The Barnet Group is proud to be participating in Race Equality Week, from 5-11 February. Race Equality Week will unite thousands of organisations and hundreds of thousands of employees in action to seriously address race inequality in the workplace.

A UK-wide initiative, Race Equality Week, was launched by community interest company Race Equality Matters to turn words into meaningful action. It is a movement spurred on by the events of 2020, which have heightened the country’s collective consciousness of the racism, inequality, and injustice experienced by ethnically diverse employees and communities.

We need to keep the momentum going when it comes to tackling race inequality. Race Equality Week was created to enable this; hence, it is positioned a few months after Black History Month because tackling race inequality is not a one month a year activity, for those affected it’s 24/7 / 365 days a year.

With over 4,500 organisations engaged in 2023, Race Equality Week 2024 is set to engage even more and make a greater impact.

Race Equality Week is a positive force for action.

Building on the REW 2023 theme, which sent a clear message that race equality is everyone’s business (#ItsEveryonesBusiness), the 2024 theme of #ListenActChange will bring everyone together to focus on taking action to drive change.

The theme was selected by the Race Equality Matters community, and it reflects ongoing findings that in most organisations only a few are actively driving change. This can be demonstrated in recent polls:

  • 64% said ethnically diverse employees are playing a key part in tackling race inequality in their organisation, and only 17% said allies were and only 30% said leaders are.
  • Only 32% said their organisation focuses on action and not just words.

Everyone has a role to play in the fight for racial equality in the workplace, from the top of each organisation to the bottom. The sooner we act, the sooner change can become our reality!

If we all commit to #ListenActChange, then real change can take place.