Race Equality Week 2023: Powered by Green Park

Green Park are proud to be co-founders of Race Equality Matters and to be powering Race Equality Week for our third year. Turning the spotlight on Green Park we asked our CEO, Raj Tulsiani, why Race Equality Week and this year's theme #Itseveryonesbusiness is so important and how Green Park will be getting involved. 

Why is Race Equality Week important?

As a minority-owned business, anti-racism is a part of our roots and the promotion of equality, diversity and inclusion has been at the heart of Green Park since we were founded in 2006. That is why in 2020, Green Park co-founded Race Equality Matters. Our mission was to help organisations and individuals turn declarations of commitment and support into meaningful action for greater race equality in the workplace and across society. To that end, in 2021, we launched the UK’s first ever Race Equality Week, a week where employers and workforces across the country could unite in activity to drive inclusion and equality throughout their businesses.

Now entering our third Race Equality Week we are delighted to see so many taking part and leveraging its platform to publicly commit to action, be it through The Big Promise or the roll-out inclusive initiatives such as #MyNameIs.

Through Green Park’s talent acquisition and organisational consultancy services, we are proud to be driving tangible change across the corporate sector for greater equity, diversity & Inclusion (EDI). However, powering Race Equality Week provides us with an opportunity to build momentum and accelerate this progress across the UK, with over 3,500 organisations taking part in 2022 –  a number we look forward to building on in 2023.

Why is this year’s Race Equality Week theme (#ItsEveryonesBusiness) so important and how can organisations get everyone involved? 

Despite a lot of talk around their commitment to Diversity, Equity & Inclusion (DEI), many businesses are failing to tackle race inequality at the pace that their shareholder, employee and customer stakeholder groups would like. The Green Park Business Leaders Index, an analysis of the diversity composition of FTSE leadership, shows a lack of progress in increasing ethnic minority representation at C-Suite level. Reflecting this, original research conducted by Race Equality Matters, demonstrates the disillusion of ethnic minority employees who feel their organisations don’t understand what ethnic minority colleagues really want or require.

Our work with organisations across the private, public and third sectors shows us that many businesses genuinely want to make a difference, but too many don’t know how. One of the most common mistakes we see is that the DEI agenda is allocated to a specific department or individual to drive, often a HR or Diversity function with limited reach, resource or influence. Even worse, the onus on developing solutions or educating the wider business on race related issues is left to ethnic minority employees or network groups. The fact is that to achieve real change, DEI needs to be more than an agenda. It needs to be woven into every part of the organisations culture until it is part of their DNA, until #ItsEveryonesBusiness.

Simple ways that organisations can get involved include:

• Taking part in the Virtual Badge Campaign and displaying our badge on your social media profiles and marketing materials.
• Making a public commitment to action not just words through The Big Promise.
• Taking part in the 5 Day Challenge by completing a 5 minute challenge every day for five days.
• Joining Green Park’s virtual showcase, Inclusive Leadership: Building Cultural Connections. The one-hour session will take place at 11am on Thursday 9th February, and will be a taster of the extensive Inclusive Leadership Programmes developed by our DICE Consultancy Practice. The showcase will aim to empower leaders to build stronger cultural connections with their teams and drive greater accountability for positive change that promotes racial equality within their own workplaces. And, supporting the theme #ItsEveryonesBusiness, it is open to everyone and completely free to join. To register, click here.

 

What are your organisation’s plans for Race Equality Week?

As co-founders of Race Equality Matters, Green Park are proud to power Race Equality Week 2023.

Our employees have already taken part in The Big Promise with over 226 promises made overall. These are being displayed in the office and we will be asking all employees to share them publicly during Race Equality Week, as well as sharing them on our own channels. Additionally, we will be asking our wider network, including clients and candidates, to make their own Big Promise and to take part in Race Equality Week’s events and activity. We shall also follow up throughout the year, providing support from our dedicated Diversity, Inclusion, Culture & Ethics team to help our employees and wider network to achieve their Big Promises, ensuring that our focus remains on actions not words.

During Race Equality Week, and as part of our own Big Promise to drive equality and inclusion across UK workplaces, our market leading Diversity, Inclusion, Culture & Ethics (DICE) team will be holding a free virtual showcase on Inclusive Leadership: Building Cultural Connections.

Supporting the Race Equality Week theme #ItsEveryonesBusiness, the session will be free to attend and is open to any business or individual wanting to join.

Taking place at 11am on Thursday 9th February, the one-hour session will be a taster of the extensive Inclusive Leadership Programmes developed by our DICE Consultancy Practice. The aim will be to empower leaders to build stronger cultural connections with their teams and drive greater accountability for positive change that promotes racial equality within their own workplaces.

It will be led by Green Park’s Managing Partner, Jo Heath, an experience Diversity and Inclusion (D&I) auditor, specialising in Human Rights, Equality Law and Cultural Change.  For more information and to register, click here.

We will also hold an internal EDI training session to support Green Park employees to promote equality and inclusion within our own business. This will be followed up throughout the year with other on-going programmes of work to promote equitable working practices.

 

What does your organisation want to achieve as a result of its activity during Race Equality Week and beyond?

A global talent advisory firm, Green Park has been championing diversity & inclusion since day one and actively advocating for visible and authentic minority leadership talent. Over 35% of our executive search placements are leaders from an ethnic minority background and our DICE experts have trained over 1600 leaders in Inclusive Leadership Capabilities. Through Race Equality Week we are able to accelerate the progress we are making, and help more and more people build sustainable, equitable workplace cultures that support diverse talent to thrive.

Our employees have made over 226 Big Promises, including 33 promises to call out racism and microaggressions, 30 promises to take action beyond just talking about race inequality, 27 promises to learn and proactively act anti racist and an additional 27 promises to expand and diversify our networks with people from other backgrounds in both in a professional and personal capacity.

Throughout Race Equality Week we also hope to encourage and support our candidates, clients and wider networks to take their own steps towards meaningful change for race equality, multiplying our impact and helping the organisations we serve become more inclusive and equitable too.

 

Click here to find out more about Race Equality Week