Achieving senior positions

BAME workers are also less likely to occupy senior posts – just 9% work as managers, directors and senior officials compared with 11% of white employees. In the civil service, for example, BAME people formed 10% of staff in 2014 but only 7% of senior civil servants.

According to a survey of 24,000 BAME people conducted for Business in the Community, one in 10 employed people come from a BAME background, yet only one in 13 management positions and just one in 16 of top management positions were held by people from these groups.

Not surprisingly, the study says that employees from BAME groups are significantly more likely to feel they have been overlooked for a promotion (30% do so) compared to white employees (23%).

There are big problems in the NHS, a major employer of BAME people. The NHS workforce race equality standard, based on a staff survey of every NHS trust in the country, found that BAME staff are generally less likely than white staff to believe that their employer provides equal opportunities for career progression or promotion.