Anti-Racism Working Group
This group was convened in January 2021 to promote active anti-racism in DPAG and improve the diversity of staff and students. Group members are volunteers with an interest in promoting race equality. This page will be regularly updated with a specific topic to help raise awareness of key issues around anti-racism and race equality. If you are committed to active anti-racism and would like to join the Anti-Racism Working Group, please email louise.cotterell@dpag.ox.ac.uk.
Anti-Racism Resources May 2022
Diversity Makes Better Science
“We need diversity of thought in the world to face the new challenges.” Tim Berners-Lee (Inventor of the World-Wide Web).
Diversity Benefit #1: Creativity & Innovation
Socially diverse groups (those with a diversity of race, ethnicity, gender, socio-economic background, and sexual orientation) are more innovative than homogeneous groups.
- People with different backgrounds bring unique information, perspectives, and experiences to tasks.
- A diversity of views enables objections and alternatives to be explored efficiently, solutions to emerge more readily, and results to be adopted with greater confidence. Academic research has shown that diverse groups often outperform experts.
- Diversity encourages the search for novel information and perspectives, leading to better decision-making and problem-solving. The best decisions are not made by a homogenous group.
Diversity Benefit #2: Happier Teams
Diversity increases employee satisfaction, improving collaboration and loyalty. It fosters positive attitudes and behaviours in the workplace. Where diversity recruitment is tokenistic, psychological outcomes are poorer.
When inclusivity is made a priority in the workplace, people feel more comfortable to engage. A 2013 Gallup poll found that only 13% of employees are actively engaged at work. The management behaviour most likely to affect engagement was “demonstrates strong commitment to diversity”.
Diversity Benefit #3: Reflecting Social Change
The pandemic has driven a desire to work for organisations that reflect personal values, rather than just paying a salary. Deloitte found that 80 percent of employees say that inclusion is an important factor in choosing an employer. A diverse workforce can enrich the workplace, whilst also more accurately representing the demographics of the broader population. ONS data for 2019 suggests that 3.5% of the population in England and Wales identify as from a black ethnic background; as at July 2020, no members of DPAG staff identify with this ethnicity.
Diversity Benefit #4: Recruiting the Top Talent
Diversity in the workplace increases the talent pool, and the best creative talent can come from untapped employment pools A focus on diversity can attract more candidates, and encourage them to join an organisation: in a Glassdoor survey, two-thirds of those polled said that diversity was important to them when evaluating companies and job offers.
Given demographic trends, future leaders, influencers, and supporters will increasingly be drawn from previously excluded populations. Race equality can help us access diverse talent pools, and recruit top talent. This can improve organisational performance, and provide a competitive advantage
How to Improve Diversity in the Workplace
It is important to attract diverse candidates, otherwise the status quo remains the same no matter how many networks, working groups, and EDI initiatives we introduce.
Think about how to reach, and attract, diverse candidates, and address the factors that could dissuade people from thinking DPAG is for them. Adopt inclusive recruitment practices for all vacancies.
- Job advertisement placement is important – ensure adverts are accessible to a wide range of potential applicants. Depending on the role, consider promoting jobs through diverse networks and societies, job fairs, social media (if you have a diverse following), and even the job centre. As recruiters, seek diverse candidates.
- Consider job advert and job description content – check for gendered or stereotyped language, ensure essential criteria really are essential, and ensure that the specific experience requested doesn’t deter diverse candidates.
- Ensure your webpages are accessible, consider the images and language – are there too many acronyms or other jargon? Share success stories and testimonials from a diverse range of people, and promote flexible working.
- Before carrying out any selection processes take Implicit Bias in the Workplace Training as a reminder of how to address your biases and try the Harvard Implicit Associations Test to identify your own biases
- Consider whether selection tests are necessary; if they are provide practice tests in advance.
- Ensure interviews are structured, with set questions related to agreed criteria and a scoring rubric, to ensure a fair process. Recruitment panellists should challenge bias or homophily from others.
- Allow sufficient time for decision-making,
Onboarding is also vital for fostering a sense of belonging which, in-turn, links to job satisfaction, performance and commitment. Focus on the needs of the new starter, rather than those of the organisation.
- Standardise processes so that everyone receives the same information and support.
- Don’t make assumptions based on your own experience or views.
- Get to know the person on a personal level and identify where their strengths and interests lie. Consider how to make the most of these attributes and consider tasks they could undertake and networks that they could join.
- Facilitate introductions to colleagues.
- Make people feel valued - ask for their views and opinions and avoid blame.
