of diverse talent. 

Offer opportunities for ethnic minority employees to build relationships 

One of the key enablers of career progression is opportunities for employees from ethnic minority backgrounds to build relationships across an organisation. This could include professional working relationships, colleagues acting as sponsors and mentioning ethnic minority employees when progression opportunities arise, and networking with peers that can open doors to cross-departmental projects. 

The report identified relationships built across an organisation as a key enabler to career progress, with 37% of respondents stating it is important. Similarly, 28% of respondents from ethnic minority backgrounds and 27% of white British respondents stated that “who you know/informal relationships” played a part in career progression. Employers can help develop these relationships by setting up networking events for ethnic minority employees to network with senior colleagues from across an organisation. Aim to match ethnic minority employees with senior sponsors who can mention their name when progression opportunities are discussed. 

Provide ethnic minority employees the chance to work on a variety of stretching projects at work 

Another enabler of career progression is to have the opportunity to get involved in different projects which help develop employees’ skills. Skills and talent being overlooked was one of the reasons given by 38% of employees (BAME and white) as to why their career progression had failed to meet their expectations. Strive to offer ethnic minority employees the opportunity to work on a range of projects to enhance their skills (and improve their peer networking, as discussed above). 

Offer high-quality management and support 

A key enabler for both white and ethnic minority employees (30%) is good-quality management at key points in their career. Conversely, 36% of employees whose career progression had failed to meet their expectations said they had experienced poor-quality management. Employees given people management responsibilities need to be equipped with the appropriate skills and knowledge, including how to support the career development of their reports. Managers should be provided with training and guidance on using meetings and performance appraisals to assess the skills gaps of employees and identify development opportunities. Resources on supporting development are available as part of the manager support materials on the CIPD website. 

Give improved access to training and development opportunities 

A lack of effective training and development programmes was cited by a quarter of ethnic minority respondents as a reason for a lack of career progression, including 18% stating that they received little or no training when they entered the workplace. The impact of a lack of training or inadequate training on career prospects is higher for ethnic minority employees than it is for white British workers. Receiving effective training had contributed to the career progression of 23% of respondents (BAME and white). First and foremost, employers should set employees up for success by initiating an effective onboarding process, including training on how to carry out the various duties of the job. Managers should support employees by providing coaching and/or mentoring during the initial few weeks after a new employee comes on board. 

Introduce positive action programmes to increase the pool of ethnic minority talent 

Twice the number of ethnic minority respondents compared with white British employees said they had not participated in an effective graduate programme at the start of their career. Employers and especially people professionals should identify where ethnic minorities are under-represented and initiate effective positive action measures, including early career and graduate programmes, middle and senior management development programmes, mentoring schemes and work shadowing. The Equality Act 2010 allows positive action measures to be taken where there is evidence of the under-representation of a group with protected characteristics. HR professionals should improve their own understanding of positive action, so they are better equipped to advise their organisation. 

Black, Asian, mixed race and other ethnically diverse people who completed the Race at Work 2015, 2018 and 2021 surveys said that they wanted to see role models from their own backgrounds. This can be facilitated by the progression of talent in the workplace and supporting business leaders from black, Asian, mixed race and other ethnically diverse backgrounds more widely. 

The CIPD is encouraging employers to ensure black, Asian, mixed race and other ethnically diverse-owned businesses and enterprises are part of their supply chains and procurement. Employers should ensure that black, Asian, mixed race and other ethnically diverse suppliers have equitable access, treatment and outcomes within the supply chain and procurement. 

The CIPD guide on sourcing diverse suppliers outlines seven steps to increase the diversity of your supply chain: 

Step 1 – Examine the data. 

Step 2 – Craft the business case. 

Step 3 – Set targets. 

Step 4 – Find diverse suppliers. 

Step 5 – Engage with diverse suppliers. 

Step 6 – Monitor performance and remove obstacles. 

Step 7 – Celebrate and share success. 

Following these steps will enable you to diversify your suppliers in a meaningful and sustainable way, to benefit your company and wider society. 

Building long-term, sustainable relationships is vital to establishing robust and authentic supply chain partnerships that reflect the communities and customers being served. Assess and measure the internal and external impact of supplier diversity. 

The CIPD recommends that employers sign up to the BITC Race at Work Charter. We have a vast range of resources, including research reports as well as guidance on race inclusion, to support employers to meet the seven calls to action of the charter, including:  

Developing an Anti-racism Strategy – guide  

How to Have Difficult Conversations about Race at Work – guide  

Barriers to BAME Career Progression to the Top – report  

Race and Employment – factsheet  

How to Source Diverse Suppliers – guide  

Signing the Race at Work Charter signals an organisation's serious commitment to fostering race inclusion in their organisation. The commitments made in the charter will ensure there is a clear focus and prioritisation of race equality in employment and career progression. For further information about the charter, BITC membership and advisory services, please contact race@bitc.org.uk  

The CIPD is proud to partner with BITC in offering our skills, knowledge and expertise to support employers in meeting the charter commitments.  

Leadership is key to creating an inclusive workplace and tackling discrimination. 

Senior leadership accountability for race inclusion 

Most micro and small firms are typically run by an owner-manager who can ensure they take personal responsibility for improving race inclusion in their firm. Slightly larger employers, for example those with 50 or more staff, need to be creative about making senior leaders in the business or managers accountable for race inclusion. Building in reverse mentoring and 360-degree feedback processes can be one way to encourage senior leaders to take ownership of delivering inclusion and diversity. 

