Trade Association Update: February

The shocking killing of Tyre Nichols in Memphis, reminds us that, in May, it will be the three year anniversary of the murder of George Floyd that led rise to the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement really coming into the public consciousness. 

It was also a moment of reflection for all business leaders as we all realised that we weren’t doing enough, quite frankly still aren’t doing enough, when it comes to achieving Race equity in the workplace and especially in senior leadership. 

Race equity and ED&I is a leadership priority at the CBI, both internally in the business and the role we play with our members. 

In October 2020 we launched a campaign supported by 13 members called Change the Race Ratio, that seeks to increase racial and ethnic minority representation on boards and around the exco table. Leading businesses like GSK, BP, Diageo and over 100 others have made a public commitment to Change the Race Ratio to set targets for boards, for exco and to publish action plans and data. 

We’re starting to see the impact of the campaign both in terms of increasing representation and huge step forward in the number of firms reporting their ethnicity pay gaps. Which let me tell you is at a staggering low base of just 150 firms in the UK. 

Now is the time to strengthen our commitment to Race Equity and we need you. 

Change the Race Ratio has active engagement with a few trade associations but with your help we can turbo charge our efforts and your members can access our community, get support and have a platform to showcase their work and the progress they are making. I’d like to see us work together to continue to take action on this important issue.