Great Britain: companies urged to raise employee ethnic diversity

In a shock report commissioned by the UK government and published on 28 February it was revealed that treating black and minority ethnic (BME) employees in the same way as other employees could yield the UK economy £24 billion per year. The independent survey which criticizes a lack of diversity strongly recommends companies to publish a breakdown of their workforce by race and pay band, proposes both establishing a top 100 diversity employers champions ranking , and putting training in place that can breakdown subconscious company prejudices. Theresa May’s government is backing the report although is unlikely yet to legislate.
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Only 6% of the BME cohort that accounts for 14% of the active labor force, holds senior positions in UK companies and the employment rate is just 62.8% as compared with 75.6% for white people. BME employees are often employed in low skilled and low paid jobs, even though most have third level education certification. Thus the most damning results of the independent report that costs the diversity deficit at no less that £24 billion per year (€28.1 billion), or the equivalent of 1.3% of the UK’s

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