Reflecting Modern Britain

I think it’s fair to say that historically, the Foreign Office has struggled to recruit staff from diverse backgrounds and has suffered from a perception of being elitist and detached. In fact, I remember the reaction of some members of my extended family when I told them in 2002 that I would be joining the Diplomatic Service. Some questioned my loyalties in going to work for our former ‘colonial masters’ and others wondered whether it was even allowed for someone of my background to represent the UK. They assumed that this was a career for white people and not for ‘us’.

The Foreign Office has made significant strides over the past ten years in promoting equal opportunities for individuals regardless of race, religion or gender but the success rates for Black and Minority Ethnic (BME) staff, in particular, have remained stubbornly difficult to shift.

I wanted to use this blog to tell you about a fantastic campaign that we’ve been running over the last year to tackle the recruitment and development of BME talent as part of our drive to make the FCO truly representative of modern Britain. This Campaign, strongly backed by our Management Board, wasn’t simply about statistics but about a long term change in the culture of the organisation using positive action not positive discrimination.

Why bother?

The FCO essentially has three main responsibilities: to safeguard the UK’s national security; to build the UK’s prosperity; and to safeguard our nationals overseas. We believe that a diverse Diplomatic Service gives us an advantage in each of these areas. People around the world admire us for our diversity, and our deep understanding of cultures gives us an unparalleled advantage over our competitors. I experienced this first hand during my posting to Uganda. I also think that our diversity helps to build cohesion within communities in the UK if people can see that there are ethnic minorities who are proud to be British and proud to represent Britain on the global stage.

The external part of the Campaign focussed on understanding young people’s perceptions of the FCO and encouraging more diverse applications to our graduate entry programme.

The centrepiece of this effort was a never-done-before university roadshow last October which took 55 members of staff including some of our most senior ambassadors to 28 universities over two weeks. The roadshow engaged with over 2,000 students of which 30% were from BME backgrounds, and a further 160,000 people through social media. The universities were specifically chosen because of their proactive approach to diversity and their strong academic results. They ranged geographically from Edinburgh Napier to Southampton. The roadshow was a huge success and received universally positive feedback from the attendees and from our own staff. Our presentations included a fantastic video which you can see below.

We also created a Youth Inspiration Group made up of young people from a diverse range of organisations to test our policy making and to act as our youth ambassadors. They recently presented to all of our Ambassadors on the skills that a diplomat would need in 2020. Needless to say that engaging with young people was high on the list!

The final part of the external strand was greater engagement with local schools and BME communities. A number of our staff have carried out school visits in their own time and we’ve now been featured on BBC Asian Network, The Voice and the Eastern Eye. There is a real recognition that we need to understand better why BME students are not pursuing a career in the Civil Service.

On the internal side, we have improved the talent pipeline into our senior management structure (SMS) through a dedicated leadership programme for BME staff on the cusp of making a breakthrough. This programme includes learning sets with a Board member on areas like personal impact and flexible leadership and a quarterly roundtable with Baroness Warsi on overcoming challenges and prejudices. We have also created a career development programme and a revamped mentoring scheme for our middle managers and more junior grades.

We recognise that there is still some way to go before we achieve our objective of a graduate intake which mirrors the BME graduate population (16%) and an SMS which reflects the BME working population in the UK (10.1%) but we’re getting there.

At least three of this year’s 32 successful candidates applied as a result of the roadshow and we have a much greater geographic spread of candidates than in the recent past. Whilst many of the roadshow attendees were in their first or second years, it was pleasing to see that after our presentations, 77% of BME students said that they would apply to the FCO compared with 28% before. In a follow up survey, six months after the roadshow, 91% of BME students said that they would be applying to the FCO.

I am delighted that the FCO Management Board has agreed to support the Campaign for at least a further 18 months and I’m proud that our efforts are being recognised more widely. Sir Simon Fraser, our Permanent Under-Secretary, is now the Civil Service diversity champion and our Campaign has been shortlisted for the recruiting diverse talent category in the prestigious Race for Opportunity Awards. We’re keeping our fingers crossed for a positive outcome in September! We have also been awarded a Business in the Community Big Tick which recognises our responsible business practices.

Of course, the real measure of our success will be in how we look to the outside world. Do we look like an organisation that truly represents the UK? Not yet but we’re on the right path.

I know that Malaysian Prime Minister Najib was surprised during Baroness Warsi’s recent call on him by the diversity of her team. With the exception of the High Commissioner, every other member of her delegation was from an ethnic minority background. This, she said, was the face of modern Britain.

If you would like to know more about the FCO or are interested in working for us, please do get in touch using the comment box below or by tweeting @nikmehta33 or @FCOCareers. The application window for this year’s graduate entry scheme will run from early September to the end of October. You can also follow our outreach efforts on our dedicated blog page. We would love to hear from you.