Business in the Community Gender and Race Benchmark 2014 – Top 10 private and public sector employers

Performance and appraisal mechanisms not working for women or ethnic minorities

Today, Opportunity Now and Race for Opportunity, the women in work and race campaigns from Business in the Community (BITC), publish unranked Top 10 lists of the best performing private and public sector organisations for race and gender in the workplace in 2014. There are four new entries for 2014.

The accompanying 2014 Benchmark findings reveal that the benchmarking employers are doing better than the rest of the country at supporting Black Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) employees into senior management*. More organisations are taking greater strategic action to improve race and gender representation in board feeder pools and on boards, but too few employers are putting targets in the public domain.

114 organisations submitted confidential data to the 2014 Gender and Race Benchmark, a 70% increase from 2012. The four unranked Top 10 lists for 2014 are:

Top 10 private sector organisations for gender:

  • Accenture (new entry for 2014)
  • BT plc
  • Capgemini UK
  • DHL Supply Chain
  • Enterprise Rent-A-Car
  • EY
  • National Grid
  • Nationwide Building Society
  • PwC
  • Royal Bank of Scotland

Top 10 private sector organisations for race:

  • Accenture (new entry for 2014)
  • BT plc
  • Enterprise Rent-A-Car
  • EY
  • KPMG LLP
  • National Grid
  • Nationwide Building Society
  • Pertemps Recruitment Partnership Ltd
  • PwC
  • Royal Bank of Scotland

Top 10 public sector organisations for gender:

  • Environment Agency
  • Foreign and Commonwealth Office
  • Genesis Housing Association
  • Home Office
  • Leicestershire Police
  • Ministry of Justice (new entry for 2014)
  • Ofcom
  • Royal Air Force
  • Royal Navy
  • The BBC (new entry for 2014)

Top 10 public sector organisations for race:

  • Circle Housing Group (new entry for 2014)
  • Environment Agency
  • Genesis Housing Association
  • Home Office
  • Leicestershire Police
  • Ministry of Justice (new entry for 2014)
  • Ofcom
  • Royal Air Force
  • Royal Navy
  • The BBC (new entry for 2014)

The 2014 Benchmark findings released today cover the areas of ‘Progression and Leadership’, ‘Performance and Appraisal’ and ‘Bullying and Harassment’, and show that:

  • BAME employees are less likely to be rated in the top two performance rating categories
  • Women and BAME employees are less likely to be identified as ‘high potential’ or be selected for leadership training overall
  • The public sector is more likely to identify women and men as ‘high potential’ in similar proportions
  • BAME women are least likely to hold and executive directorship and an non- executive directorship; yet BAME women are more likely to be promoted than BAME men at other levels
  • Actions that correlate most strongly with higher promotion rates for women are all ones that need to be embedded into core operational process and driven from the top

Success factors to improve performance on gender and race include:

  • Transparency in selection criteria
  • Equality-proofed core competencies
  • Competency based frameworks
  • Line manager training in diversity and inclusion, and line managers promote BAME / gender related initiatives to women and BAME employees in their teams
  • Unconscious bias training for recruitment panels
  • Dedicated progression programmes for women and BAME employees

Kathryn Nawrockyi, Opportunity Now director, Business in the Community, said:  “The 2014 Benchmark analysis confirms our advice to employers has delivered. Progress is driven from the top, change needs to be embedded into core processes, and line managers play a crucial role in creating equal work cultures. We know what works. We now need more organisations from every sector to use this knowledge and take action to close a gender employment gap that has no place in our 21st century workforce.”

Sandra Kerr OBE, Race for Opportunity director, Business in the Community, said: “It is rewarding that our benchmarking organisations are outperforming the rest of the country in progressing ethnic minorities into senior management positions. Public targets, transparency on progression criteria, equality-proofed competencies for progression, and greater support for line managers are what I want to see continued progress on for 2015. The Benchmark reiterates just what employers need to do to ensure they are fit for an ethnically diverse future.”

For further information please contact Laura Cooney, Communications Officer, Opportunity Now and Race for Opportunity (Business in the Community) +44 (0)207 566 8653, [email protected]

Notes
*‘2014 Gender and Race Benchmark Trends: Progression and Leadership’ states that: The 2014 Benchmark employers are demonstrating greater and faster progress on BAME representation at senior management than the rest of the country. Between 2007 and 2012 the number of BAME people in senior management across the country increased by only 0.1% (Race at the Top, Race for Opportunity, 2014). Yet in just three years between 2012 and 2014, the number of BAME in senior management in our benchmarking organisations increased by 1.8% (Evidence 7).

The Benchmarking Process: 114 organisations took part in the 2014 Gender and Race Benchmark; 27 from the public sector and 87 from the private sector. The Benchmark Survey is formed of two parts: the Diversity Impacts Survey is a submission of workforce metrics covering women, men and BAME employers, and the Diversity Inputs Survey is a submission of supporting documentary evidence and statements.  The Top 10s have been determined from those organisations that complete both the Impacts and Inputs surveys for a given protected characteristic. Organisations that benchmark simultaneously across both protected characteristics were eligible for inclusion in all relevant Top 10s. The process is led by a Benchmarking Manager and all Benchmarking submissions were double reviewed by Business in the Community’s team of diversity experts.

About Business in the Community
Business in the Community is a business-led charity committed to shaping a new contract between business and society. We have over 30 years’ experience forging better relationships between business and society, driven by a unique collaboration of business leaders. We stimulate action by challenging and supporting thousands of businesses to create a fairer society and a more sustainable future – through our local, national and international campaigns. Business in the Community is one of The Prince’s Charities, a group of not-for-profit organisations of which The Prince of Wales is president. www.bitc.org.uk

Opportunity Now is the women in work campaign from Business in the Community and Race for Opportunity is the race campaign from Business in the Community. For more information about Business in the Community’s work on diversity and inclusion please visit: www.bitcdiversity.org.uk. 

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