For instance, the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS)
undertook unconscious bias testing around disability,
sexual orientation, age, ethnicity and gender across
its leadership team across the UK and internationally.
The purpose of this testing was to understand the
impact of unconscious bias in the bank and identify
training that could be introduced to help mitigate
this. RBS used findings from this training to create
a tailored programme with targeted interventions
aimed at each level of the organisation, which
consisted of a workshop for senior leaders, a webinar
for those with managerial responsibilities and
scenario-based e-learning for all employees.
This tailored programme was rolled out across RBS
to improve awareness of how biases can influence
poor decisions. As a result of the training, 97 percent
of RBS employees reported that they will “do their job
differently”. This has been reflected in some tangible
actions through:
•
changing recruitment practices, reviewing
talent development and better performance
management
•
revisiting talent and succession plans with a
new perspective – adopting a more joined-up
approach with their peers to create a plan that is
more inclusive of different people
•
banning same-gender panels requiring more
diversity on all shortlists (at least one woman
or BME candidate) and considering more nontraditional candidates for certain roles (part-time,
retirees, carers)
•
looking more broadly at who they consider talent
– mentoring more-diverse groups of people,
specifically BME and female talent.334
Another example of inclusive recruitment processes
and policies has been reflected by the HM Land
Registry, which established a two-year recruitment
target to attract and appoint BME candidates.335
The organisation has met its attraction target and
achieved 92.4 percent of its appointment target.
Actions taken towards meeting these targets
48
have included ensuring all job descriptions and
advertisements use inclusive language and training
10 BME staff across junior levels to sit on recruitment
panels.336
7.1.2 Progressing at work
Supporting people of colour into employment needs
to be met with anti-racist infrastructure to sustain
career progression in the workplace. The McGregorSmith review recommended implementing in-work
mentoring for people of colour to develop their
career pathways.
A 2017 Chartered Institute of Personnel and
Development (CIPD) report found that employees
from Indian, Pakistani, Bangladeshi and mixed-race
backgrounds were more likely to view access to
mentors as a useful means of support for career
progression compared to white British employees.337
The CIPD report also found that employees from
Indian, Pakistani, Bangladeshi or Black backgrounds
were more likely than white British employees to
indicate that more transparent career paths would
help their career advancement.
The benefits of implementing a mentoring
programme within an organisation can be seen
in the Scottish Trades Union Congress (STUC),
which has adopted a mentoring project for BME
staff to be supported into more-senior positions.
The success of this scheme is due to the parallel
focus on institutional barriers to advancement and
recognition from senior management that, within the
organisation, BME workers are overrepresented in
lower-level positions.
This organisational focus, combined with specific
training for managers, training and support for BME
workers and a shared desire to change outcomes in
the organisation, has started to produce significant
change to the STUC workplace.338 Feedback from
those who took part showed that:
334
McGregor-Smith, Race in the Workplace.
335
CIPD. Addressing the Barriers to BAME Employee Career Progression to the Top. London: Chartered Institute of Personnel and
Development, 2017.
336
CIPD, Addressing the Barriers.
337
CIPD, Addressing the Barriers.
338
CIPD, Addressing the Barriers.