Why ED&I is important to the Recruitment and Employment Federation
As the voice of the UK’s recruitment industry, the Recruitment & Employment Confederation (REC) is uniquely placed to lead by example and influence employers to improve ED&I in their recruitment practices and beyond. In order to do this we first have to adopt best practice ourselves and this is something the REC wants to drive. Embracing ED&I in our industry will lead to more people with diverse backgrounds being given an equal chance at reaching their potential in the labour market.
Why being a signatory to Change the Race Ratio is important to the Recruitment and Employment Federation
There are still huge discrepancies in employment opportunities and equity of pay for people of colour. We know that organisations won’t fully meet their growth potential unless they have talent from all demographic groups because of the diversity of thought and experience that brings. There is both a bottom-line business and ethical case for employers to do more to tackle racial inequality in the workplace and we are glad that Change the Race Ratio is helping lead the charge around change in this area. We hope that employers coming together to understand the challenges and ways to improve things will create meaningful change and more equality of opportunity for people from diverse ethnic groups.
How the REC are supporting members to take action on Diversity and Inclusion
The REC is support members to take action on ED&I through our ED&I Content hub full of practical advice and guidance. The REC has also curated a reference site of insightful thought article and guidance documents from trusted third parties.
Progress the REC is making against our Change the Race Ratio campaign commitments
We also have a number of pieces of guidance that we have worked on with external partners to offer our members advice and practical steps to take on ED&I best practice around recruitment for older workers, gender equality and how to use AI tools in recruitment in a way that doesn’t discriminate, among others.
Internally, REC has taken steps to improve our own ED&I practices. We have completed gender and ethnicity pay reports in the last year to assess our own standing and will use this data to drive changes moving forward.
Here's REC CEO Neil Carberry on the benefits of being a signatory to Change the Race Ratio.