Businesses in today’s world are expected to play a proactive role in advancing ethnic and racial Diversity and Inclusion (D&I) in the workplace, in value chains and ecosystems. How can companies ensure that their strategies and work environments are inclusive and offer equal opportunities for all? How can D&I strategies be implemented across global organisations? More specifically, how can companies address ethnic and racial injustices in European markets where the legal structures and dialogues on the topic differ and manifest in unique ways?

Conscious of the growing expectations for a more diverse and inclusive environment, expressed by employees, investors, customers, and clients, B4IG created a Working Group dedicated to Diversity and Inclusion, focusing on Ethnic D&I, co-led by Accenture and Salesforce, and gathering a range of global companies.

B4IG’s new Operational Recommendations on Ethnic Diversity & Inclusion are the result of this close collaboration among coalition members, who shared their experiences and held several working sessions to draw common findings for the wider business community.

We share these Operational Recommendations with great humility, aware of the difficulties companies and their employees, and the larger business ecosystem face in addressing this topic proactively. We believe sharing these experiences is critical to ensuring the wider business community makes the strides now required.

Recommendations Summary

B4IG’s Ethnic D&I Operational Recommendations are presented as four pillars with 10 sub-dimensions, indicating specific areas for action:

• Recommendation I. Bold Leadership: Set goals that reach beyond legal compliance and hold leaders accountable for results with transparency of metrics & progress.
• Recommendation II. Talent Actions: Implement D&I talent actions across attraction, retention, development, advancement & other key processes.
• Recommendation III. Culture: Build an inclusive, diverse, and bias-free workplace, where employees are enabled to drive change, and inclusive leadership is role-modelled.
• Recommendation IV. Ecosystem: Engage clients, customers, partners, and suppliers to support meaningful change in their organizations, and within local communities.

Companies are encouraged to follow either all of the recommendations or to a partial degree, depending on company-specific challenges, maturity level, strategic objectives or national legislations.

Some recommendations may not be applicable in countries where diversity data collection is prohibited by law or is sensitive. We have naturally taken into account these legal contexts, and aim to demonstrate that, even in these countries, companies can implement a variety of strategies and interventions to foster greater ethnic diversity and inclusion.