Black graduates suffer racial injustice at work

Report calls for companies to offer more support to Black graduate employees

Senior managers at top graduate recruiters need to do more to drive cultural change in their organisations, the Institute of Student Employers has said. 

According to a survey of Black graduates, efforts to recruit young Black people are failing to have an impact on racial injustice at work—with respondents highlighting the challenge of moving to predominantly white workplaces from relatively diverse university environments.
 
The research, which also drew on in-depth interviews, found that Black employees were unprepared for the “explicit and covert racism”, non-inclusive environments and poor representation of Black people in senior positions in the workplace. Respondents also reported having to work harder to be successful.
 
The report found that while most employers recognised Black graduates face additional challenges in the labour market, and many had implemented dedicated recruitment processes to address this, there was little support once hired.