At the Clear Company, we have always encouraged businesses to have conversations and raise awareness of race and racism in the workplace and last year, we asked companies to Take a stand against racism in the workplace. I have also always been taught how important it is to make sure our actions match up with our words before attempting to lecture the public. So, on this day, which marks one year since the tragedy of George Floyd’s death, it is important to reflect on how much we have learned about the injustices people from minoritized racial backgrounds, specifically Black people face in society and within organisations and reflect on our mission, values, and actions as an organisation to create a welcoming and safe place for all people.

At the Clear Company, we are committed to ensuring diversity, equity, and inclusion through every aspect of our business and supporting our clients in their D, E&I journey. Consistent with our mission and values the ways in which we have grown within the organisation with respect to race awareness and promoting race equality include:

• We expanded the team to include more people from racially diverse backgrounds and filled the role of a Race Equality Consultant to support our client projects specifically from a race and ethnicity perspective informed by best practice, leading research and lived experience.
• We are intentional about educating ourselves and having open honest conversations about anti-racism and allyship. Creating a psychologically safe environment where people are free to be themselves and bring their whole selves to work.
• We have carefully reviewed our online Global Inclusion Standard, Clear Assured through a Race Lens and provided additional resources and updates to support companies in addressing the issues affecting Black and Ethnically diverse employees.
• We developed our Anti-Racism toolkit with our partners Diversity Practice which provides an expert-led first step into opening up the conversation about racism in the workplace.
• We have updated our Clear Audit methodology, specifically for Race Equality.

While we have made progress, we are not perfect by any means and still have a great deal of work to do to ensure everyone regardless of background has an equal chance to thrive in the workplace. We continue to offer support to our clients in their D, E&I journey by providing anti-racism workshops and resources like the anti-racism toolkit and Clear Assured to enable them to have courageous conversations about race and develop a psychologically safe environment.

We remain committed to doing our part to encourage positive change and conclude by urging people to reflect on “why there is low representation of Black people in the organisation and/or why are there no or so few Black people in the C-Suite?” and question “How can your behaviour be more inclusive for people from diverse ethnic backgrounds and how do you help Black people advance within the workplace in the long term?”

Susan Abumere, Race Equality Consultant, the Clear Company