More than one third of organisations in the UK have not promoted or hired someone because of their age, race, gender or accessibility needs, revealed a new survey.
The research carried out by employee experience platform Culture Amp found that discriminatory behaviours remain high, despite companies understanding the value of diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) and admitting they could do to be more inclusive. Over one third of organisations in the UK have not promoted or hired someone because of their age (37%), race (30%), gender (31%) or disability or accessibility needs (33%), with the UK being markedly more discriminatory than counterparts in the US, Canada, Germany and the Netherlands which average 24% across these measures.
This gap is all the more striking since three quarters (75%) of the UK HR decision makers polled claimed that their company understands the value of DEI, while two thirds (68%) state that their job postings promote that they are an equal opportunity employer, encouraging people from minority groups to apply.
The findings, which indicate a gap between companies’ policies and their ability to embed effective DEI, were revealed in Culture Amp’s latest research carried out in association with market research firm Censuswide in April 2023. The survey questioned 5,011 full time employees with no HR responsibilities across Canada, Germany, Netherlands, the US and the UK (1,000), as well as 1,258 HR decision makers with over six years’ experience (252 from the UK).
CONTINUING WORKPLACE INEQUALITY
The disconnect between promised action on DEI and people’s own experiences contributes to continuing inequality at work with 30% of men, 23% of women and 25% of people identifying as non-binary experiencing discrimination at work. In a telling finding, most HR decision makers assert that marginalised groups should do more to engage on these challenges, with nearly two-thirds (60%) of HR decision makers saying that people from marginalised groups should play a more active role in implementing DEI programmes.
Related to this call for greater participation from underrepresented groups in framing policy, only 24% of organisations have set up a forum where marginalised people can share their background. The research suggests strongly that people teams’ are struggling with managing new expectations of the workplace and lasting financial constraints are leading to the deprioritising of practical DEI strategies by UK companies. Nearly half (52%) of HR decision makers said that hybrid/remote work was slowing down these initiatives, while 48% blamed the current economic climate.
DEI CHALLENGES
Other challenges to successful DEI implementation, according to HR leaders include:
- Employees struggling to follow DEI policies on a daily basis (47%).
- Managers failing to action DEI plans (49%).
- Insufficient support from leadership teams (49%).
Despite these challenges, investment in DEI is worth the effort: the survey also showed that 77% of UK employees who agree that their company values diversity said that they recommend their organisation to other people as a great place to work.
“The findings from this research disappointing but not that surprising unfortunately,” stated Jessica Brannigan, Lead People Scientist at Culture Amp. “What we hope organisations take from this is a prompt for them to put their KPI’s, effort and resources to work in service of their more generally stated good intentions in this domain.”
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