About the toolkit

The contributors to this toolkit believe that addressing under-representation of young Black men is ‘the right thing to do’, but also that there are sound commercial reasons because increasing workforce diversity:

• Improves business performance
• Increases capacity within the industry
• Enhances creativity and innovation
• Meets the requirements of public sector clients
• Reduces the cost of recruitment
• Increases the talent pipeline throughout the organisation
• Gains critical customer insight
• Tackles skills shortages

In the course of developing this toolkit we were frequently challenged about whether it is reasonable or fair to focus employment actions on young Black men. Employers using the toolkit will face the same challenges from within and outside their companies. To help respond to the challenges, we have put together our responses to the questions which employers frequently asked us, including why there should be a focus on young Black men. These Q&As are in Annexe One for you to use to make the case for action.

Many good practice examples highlighted were developed by employers to address the representation and progression of Black, Asian and minority ethnic individuals. We believe more targeted work is needed where universal approaches have failed specific groups to date, evident in the disparities in employment outcomes between different ethnic groups. Universal approaches can often mask where particular groups are facing persistently worse outcomes.

This toolkit was developed by the Black Training and Enterprise Group (BTEG), as part of the Moving on Up (MoU) initiative to improve employment outcomes for young Black men in London.

Through MoU’s engagement with construction and digital sector companies, more than 46 employers, including Morgan Sindall and Tideway, contributed to the development of this toolkit. Additionally, over the course of the MoU initiative, more than 200 young Black men have participated in discussions, focus groups and consultations about their experiences seeking good quality construction and digital sector jobs, and the actions they believe would lead to fairer outcomes. The views and experiences of these young men have shaped the actions set out in this toolkit.

Consultation with young Black men forms part of the Moving on Up initiative to improve employment outcomes for young Black men in London.

The toolkit sets out a series of actions that you should take to review the representation of young Black men within your workforce and practical steps to address any under-representation. The toolkit actions are sequential; the early ones lay the foundations which subsequent actions build on. We advise you to work through them in order, starting with the first, fundamental action of securing a leadership commitment to taking action on the employment of young Black men.

The toolkit is intended for use by senior leaders in companies of all sizes. To be effective, all the actions in the toolkit require leadership from the Chief Executive and head of Human Resources, and support from all senior leaders and recruitment managers. While companies of all sizes can use the toolkit, the data monitoring and target setting measures (Actions 2, 3 and 4 in the ‘Commitment’ section) should be considered essential for companies with more than 100 employees and desirable for smaller employers.

Companies who do not currently employ any young Black men, or any Black staff, should focus on the Commitment and the Engagement and Recruitment actions in this toolkit. These actions provide the foundations, including data monitoring and target setting, which will help to increase the diversity of your workforce.

Using the inclusive employers toolkit should raise your awareness about the young Black male talent pool, make it easier to recruit from it, and ensure that young Black male employees stay and progress within the company. The toolkit also works as a checklist of good practice which you can use to assess current performance on diversity and inclusion, and to set targets for improvements if needed.

Do not be daunted by the number of actions in the toolkit. As one employer who helped to produce this toolkit put it, ‘the more you do, the better you’ll be.’ In preparing this toolkit we reviewed a range of existing diversity and inclusion toolkits which you may also find useful. They are listed in Annexe Two.

Finally, a note on language.

There are a range of terms used throughout this toolkit including Black Asian and minority ethnic, BAME, ethnic minority and minority ethnic. While we understand the limitations of these terms, throughout the toolkit we have kept the terminology used by the publications, research documents and interviewees that informed the toolkit.

We recognise that whilst concepts and terms like ‘BAME’ can be useful, particularly in research contexts, few people self-identify as BAME. Further, overuse can prevent employers from realising and understanding the nuance of experiences and barriers that individuals from different groups, like young Black men, face. We recommend employers aim to be considered and specific in their use of language and terminology.

We also use the term ‘young Black men’ consistently throughout the toolkit. For the WIN and Moving on Up initiatives, young means aged 16 to 24 and Black means Black African, Black Caribbean, Black British and mixed Black ethnic groups.

Commitment:

1. The company leadership commits to a diversity and inclusion policy which includes an undertaking to review and take action on employment of young Black men.
2. The company carries out recruitment and workforce monitoring at a level which provides information about the number of young Black men who apply and are employed.
3. The company sets a target to recruit young Black men at a level which reflects the local/regional population.
4. Senior managers regularly review monitoring data to identify progress in appointing, retaining and promoting young Black men.
5. All managers have diversity and inclusion objectives and are confident about working to these.
6. The company adopts recognised diversity and inclusion standards.

Engagement and Recruitment:

1. Images of young Black men are included across the full range of marketing materials.
2. The company takes proactive recruitment measures to engage directly with young Black men.
3. All staff involved in recruitment receive diversity, inclusion and anti-racism training.
4. Potential sources of recruiter bias are removed from the application process.
5. Selection panels are always ethnically and gender diverse and include a senior Black employee wherever possible.
6. All staff involved in recruitment understand what Positive Action measures are permitted under the Equality Act 2010.

Retention and Progression:

1. The company encourages a supportive workplace for young Black men.
2. The company takes action against all incidences of racism in the workplace.
3. The company sets targets and provides support to increase the number of young Black men progressing to senior levels.

Suppliers:

1. The company undertakes a review of their existing suppliers & monitors the proportion of Black-led businesses and SMEs.
2. The company requires suppliers to demonstrate their commitments to recruitment, retention and progression of young Black men.

In 2018, the Mayor launched the Workforce Integration Network (WIN) as part of his Strategy for Social Integration. WIN aims to change the way businesses in London function by laying the foundations for a more diverse workforce. It has a bold and ambitious overarching aim - to bring together business leaders to tackle structural barriers faced by underrepresented groups, so as to create inclusive sectors that truly represent the diversity of London.

In its first phase, the WIN programme is supporting young Black men aged 16 to 24 to access and progress into good quality employment, focusing on the digital/technology and construction sectors in London.

Learn more about the programme.

The Greater London Authority (GLA) commissioned the Black Training and Enterprise Group (BTEG) to conduct this research. BTEG’s mission is to end racial inequality. It champions fairness, challenges discriminations and pioneers innovative solutions to empower BAME communities through education, employment and enterprise.

Jeremy Crook OBE, Chief Executive of BTEG led the development of this Toolkit.

Moving on Up (MoU) is an initiative which aims to improve employment outcomes for young Black men in London. The initiative was established in 2014 and is a collaboration between BTEG, City Bridge Trust, Trust for London and, since 2018, the GLA’s Workforce Integration Network.

MoU has invested over £1.5 million in testing what works to increase the number of young Black men securing good quality jobs, through collaboration with employment support providers, Jobcentre Plus, local authorities and employers. Since late 2017 MoU has focused on developing and testing a ‘collective impact model’ to improve employment support and outcomes for young Black men in two London boroughs, and on engaging employers in the Construction, Digital and Finance sectors to develop practical measures to recruit more young Black men into these sectors, where they have traditionally been under-represented. This Toolkit has been developed through MoU’s collaborative engagement with construction and digital sector employers.