Diversity & Inclusion

Our Renewed Commitment to Diversity & Inclusion Allyship at Jackson Barnes Recruitment

The world is not the same place it was just four months ago. It’s been collectively, incredibly painful to navigate a pandemic; realise the very present threat of ongoing systemic racism and the constant obstacles faced by minorities like LGBTQ+ people. But with all the fear and debate that’s characterised the first half of 2020, we must ask, hasn’t all the adversity we’ve endured brought us to a better place in terms of societal awareness? Hasn’t it highlighted priorities and the need for change?

As the Black Lives Matter spotlight enveloped the business arena, so it squarely placed emphasis on the role of recruitment. Recruitment has seemingly been a process of “selecting the best person for the job”. And while yes this is important, it is overshadowed by the difficult realisation that minorities have been suppressed for centuries and that recruitment has to play a role in breaking the chains of systemic racism and unconscious bias.

Having engaged with my network consistently over the last few months and listening, I soon realised that as a business Jackson Barnes Recruitment has a responsibility to consciously and publicly evolve the way we approach Diversity & Inclusion (D&I).

Through this blog post, we make a commitment to play our role in actively and authentically bringing an end to unconscious bias, prejudice and inequality in the recruitment industry.

We have acquired the services and advice of our friends in minority groups including Black Asian Minority Ethnicities (BAME) and LGBTQ+, to help us develop a fair and practical approach to recruitment.

We commit to:

• Identifying opportunities to enhance the efficacy of our D&I policy to educate and permeate the internal structure and client-facing activities of Jackson Barnes Recruitment.
• With every client, asking them directly what their D&I activities include. In the instance of a lack of awareness and focus on D&I, providing recommendations which include A) Rectifying previous practices which equate to disenfranchisement of minorities, including ethnic, disability, religion, LGBTQ+ and gender. And, B) Providing them with resources and recommendations like the formation of ERGs which will help them to improve their policies around D&I.
• Attracting diverse candidates through continuous championing of D&I as an essential component of modern business, through all our channels and engagements.
• Identifying minority candidates in the applications we receive, going as far as to ask: “Do you identify in any minority?”, so, that we can offer support and guidance in the form of empathetic and transparent consultation, while identifying and addressing any concern pertaining to D&I.
• Providing employers with a diverse spectrum of candidates as far as possible, to ensure employers have the opportunity to hire candidates with D&I front of mind during the hiring process.
• Disassociating with organisations and entities where prejudice of any kind is shown to exist and addressing aggressively the implications and severity of such unethical narratives and activity.

Jackson Barnes Recruitment will be part of the change we so desperately need in our society. We are unwavering in our commitment to playing a leading role in the transformation of the recruitment space.

We hope this message rings true for our community and that we all realise that silence is as bad as prejudice.

Thank you to our partners in the BAME and LGBTQ+ community for helping us craft this commitment.

For more information or to discuss please contact Helen Yarrow, Founding Director of Jackson Barnes Recruitment on 0203 488 2620 or email helen@jbrecruitment.co.uk