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Stories this week about workplace discrimination – and a lack of faith in how seriously it is viewed by senior management – must be a wake-up call for the sector. Here are some actions organisations should be taking now to address it, writes Martin Hilditch
A few months ago a member of staff at a housing association got in touch with me to talk about managers and colleagues voicing racist opinions at work. The individual concerned gave some brief details about the situation but was reluctant to speak further because “I will lose my job”.
It’s to the ongoing shame of the sector that I am able to share the individual’s description of their organisation as employing many lower-paid Black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) staff, but relatively few BAME managers, without massively narrowing down the field of employers they might work for.
The appalling situation that they spoke of is not an isolated incident. Over the past few weeks, many individuals have written to Inside Housing flagging the discrimination they have faced at work. The shocking results should be a wake-up call for anyone who thinks this is an issue that the sector addressed long ago – the relatively little progress on diversifying boards and executive teams in recent years suggests at best a worrying complacency.
The fear of repercussions for speaking out is something others have faced, too. One of the respondents to our survey reported colleagues’ use of racist language to their HR team. Afterwards they described feeling ostracised by workmates and said they were pushed out of the organisation.
Of those who did report incidents of discrimination to their employers (and our survey also flagged examples of sexism, homophobia and transphobia), more than two-thirds were unhappy with their employers’ response.
So, what should be done? For starters, as Olu Olanrewaju, associate director at Altair and a member of Inside Housing’s BAME editorial panel, suggests, the results should prompt social landlords to survey their staff to understand their own organisation’s performance – and act on the findings.
Landlords should also be very clear about acceptable standards of behaviour and how, for example, they expect managers to intervene if discriminatory language is used at work. Given the reluctance of staff to report discrimination, organisations should also scrutinise their reporting mechanisms.
It’s time for the sector’s senior leaders to stand up and be counted. This week Inside Housing’s new BAME editorial panel meets for the first time. We’re determined to shake things up and challenge ourselves, too. The discrimination outlined in this week’s report needs to be stamped out for good.
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