As we pack our children back to school, university or other places of learning this month, it begs the question of how well their hard-earned success is going to be rewarded when they eventually reached the promised land of employment.

Despite having been born and raised in the multi-cultural bubbles of London, New York, Paris, and so on, or the middle-class enclaves of cities such as Accra, Nairobi and Johannesburg, the reality is that our children’s race will continue to define their progress as negative attitudes to race continue to dominate today’s corporate landscape. Our kids may be making the grades in school, but when it comes to getting to the top at work, it’s a very different picture.

According to figures from Business in the Community’s race equality campaign, Race for Opportunity, racial inequality in UK management has widened almost to the “point of no return”.  Their report, ‘Race at the Top – 5 years on’, found that the number of Black Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) people in top management positions fell by 22 per cent over a five-year period, doubling the gap between the number of BAME people and white people in similar roles.

For those of us who thought we were making progress in this area, it’s disheartening to hear that in the UK, there has been virtually no ethnicity change in top management positions in the five years between 2007 and 2012. Figures show that 10 per cent of the UK’s working population is from an ethnic minority background, and yet BAME people hold only one in 16 top management positions, and one in 13 management positions.

Disappointingly, while other ethnic minorities aren’t doing particularly well at getting to the top, it is the Black/Black British population in top management positions that are taking the greatest hit, decreasing by 42 per cent over the five-year period.

Sector Barriers

Some particular sectors seem to be becoming an increasingly no-go area for leadership opportunities if you are black, and the study highlighted construction, media and the political sectors as those mostly headed by white employees. Nearly three-quarters (74%) of management positions held by BAME people are clustered in just three sectors: banking & finance; distribution, hotels & restaurants; and public administration, education & health. Yet the majority of management positions within the energy & water, construction, legal, media and political sectors continue to be held by white people.

It’s interesting to note that the banking and finance industry was highlighted as one that is “getting it right” when it comes to career progression for ethnic minorities. With this sector, the number of managers from all but one ethnic group increased between 2007 and 2012 - which might indicate a pragmatic approach whereby colour takes a back seat for these institutions if you know how to make them money.

The glass ceiling doesn’t just impact the private sector. A report by Roger Kline, The Snowy White Peaks of the NHS, highlighted disparities in the number of BME people in senior leadership positions across the UK National Health Service. In London, for example, where BME representation in the population is 45%, only 8% of trust board members were from ethnic minorities, and just 2.5% of chief executives and chairs.

One encouraging example of progress is the new race equality standard which is to be set within the NHS from April 2015. Employers in the NHS will be forced to increase their representation of ethnic minorities in senior positions and those who fail to meet the standard could face contractual or regulatory consequences. Being required to demonstrate progress against a number of indicators of workforce equality, including a specific indicator of how they are addressing low levels of ethnic minority representation on their boards will, no doubt, inspire some broader thinking and greater transparency about their recruitment and selection processes. As Simon Stevens, chief executive of NHS England said, the National Health Service has to better represent the diversity of people it serves.

Laura or Lakeesha?

In an ideal world, businesses would promote the best person for the job, regardless of their race.  The reality, as we all know, is that many do not.  When it comes to discrimination in recruiting ethnic minorities, sometimes the fault lies with recruiters who ‘self-select’ candidates they feel their clients will want to see, whether or not the client has articulated any such desire.  Sometimes the unconscious bias of those influencing or participating in the selection and recruitment processes and their comfort with their own social groups will come into play.

Experiments have been conducted using different names on a CV with otherwise identical skills and qualifications.  Results show that CVs with names that suggest white candidates – let’s say ‘Laura’ – are far more likely to elicit a response and invitation to interview than a name like, well, let’s say ‘Lakeesha’. Blind auditions conducted for an orchestra to reduce gender biases showed that the recruitment of women shot up once auditions were held behind a screen and ability was all that could be judged.

But once you have got ‘Lakeesha’ through the door and spent thousands on training and leadership development as she progresses, the question remains: why is she not reaching the top?

Self-employment or Self-Service?

Increasingly, it appears that minorities are opting to work for themselves rather than face eventual rejection by employers. The report revealed that the ‘other services’ sector category, which includes SMEs, had the second fastest growth rate of BAME managers, a 51 per cent increase between 2007 and 2012.

But experts questioned whether BAME professionals are choosing to start new businesses as a matter of preference, or whether it is necessary, as there is very little opportunity to progress in the more traditional industries.

So how do we turn this around?  We can’t all become entrepreneurs and set up businesses because we perceive that there are barriers to reaching the top of corporations.  Instead of opting out of the race, we have to lean it and change the rules and practices.

As history shows, it is only when marginalised groups unite that their voice is heard and by 2015, says Sandra Kerr OBE, Race for Opportunity director, “one in five people in the UK will be from an ethnic minority background, representing a scale of consumer spending and political voting power that business and government alike cannot afford to ignore.”

Waking up to Change

BITC is calling for greater action from the government to ensure ethnic minorities progress into management positions at the same pace as the general working population. Despite some good news, Kerr says, it is clear that five years on from their Race to the Top report of 2007, BAME management pipeline hasn’t reached its full potential. “Barriers into leadership positions for BAME people remain unbroken, and BAME leadership is disproportionately skewed towards certain sectors and against specific ethnic groups. In fact, the situation is far worse than we predicted in our Race to the Top report back in 2007. Our political and corporate leaders must take concerted efforts in this area so that in five years’ time we can decisively say that the management gap has closed. “

Nothing motivates a politician more than votes (or the threat of a lack of them) and, as the data for the financial services sector suggests, when someone can make you money, the last thing you should be concerned with is the colour of their skin. Quite simply, diversity is its own reward and, as Kerr says, “This is about business sense, not moral pleading.”  

But this isn’t just about governments or companies; it’s really about us. The impact of the black vote and the black pound or dollar, if it is harnessed by us as black citizens and consumers, can generate the kind of change needed to break down these barriers.

As consumers and citizens, we can use our votes and our wallets to make our voices heard and to shatter the glass ceilings threatening the future of our children.  If we don’t want to get to a point where job interviews take place behind a screen so that people can be hired because they have talent as well as a tan, we need to be part of the solution.  Which means confronting bias as well as aiming for excellence.

It was 51 years ago that Martin Luther King famously spoke of his dream that his children would not be judged by the colour of their skin, but by the content of their character. How long must we keep on dreaming?

Frances Mensah Williams

 Author of ‘Everyday Heroes – Learning from the Careers of Successful Black Professionals’. Available online from www.everyday-heroes.co.uk and on order through booksellers.  ISBN 978-0-9569175-0-8