BARRIERS TO PROGRESS AND PRACTICAL ACTIONS
In short, data should not be a shield, it should be a spotlight. Used thoughtfully, it can illuminate structural barriers and guide meaningful change. Used poorly or defensively, it can obscure the very issues organisations claim to be addressing.
STRUCTURAL RACISM AND DISCRIMINATION The ethnicity pay gap is not merely a technical challenge, it is a visible outcome of longstanding structural and systemic inequalities embedded within organisational cultures and wider society. It reflects not just unequal outcomes, but the cumulative effect of how opportunity, access, and value are distributed. Throughout the conference, panellists highlighted how racialised dynamics are often woven into the very fabric of workplace systems and norms, including: Gatekeeping through informal networks that determine who is seen, heard, and supported, often to the exclusion of minoritised staff. Proximity bias, which favours individuals who are either physically present in power centres (e.g. head offices) or culturally aligned with those in leadership. Recruitment practices that rely on subjective notions of “culture fit” rather than evidence of competence, narrowing the entry point for diverse talent. A persistent pattern where ethnic minority employees are over-mentored but under- sponsored, receiving advice without the advocacy required to access leadership roles and opportunities. These issues are not incidental. They are symptoms of systems that reward familiarity, comfort, and conformity, often penalising difference, innovation, and alternative leadership styles. Structural racism operates not only through explicit exclusion, but through the normalisation of practices that disadvantage those outside dominant groups. Policies alone cannot dismantle these dynamics. Progress requires organisations to critically examine how their structures, both formal and informal, shape who advances, who is valued, and who is left behind. It also demands courage: to challenge long-held norms, interrupt bias even when it is inconvenient, and actively create cultures where equity is not just an aspiration, but a lived reality.
PRACTICAL ACTIONS FOR MAKING CHANGES
Conduct a comprehensive audit of recruitment practices by reviewing job adverts and person specifications for biased language, assess shortlisting and interview data by protected characteristics and then identifying patterns of exclusion or advantage at each recruitment stage. Recruitment and Hiring Practices
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