A Birmingham Theatre Achieving a 5 Star Rating for its Antiracism “Performance”

This post is for the HR decision makers in any organisation.

If you don’t know where to turn when ‘race’ becomes an unbearable hot topic in your organisation and is hindering the flow of work, this article is for you.

How often do you sit alone worrying about...

• Complaints about discriminatory staff behaviour towards ethnic minorities?
• The employee power imbalance experienced by racially minoritised staff members?
• Policies you know are leading to unfair outcomes?
• The divide you see amongst staff members along colour lines?
• Not knowing where to start?

You are not alone in having these questions swirling around your head. Many leaders who care about creating a fair working environment do.

Did you know 2 in 5 Black and other ethnic minority workers experience racism at work? (TUC, 2022)

This means most employers in the U.K. will deal with the uncomfortable issue of racism and risk losing valuable ethnic minority staff if problems are not dealt with empathically and efficiently.

But it doesn’t need to be your organisation’s story.

Let me give you some insight into how we at Strawberry Words have helped (and continue to assist) Birmingham Hippodrome Theatre with its antiracism goals.

Since 2021, the results we have helped the organisation achieve include:

??Developing a long-term inclusion and training programme for all staff

?Overhauling the recruitment and induction process to a diversify the workforce

?Provided clearer and more visible routes for reporting incidents of discrimination

We did this by:

?Delivering antiracism training to the Board and Senior Management Team

?Conducting a listening exercise for former and current employees

?Analysing and reporting on the recruitment process

Birmingham Hippodrome is now closer to achieving a workforce reflective of the citizens of the city in which it resides. It has set targets on baseline data and is actively and visibly working towards them. You can see the organisation’s antiracism commitments on its website.

This all leads to less incidents of a racial nature, more opportunities for ethnic minorities, a happier more knowledgeable workforce and a stronger, more attractive brand that can stand by its commitment to being an inclusive and antiracist organisation.

See this tweet is from Chris Sudworth, Director of Artistic Programme at the Hippodrome.

We can help your organisation to achieve similar results. Drop me a short message. Though, do not ponder for too long as capacity to deliver consultation is limited.

Strawberry Words will help your organisation to analyse:

·??????DEI policies

·??????(and collate) Baseline data

·??????Recruitment process

·??????Employee and stakeholder feedback

·??????Advertising and marketing

Then we look at the next best steps and help in their fulfilment.

Currently, we have capacity to begin this autumn for 8 weeks, so by January 2023, your organisation is ready to make serious change.

Send me your organisation’s needs and I can forward a quote that reflects the quality and value of our work but will not make your eyes water.

Wising you much success as always

Rebbecca ‘your creating cultural harmony guide’ Hemmings

P.S. Don’t wait for an unfortunate racial incident to be trending on Twitter before getting in touch.?