Race Fairness Commitment
We want fairness at work for people of all ethnic backgrounds – so everyone has an equal chance to succeed.
What we want
Black, and all ethnic minority, job applicants with given qualifications are as likely to be interviewed as their White counterparts.
Black, and all ethnic minority, people who reach interview are as likely to be offered a role as their White counterparts.
Black, and all ethnic minority, people remain at the organisation on average as long as their White counterparts.
Black, and all ethnic minority, people at a certain level are paid the same as their White counterparts (in a similar performance band and comparable role if the organisation uses a role classification, performance ratings and management system).
Black, and all ethnic minority, people performing at a certain level are as likely to be promoted as their White counterparts performing at the same level.
Black, and all ethnic minority, people are as able to be themselves at work as White people – everyone can have authenticity of speech and culture - no more fitting in and no more being “othered”.
What we’re doing
We commit that our UK businesses will:
Monitor internally with a view to publishing externally on an annual and aggregated basis the following data:
- Application to interview rates for Black, all ethnic minority, and White groups – for graduate programmes these should be grade-adjusted calculations so that what is being compared is the success rates of candidates from different ethnicities with the same A Level or equivalent grades.
- Interview to offer rates for Black, all ethnic minority, and White groups.
- Promotion rates for Black, all ethnic minority, and White groups.
- Ethnicity stay gap rates looking specifically at Black, all ethnic minority, and White groups.
Complete at least once per year the following analyses:
- Ethnicity equal pay analysis by level, function, location and performance banding where present, looking specifically at Black, all ethnic minority, and White groups.
- Employee sentiment on the question ‘I can be myself at work’, for Black, all ethnic minority, and White groups.
Champion junior ethnic minority talent by:
- Monitoring any outreach programmes run by the firm for students aged 16 or over to ensure that they include a proportion of Black, and all ethnic minority, students at least in line with the local school and university age population.
- Ensuring that every junior ethnic minority member of staff has access to a senior manager, with a view where possible to creating sponsorship, mentoring and reverse mentoring programmes.
Ensure everyone joining us gets a clear message in their induction that the organisation has zero tolerance of racism.
Ask in every exit interview whether the person leaving has experienced or seen racism in the firm.
Ensure that at least once a year, the firm tells all its staff that it has zero tolerance of racism and, if appropriate, shares examples of how the firm has dealt with any incidents of racism.
How Rare can help you
About
I founded Rare to get more ethnic diversity into the elite professions. That project has been broadly successful. Most of our longstanding clients now recruit graduate classes that are as ethnically diverse as the population, and in many cases more so.
But ethnic diversity at entry level has not led to sufficient ethnic diversity at management level. Earlier this year we published a report, Closing The Ethnicity Stay Gap, which highlighted the disproportionate attrition of ethnic minority lawyers in law firms. For this report we carried out 50 interviews with people who had both stayed and left. These interviews painted a clear picture. Ethnic minority people have a harder time in law firms – and, we are sure, in other elite professions. Black people have probably the hardest time of all. As one lawyer put it, “people assume you’re junior. You have to say something 15 times to be heard compared to your white counterparts”.
And now the world has combusted in protest at the murder of George Floyd and suddenly expressions of solidarity are everywhere. People who’ve never talked about race are talking about it. White people are listening to the experiences of their Black colleagues, sometimes for the first time.
We have an opportunity. What seems possible in terms of racial justice has shifted. But no industry sector provides a template for us to follow. Some have better PR than others, but when you screw into the data there’s no paradigm for us to model ourselves on.
The purpose of this Commitment, then, is to provide a model, a roadmap for success. The Commitment contains real teeth, in the form of very specific data points which firms signing up are mandated to calculate and strongly encouraged to make public. It also ensures that race and racism are talked about in every induction and every exit interview, and that junior ethnic minority staff have access to the most senior management. We hope that it will make a real difference, and that in ten years’ time, those reaching partnership in the top law firms, and getting into senior management in other organisations, are as ethnically diverse as those entering those firms today.
Raphael Mokades, Managing Director, Rare, July 2020
