Race at Work Charter – Two Years on

Having been appointed as the firm’s Diversity Champion, I was thrilled to be able to attend this year’s Race at Work Charter – Two years on Webinar with Sandra Kerr and Baronness McGregor Smith on 27th October 2020.

The Race at Work charter for Hodge Jones & Allen is not just a tick box exercise and one where we are signing up and then forgetting about it. It is my aim to work with the management board, employee committee and the staff at HJA to continue developing our Diversity and Inclusion policies. To ensure that we capture and assess and analyse our data, and set goals and milestones.

Hearing that there are more than 500 signatories to the Charter, and that it has doubled in the last year, really gives a moment of thought and reflection. Despite all the difficulties of the past year, something as important as race, and ethnic diversity at the workplace has not been deflected and forgotten, but is being driven forward.

Listening to the panellists describe the challenges faced in arriving at these changes gives momentum for this change. Most importantly, since my appointment, I have already commenced my first task of “data capture and analysis” and I am considering the data we currently hold, evaluating what it means, what we are missing and looking at areas in which we need to update our data. Once I have done this, I will begin the task of considering what our data actually means and where we want to go with it, the very pivotal and foundation of any Diversity Executive role.

Important first questions to be addressed: Where are we? And, where do we want to get to?

As Richard Iferenta, Chair of BITC’s Race Leadership Team said “we need strong leadership, it is not just about big statements, but big statements backed with actions and a real change”.

Knowing that I have started on the right track in this role, is what will drive me to ensure that we are not just making those big statements, but back those statements with change over the years to come.