How to talk about race at work  

Conversations about race in the workplace should be managed effectively, allowing for respectful expression, compassionate listening and shared learning

CREDIT: This is an edited version of an article that originally appeared on CIPD

The importance of inclusion, and awareness of race disparities in the workplace, are not new subjects for most. The killing of George Floyd in America, and the Black Lives Matter protests both there and in the UK, brought into sharp focus the extent of racial disparity across all walks of society, and introduced less familiar concepts such as anti-black racism, anti-racism and white advantage. People have been learning about the realities and lived experience of many and, as they do, they are experiencing feelings of guilt, anger, fear, confusion and sadness. With such a far-reaching societal impact it’s of little surprise that the conversation about race has made its way into the workplace.   

Conversations about race in the workplace can be difficult. If they are going to achieve a positive outcome, organisations must take a thoughtful, structured and compassionate approach which sets out the key considerations and options they need to explore.

Tough conversations require openness, bravery and the ability to work through discomfort. Views need to be expressed in a non-combative manner, and there needs to be listening and reflection without judgement. Before beginning there is a need to carefully consider the organisational culture and values – and whether it has experience of having candid conversations and receiving feedback.   

Where open and constructive conversation is the norm, there’s a strong likelihood that the organisation is ready to have conversations about race. Reminding employees about your values, principles and organisational approach of honesty and openness would be a great idea.  

However, where open conversations are not yet part of the organisation culture, consider some preparatory work to increase your people’s readiness. This might involve engaging employees in concepts such as growth mindset (specifically, being open to learning, seeking knowledge and seeing mistakes as opportunities to learn), coaching principles, suspending judgement and active listening. 

Although training courses and development around these concepts would be ideal, organisations can also share articles, deliver webinars and use existing communication channels to communicate and plant seeds around these concepts, as well as adapting the approaches followed by other organisations to suit their own unique contexts.   

Make the connection to your organisation

Any initiative stands a greater chance of adoption if it’s aligned to – and supportive of – the organisation’s objectives and aims; there is a need to  should consider – and then clearly communicate – how conversations about race align with, and support, the organisation’s espoused culture, purpose, mission, values and behaviours.  

In addition, links should be made to the organisation’s people and inclusion strategies. What are the stated goals and ambitions, and how do conversations about race align with these? If these organisational strategies do not yet include race, now’s the time to rectify this and use the learning from recent global events and any existing internal race conversations to address any disparities that exist in your organisation. 

Set the intention

It’s vital that the intended outcomes of conversations about race are clear for leadership and staff alike, as this will shape key decisions – such as how future conversations are to be conducted, and who will participate. This will also shape the ongoing messages that the organisation communicates to its employees and will allow the it to assess the effectiveness of its approach to other conversations, going forward.  Think about:

• what the organisation hopes to learn; 
• whether the leadership team is ready to listen to and engage with feedback; 
• whether the leadership team is prepared to change its approach in response to feedback; 
• what the organisation will do with the information learnt – how this will feed into the employee experience; 
• who will be involved in the conversations; 
• who will facilitate the conversations (this would, ideally, be a skilled individual with lived experience of race; consider using an external facilitator to maintain confidentiality, credibility and increase psychological safety); 
• what follow-up there will be; 
• what further action will be taken. 

Get the organisation ready

As the current deep exploration of race is new to us as a society, most organisations will have little-to-no ‘race fluency’ right now. In order to reduce the likelihood of taking missteps it’s advisable to ensure that there’s a basic level of race fluency in your organisation. There are many great resources available which can support your organisation in understanding key terms and updating your people on current language and meanings. Here’s a link to get you started: tackling racism in the workplace | CIPD

Equip managers and leaders

Once conversations about race in the workplace begin, it’s likely that the issue, emotions and conversations themselves will spill out into other interactions between your people. As such, it’s vital to equip leaders, managers and individuals with tools to deal with this, such as: 

• suggested ways to pause/reframe conversations if the context is inappropriate; 
• support from the organisation’s employee assistance programme to help manage the feelings of all employees; 
• coaching for individuals who require further support – for example, those affected by race discrimination and those who feel challenged by their new learning; 
• reminders and cues from safe space conversation rules and agreements. 

Communicate

The success of these conversations will depend on when and how they’re communicated. Employees should understand why these conversations are taking place, and how they fit into the organisational context; the intended outcomes should be made clear to all involved. Keep communications simple, honest and direct. 

Effective communication will set the right tone for the conversations and help everyone know what to expect.