Champion race equality and lead by example 

Senior leaders will be much closer to employees in smaller organisations. Therefore, it is vitally important that leaders display inclusive behaviours in all of their interactions with employees, customers, suppliers and any other stakeholders. Leaders and managers in SMEs will need to reflect on their own behaviour and knowledge around the issue of race at work and access information and guidance in order to ensure that they are role-modelling the right behaviours. 

At the heart of inclusive workplaces are leaders and managers who treat people fairly and consistently and with respect, regardless of their background or personal characteristics. 

Lead on race inclusion strategy and support the rollout of initiatives 

In all organisations, and particularly in smaller firms with no HR function, the starting point for improving race inclusion is understanding the legal requirements associated with employing and managing people, including employment contracts and status. It is crucial that key people management practices, for example recruitment and reward, take place without bias or discrimination.  

Once the core HR and people management policies and practices are in place, business leaders and managers should work with HR/EDI if they have these roles in-house or (where possible) engage an external consultant to help develop EDI strategies, policies and initiatives. These should be developed keeping in mind the size of the organisation and its access to resources. Employers can access the free resources of the CIPD, including our research report, Diversity Management that Works. 

Collecting data may be more challenging within smaller organisations, particularly considering: 

• Small sample sizes may make it difficult to aggregate data and protect individuals from being identified. 

• Encouraging the disclosure of race and ethnicity data may also be difficult; employees may be concerned about being identified and there may be issues around trust in management to use the data only for equality reporting purposes. 

• There are challenges in carrying out meaningful analysis, especially where small changes in the employee profile can skew the results. 

• It may be challenging to publicise progress for all of the reasons already mentioned, to protect anonymity, and there may be a lack of meaningful analysis and potentially misleading results. 

Employers need to think about their organisation and what is possible in terms of reporting while ensuring individuals are not identifiable. Consequently, small and micro employers should focus on engaging with individual employees via one-to-ones, for example, where they can ask individuals about their perceptions of fairness and equity in the organisation. This may serve as a better measure of the impact of inclusion and diversity programmes instead of attempting to collect large data sets. 

In slightly larger organisations of more than 50 staff, and certainly in those with over 100 employees, collecting and analysing workforce data becomes increasingly important to understand employees’ perspectives on racial inclusion and if there are areas of the organisation or practices such as promotion where there might be bias. 

Bullying and harassment are common issues within all organisations, and it is no different for smaller employers. Smaller employers may have fewer formal processes for addressing this issue when it arises. Depending on the size of the organisation, employers may choose to develop anti-harassment and anti-bullying policies similar to larger employers. However, for organisations employing fewer than 50 people, there may not be much merit in creating long and complex policies, especially if you have to hire external expertise. Instead, writing a simple code of conduct on the expected behaviour of staff may suffice. It is important that employers check with a qualified employment lawyer that the code of conduct meets all relevant legislation. 

Employers should then promote the code of conduct to employees and ensure all staff are encouraged to read it. It should also be mandatory reading for any new hires to ensure that, as your business expands, everyone is made aware of the business standards, values and culture of inclusion that you wish to foster. Managers should gain an understanding of managing conflict so that they are equipped to address any issues when they arise. This may be done through training or accessing some of the free resources available from the CIPD, including our report, Managing Conflict in the Modern Workplace. There is also a guide specifically for managers on managing conflict. 

Inclusion and diversity will be much closer to senior leaders and managers in smaller organisations. Leaders and managers must take personal responsibility for EDI and give it the same degree of importance as other essential employment policies, such as health and safety and employee wellbeing. Leaders should actively engage in getting feedback from the ‘shop floor’ and set and regularly review the achievement of EDI goals. Smaller teams make it possible to get much wider feedback on EDI than in a larger organisation. Smaller employers could invest in employee engagement software or other infrastructure but could easily collect feedback through the one-to-one process. Even collecting anonymous feedback may be relatively easy through an online questionnaire using a free survey platform. This makes it possible for employers with resource constraints to collect robust data to support EDI. 

Smaller employers can take steps to improve inclusion through positive action measures. These are proportionate actions that employers can take to encourage under-represented groups to apply for jobs or provide additional support to help career progression. The positive action can be: 

• additional support for individual employees from the manager 

• mentoring from senior leaders 

• funding made available to employees from under-represented groups to attend external training courses 

• access to stretching projects that help employees demonstrate their skills and knowledge and build their expertise – creating a fair and inclusive working environment, where employees, regardless of their background, can make a valid contribution and develop a successful career is important to employers of all sizes, regardless of staff numbers or resources. 

More information on positive action is available in our FAQs about race in the workplace. 

The Race at Work Charter provides a framework for SMEs to aspire to in creating inclusive workplaces where people of all races can bring their whole self to work and have a fulfilling and rewarding career. The importance of race inclusion has been highlighted 

by the CIPD Race Inclusion Reports, which show inequalities are still pervasive in many workplaces and there is a need to talk about race and collect data to support the identification of disparities. The reports also show that there are disparities in career progression opportunities for ethnic minorities. 

Signing the charter and working towards achieving the commitments demonstrates the promise of employers to address race inequalities and create a working environment where all employees can flourish.