Resources:
EDI Article: Fair Play Talks: Holistic View of Diversity Needed to Embed Real Workplace Inclusion, Confirms McKenzie-Delis Review
Blog: Buffer.com: The 3 Research-Backed Benefits of Diversity That Guide Our Team Growth
Office for National Statistics (ONS) Population of England and Wales: Population estimates by ethnic group and religion, England and Wales - Office for National Statistics (ons.gov.uk)
Blog: Vantage Circle.com: 100 Powerful Diversity And Inclusion Quotes for a Stronger Company Culture
Blog: The Guardian (2015): A workforce that reflects our diverse society | | The Guardian
Noemí Enchautegui-de-Jesús, Diane Hughes, Kristen E. Johnson, and Hyun Joo Oh, “Well-being in the context of workplace diversity”, Journal of Community Psychology, 2006, volume 34, number 2, pp. 211–23) Well‐being in the context of workplace ethnic diversity - Enchautegui‐de‐Jesús - 2006 - Journal of Community Psychology - Wiley Online Library
NHS Employers (2021), Inclusive recruitment: Leading positive change: Inclusive recruitment | NHS Employers
Responses to Common Criticisms of Anti-Racism Action in SteM- Point 10: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1AoFbaCEfP5qgBMjKnpsnzx5idYPdbq6x/view
Review Article:Making Better Decisions in Groups: https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rsos.170193
Research Article: Groups of diverse problem solvers can outperform groups of high-ability problem solvers: https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.0403723101
Research Article: Effects of Racial Diversity on Complex Thinking in College Students: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1111/j.0956-7976.2004.00710.x
McKinsey Report- Diversity Wins: How Inclusion Matters: https://www.mckinsey.com/featured-insights/diversity-and-inclusion/diversity-wins-how-inclusion-matters
Forbes Report: Diversity Drives Innovation: https://www.forbes.com/forbesinsights/innovation_diversity/
Webinar: Tackling Bias in Recruitment, Pearn Kandola (29 minutes): Tackling Bias in Recruitment
Anti-Racism Resources January 2022
Institutional Racism
Institutional racism is a commonplace and often subtle form of racism that manifests in policies, processes, attitudes and behaviours that result in discrimination, or inequalities of opportunity or outcome. Many organisations don’t realise how their policies and practices disadvantage certain people but institutional racism is evident in education, healthcare, housing, employment, and criminal justice. This can affect a child from birth and the lasting impact can be seen throughout the lives of those from minoritised groups.
What are we doing to challenge Institutional Racism?
- Race Equality Charter bronze action plan agreed by the University in 2018.
- Introduction of the Black Academic Futures Scholarship to fund postgraduate research degrees by UK students of Black or mixed-Black ethnicity in 2021.
- University-wide Race Equality Task Force convened in 2021 to advance racial equality.
- In 2021 DPAG formed an Anti-Racism Working Group to promote an anti-racist and inclusive work and study environment, and to improve staff and student diversity.
- Consulting staff and students on their experiences (Equality, Diversity and Inclusion - Survey Report 2021 - Anti-Racism (ox.ac.uk) to inform our Anti-Racism activities.
- Introducing inclusive recruitment practices for academic positions, and EDI criteria for all vacancies.
What more can we do?
- Ensure that key decision-making and/or research is informed by contributions from those with a diversity of backgrounds, perspectives and experiences.
- Challenge policies and practices where you perceive inequalities. If you have concerns about policies or practices within DPAG, contact HR, the EDI Officer, or the Head of Administration and Finance.
- Include a commitment to EDI as essential criteria in recruitment.
- Share job vacancies with diverse networks, including: Black in Neuro, Black in Cardio, Black in Physiology, Black in Cancer.
- Make efforts to increase Black, Asian and minority ethnic representation of staff at all levels.
- Use positive action measures, such as mentoring, sponsorship, development programmes, and targeted advertising to support staff from previously excluded groups to reach more senior positions. Positive action is lawfully permitted under the Equality Act 2010 as a legitimate means of reducing inequalities between groups in employment.
- Consider equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI) when selecting external partners, collaborators, and suppliers, (eg their commitment to anti-racism, and diversity amongst their workforce).
- Join DPAG's Anti-Racism Working Group - email equality@dpag.ox.ac.uk
Data Sources
Report highlights ‘striking’ inequalities in UK maternal deaths (rcm.org.uk)
MBRRACE-UK Perinatal Surveillance Report 2018 summary.pdf (ox.ac.uk)
Statutory homelessness GOV.UK Ethnicity facts and figures (ethnicity-facts-figures.service.gov.uk)
bame student attainment.pdf (universitiesuk.ac.uk)
Race report statistics | Equality and Human Rights Commission (equalityhumanrights.com)
Report Wellcome Grant Funding data 2019-20.pdf
tackling racial harassment in higher education.pdf (universitiesuk.ac.uk)
Anti-Racism Resources October 2021
What is anti-racism?
Anti-racism is the work of actively opposing racism by advocating for changes that promote racial equity in society.
Racism causes harm in multiple ways, to lives and mental health and wellbeing, to our communities and institutions, and to our society.
Image relates to UK University staff and students. Source: Tackling racial harassment: Universities challenged Executive Summary (equalityhumanrights.com)
Anti-racism has to be prioritised in all we do to promote equity and inclusion, and increase diversity. The journey to being anti-racist can be an uncomfortable, or even difficult one, as we acknowledge our own biases, privileges, and beliefs, alongside those of our social groups, family, and organisations, and navigate ways to address them.
The key is to take personal action as this will enable you to grow to be actively anti-racist, and support the diversity and inclusion within the workplace.
- Educate yourself
- Be open to alternative views and experiences
- Put yourself in the shoes of those that are underrepresented
- Listen to those who look and sound different to you
- Involve people of colour in decision-making
- Advocate for those from minoritised groups
- Understand your privilege
Tackling Race Bias at work
Mandatory online course taking a bold look at the nature of racism and its influence in the workplace.
University of Oxford Race Equality Task Force
A new Task Force formed in November 2020 to address racial inequality at Oxford.
EDI Resources - Race
A list of University of Oxford and external resources for self-led learning and addressing our biases.