SMEs fail in diversity

SMEs are failing to address ethnic diversity in the workplace, according to new research.

More than three quarters of SMEs have a workforce which includes less than ten per cent of people from a black or minority ethnic (BME) background.

The report also revealed that 90 per cent of workers admit that less than one in ten among their management staff were BME.

A total of 35 per cent admitted to having no BME managers at all.

A small proportion had a sense of the ethnic constitution of their customers, meanwhile.

Some 300 workers were interviewed for the research, which was carried out by the Policy
Research Institute on Ageing and Ethnicity (PRIAE).

PRIAE director Naina Patel commented: "It's essentially a matter of improving SMEs' education and implementing a step change in their actions".

Only 35 per cent agreed that diversity could improve the productivity of their business, however.

But one Blackburn-based entrepreneur, Mark Molnar, found his firm benefited from employing Asian staff with the introduction of a new range of Indian sweets.

© Adfero Ltd
Date:10/04/2007 16:58:22