Being able to talk about race at work is the foundation for action to address racial inequality. Communication and understanding between employees and with their leaders enables the building of trust, support between groups and ensures that the needs of diverse groups can be expressed and responded to. This report highlights actions that employers and people professionals can take to encourage these conversations and create safe spaces in their organisations. 

Member tool: CIPD Buddy BETA
Experiment with AI to find answers on this topic with our prototype. Login to explore CIPD Buddy

This report is the first of a three-part series, which outlines some of the key areas employers can act on with regard to race inclusion in the workplace. 

Key findings 

  • Over a third (35%) of respondents felt there is a need to talk about ethnicity at their current organisation, rising to nearly half (45%) in the public sector, dropping to 38% in the third/voluntary sector and dropping further still to 30% in the private sector. 

  • Forty percent of ethnic minority employees feel the need to talk about race, whereas only 23% of white British workers do. 

  • The findings in the BITC toolkit for allyship reports that only 38% of employees say they are comfortable talking about race in the workplace. 

  • Employee network groups were most commonly cited as those who initiate conversations about ethnicity, with senior leaders next, and HR the third most likely initiators. Overall, more respondents are comfortable speaking to their colleagues about ethnicity and race (77%) than to any other groups. 

  • Only a third (33%) of respondents overall stated that they had talked to someone in their current organisation about ethnicity or race, compared with 61% who had not. 

  • There are significant barriers to overcome, such as increased trust in senior management, to enable organisation-wide conversations about race. When there is strong trust in senior management, 73% of employees are comfortable talking to HR about race; with weak trust, this drops to 47%. 

  • Ethnic minority group respondents are more likely than white British ethnicity respondents to feel: people are not interested in having conversations about race (22% vs 14%), they are sceptical about whether things will change following conversations (16% vs 3%), that people in their organisation are ignoring that there is an issue with race (13% vs 2%). 

  • Using someone’s specific ancestral origin (such as Caribbean ethnicity) is considered appropriate by the highest number of respondents (25%). However, 20% of respondents said they do not know which terms are most appropriate or inappropriate, underlining the lack of certainty in this area. 

Race inclusion: Talking about race at work

Download the report
PDF document 705.8 KB

In this series

Report

Race inclusion report: Encouraging ethnicity data disclosure

We look at the importance of collecting ethnicity data to identify under-representation in the workplace 

Report

Race inclusion report: Equality of career progression

We look at factors which could be enablers or barriers to progression in the workplace 

More on this topic

Image showing people in office
Guide
Supporting transgender and non-binary people at work: Guide for people professionals

How to support transgender and non-binary people at work, as part of a broader equality, diversity and inclusion policy

For Members
Factsheet
Equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI) in the workplace

What does EDI mean in the workplace and why is an effective EDI strategy vital to business?

Thought leadership
Briefing | Social mobility in the workplace

Research on how an employee's socioeconomic background or class affects their development opportunities and how to maximise social mobility in the workplace

More reports

Report
Resourcing and talent planning report

Trend analysis and benchmarking data on recruitment, retention and talent management to inform HR and employers on practice considerations and decision-making

Report
How employers are tackling bullying and harassment at work

Research on whether employers are doing enough to prevent and manage conflict in the workplace

Report
People-powered innovation

The CIPD examines the state of innovation in the UK and its connection with productivity to inform policy-making and investment

Report
Labour Market Outlook

Read our latest Labour Market Outlook report for analysis on employers’ recruitment, redundancy and pay intentions

See all reports