Celebrated week of the 5th February – 11th February 2024
Race Equality Week is a UK campaign that asks its participants to address barriers to race equality in the workplace. The campaign invites organisations and individuals to take part in anti-racist activities such as raising awareness, engaging senior leaders in the importance of anti-racist work cultures and sharing activities throughout the week.
Recent research has found that two in five Black, Asian and Ethnic Minority colleagues experience racism at work. This includes racist jokes or “banter”, racist remarks, being made to feel uncomfortable at work due to people using stereotypes or commenting on their appearance and bullying and harassment.
Many employees will experience this type of bullying and harassment but will choose not to report this behaviour because they do not believe they would be taken seriously, or fear reporting would impact their career or workplace relationships.
Research also suggests that institutional racism impacts performance assessments, disciplinary procedures, who is subject to scrutiny, who is denied promotions and development opportunities. It is important to call out racism to prevent it from
There are many ways to commemorate Race Equality Week at work, including:
- Organising or attending anti-racism training and webinars or inclusion allies training.
- Learn from colleagues of colour about their experiences with racism.
- Embed an anti-racist work culture
- Listen and share podcasts on Anti-racism in the UK to explain why we still need to talk about this topic and so much more.
There are some great organisations out there such as https://www.raceequalitymatters.com/, https://www.theequalgroup.com/ and https://www.inclusiveemployers.co.uk/ who have free resources you can use, as well as provide training and so much more.
At Intersect Global we are involved in promoting and improving fairness, inclusion and respect in the workplace in the Civil Engineering, IT, Energy and Construction sectors. We encourage positive attitudes to diversity and inclusion, and this includes race equality.
To read out our fairness, inclusion and diversity statement, click here
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