Report calls for more action on race equality

Although "significant" resources are being put into developing and retaining ethnic minority employees, much remains to be done if major employers are to tackle race equality, says a recent report on race in corporate Britain.

Covering 2.75 million UK employees, Race: creating business value draws on a survey of employers who have joined the Race for Opportunity (RfO) network of employers working on race as part of their business agenda. The survey involves 99 public and private sector organisations, including 18 from the FTSE 100 index of leading companies.

The report found some progress compared with the results of a similar survey conducted by RfO in 2001. For example, the number of organisations providing data on the ethnicity of their workforces jumped from 19% to 78%. RfO says that this reflects the fact that "monitoring is increasingly standard good practice."

However, the survey found "a noticeable lack of black and Asian managers, particularly at the most senior level." Only 44 ethnic minority individuals currently hold posts at the most senior level, with no black or other ethnic minority chief executives in any of the private sector organisations. Nor are there any black or Asian permanent secretaries in any of the central government departments surveyed.

Only 3.4% of senior managers are from ethnic minorities, while the overall number at managerial level is 4.1%.

RfO chair Allan Leighton said that the focus for the future "must be on getting more leading edge companies, particularly in the FTSE 100, to benchmark themselves on what they are doing in this area."

* Race: creating business value price £35 from Julia Joseph on 020 7566 8707, fax 020 7253 1877.