Racism and Inappropriate Behaviours: Five Actions for Allies
This toolkit, Racism and Inappropriate Behaviours: Five Actions for Allies, contains advice and best practice on how an individual can address racism and inappropriate behaviour in the workplace.
Introduction
What is a bystander?
A bystander is an individual who witnesses inappropriate behaviour but is not directly involved themselves.
What can a bystander do?
To address racist or non-inclusive and inappropriate behaviours in the workplace, bystanders can and should become allies.
What is an ally?
A person or people who step up to intervene to stop or diffuse a difficult situation. Non-action implies implicit agreement with the perpetrator. However, where there is intervention (directly or indirectly) it has been shown to create a community culture where the person affected feels supported because the inappropriate behaviour is not tolerated.
Download this toolkit to find out more about the actions that can be taken under the following topics.
- Do not wait to assume others will intervene.
- Check it is safe to intervene – the toolkit contains a risk assessment.
- Be confident and clear without being rude during the intervention.
- Take indirect intervention, this works too.
- Get help from others if necessary.
Race at Work survey findings
The Race at Work 2018 survey with 24,310 responses revealed that one in four (25%), of black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) employees had reported in 2018 that they had witnessed or experienced racist harassment or bullying from managers in the past two years.
Race at Work Charter
Business in the Community (BITC) encourages all organisations to pledge to sign the Race at Work Charter as a way of demonstrating their commitment to workplace racial equality. Organisations signing the charter commit to:
- Appoint an executive sponsor for race
- Capture ethnicity data and publicise progress
- Commit at board level to zero tolerance of harassment and bullying
- Make clear that supporting equality in the workplace is the responsibility of all leaders and managers
- Take action that supports ethnic minority career progression.
In October 2021 two additional commitments were added to the Race at Work Charter: Support race inclusion allies in the workplace and; Include Black, Asian, Mixed Race and other ethnically diverse-led enterprise owners in supply chains. Find out more about the Race at Work Charter.
LEARN MORE
Business in the Community is creating a skilled and inclusive workforce for today and tomorrow.