Race recruitment and retention - an instigation for change: action plan

Recruitment and Representation

Minority ethnic employees are represented at all levels and in all areas, particularly within senior levels and management structures.

Though increasing, the proportion of minority ethnic employees in Scottish Government as a whole or at SCS still isn’t representative of the wider working age Scottish population. 

Minority ethnic colleagues told us that the current recruitment process presents structural barriers and recycles the same Scottish Government / United Kingdom Government ‘type’, preventing new ways of thinking from coming in. And while increasing in diversity is an important outcome for minority ethnic colleagues, they’re not seeing it translate into action around them. 

We believe firmly that a diverse organisation performs better and makes better decisions for the people of Scotland. We also believe that it is a driver for recruiting the best talent. So the Plan will focus on increasing the overall proportion of minority ethnic employees and representation at all levels, including emphasis on the Senior Civil Service. We know that this will mean understanding the systemic barriers in our recruitment processes and developing a strategy which advances our diversity ambitions. And we will support managers to take effective action to increase race diversity in recruitment. 

Only a small proportion of minority ethnic respondents who joined the organisation in the last 4 years agreed that strong diversity and inclusion messaging featured in their recruitment (16.7%) induction (13.9%) experience. 

"Our protocol of always recruiting internally first, doesn’t help – means we are recruiting from the same non-diverse pool instead of bringing in external talent and more diversity."

Focus Group Participant