Your Business March 2020 - 175

Diversity & inclusion

diﬀerent methods and
attitudes from a diverse
range of colleagues.
A commitment to
diversity is great for your
business's reputation too.
An enterprise known for
fair employment practices
and appreciation of
diverse talent isn't just
better able to attract a
wider pool of qualiﬁed
applicants, it's also more
likely to engender loyalty
from customers. Having
employees with language
skills and multicultural
understanding can also
help in overseas markets.

Wide appeal

In fact, diversity in the
workplace has been shown

The recent McGregorSmith Review, which
looked at diversity in
employment, suggested
that full representation of
BME individuals across
the labour market would
add an extra £24bn to
the UK economy after a
year. That's a beneﬁt of
around 1.3% of GDP if
BME individuals were
immediately represented
across the workforce in
the same proportions
as white individuals.
And many industries are
missing out on the beneﬁts.
A report by the Policy
Exchange Forum found that
ethnic diversity is unevenly
distributed throughout
the labour market, with

Full representation of
BAME individuals would
add £24bn to the economy
to beneﬁt the whole
economy. According to
the most recent ﬁgures
from the Department of
Work & Pensions, 77% of
white people of working
age were employed in
2017, compared with 65%
of people from all other
ethnic groups combined.

the most diverse jobs
either low-skilled and
insecure or highly skilled
and requiring a specialist
qualiﬁcation. Health,
education and hotels
have the highest rate of
female employment, while
mining and construction
have the lowest.

Education has a vital
role to play. "Equality and
diversity training is one of
many eﬀorts that employers
can make to demonstrate
they are taking action to
secure a diverse workforce,"
says the Equality and
Human Rights Commission.
"However, people of all
backgrounds must be able
to achieve their potential
through education."
Black people are
consistently poorly
represented in Britain's top
universities, for example,
and are far less likely to
achieve the grades and
remain in their studies
than their white peers.
The Commission says:
"Promoting and ensuring
diversity in all stages of
work and education is not
only essential to reﬂect
modern Britain, but it's
also in the best interest of
any employer or university
to draw from the widest
possible talent pool."

Work in progress

There are initiatives to
boost diversity in industries
that are falling short of
this target. These include
the Fairness, Inclusion
and Respect programme
from the Construction
Industry Training Board
(CITB), which has £1.5m

to grow a network of 500
ambassadors who promote
fairness, inclusion and
respect in the workplace.
"Our industry is facing
skills challenges due to a
strong pipeline of work
alongside external factors
like Brexit and an ageing
workforce, so it's vital we
widen the talent pool," says
Sarah Beale, CITB's chief
executive. "This initiative
will help employers
ensure their workplaces
are open to people
from all backgrounds,
bringing beneﬁts such
as increased recruitment
and productivity to the
whole industry."
The government's
Women in Finance charter
encourages ﬁnancial
services ﬁrms to commit to
creating a gender balance
at all levels. Universities
too are promoting
diversity and inclusion
in business courses as
well as specialised areas
such as engineering that
have traditionally been
dominated by white males.
These diverse students will
enter the workplace at a
time when more business
owners are appreciating
the value of inclusivity.
That's good news for
employees, employers and
the economy as a whole.

"Diversity in employment becomes diversity in talent"

Dr Patricia Harrison, from Liverpool Business School, Liverpool John Moores University, on why inclusion is key
Diversity and inclusion are central
to the success of organisations as
they enable people to reach their
potential, for the benefit of individuals
as well as the wider organisation.
For business educators, diversity
and inclusion are key tenets of both
theory and practice, so we embed
them in our courses and practice.

If staff see themselves represented in
an organisation, they are more likely to
apply and invest themselves. Diversity
in employment becomes, in turn,
diversity in talent, leading to increased
effectiveness and productivity -
key characteristics of success.
LJMU is currently focused on
creating opportunities for the Roma

community. A 2019 government report
identified Roma as having the worst
employment outcomes of any ethnic
group. We know how challenging
it is for some minority groups, such
as the Roma community, to enter
higher education, so we offer support
from academic, administrative and
dedicated support teams to help them.

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Your Business March 2020

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Your Business March 2020