Progress On Race At Work Charter Commitments

Over five years since first signing up to Business in the Community’s Race at Work Charter, we remain fully committed to upholding its principles and continuing to embed an inclusive approach within Irwin Mitchell.

Our Diversity, Equity & Inclusion (DEI) plan has evolved over the last year to reprioritise our aims and take an action-focused approach. Key pillars of this new plan include ‘Inclusive and Visible Leadership’ and ‘Inclusive Culture’, which directly correlate with the commitments of the Charter.

Our recent progress includes:

1. Appoint an Executive Sponsor for race.

Richard Allen (Chief Financial and Operations Officer) has recently been appointed our new executive sponsor for race and ethnicity. Richard took part in the anti-racism leadership training that we provided and is also acting as a mentor in our recently launched reciprocal mentoring programme, which is specifically for minority ethnic colleagues.

2. Capture ethnicity data and publicise progress.

We voluntarily publish our ethnicity pay gap data as part of our annual Pay Gap Report and have done so for four years now. Additionally, we report on our ethnicity data as part of our Solicitors Regulation Authority diversity data report, as well as in our annual Responsible Business Report. Both are available to be viewed on our website.

Internally, our diversity dashboard provides insights into representation and people process outcomes using colleague data which allows us to measure progress against our metrics for improvement. We regularly encourage colleagues to share their data with us so we’re able to build an accurate picture of our workforce and therefore where we may need to focus our attention.

3. Commit at board level to zero tolerance of harassment and bullying.

Our EDI and Bullying and Harassment policies have both been significantly updated recently and are reviewed annually. They reinforce our zero-tolerance commitment as well as including new recommendations from the Solicitors Regulation Authority. This includes creating a line manager guide to sit alongside the Bullying and Harassment policy, to support line managers to implement it effectively and understand their responsibilities.

Our Board reviewed and approved the changes made to the policies and will play a role in holding other leaders and managers accountable to upholding it.

4. Make clear that supporting equality in the workplace is the responsibility of all leaders and managers.

All Partners and colleagues must undertake mandatory training on DEI when they join the organisation. In addition, we have e-learning modules focused on ‘Allyship’ and ‘Inclusive Leadership’. Our line manager hub houses numerous resources to support colleagues with management responsibilities to foster inclusive environments within their teams.

In summer 2023, we delivered a series of anti-racism training sessions for our senior leadership team, facilitated by an external DEI expert. Over fifty leaders attended these sessions, which focused on awareness of bias, cultural competency, and leading diverse teams.

Inclusive and visible leadership is one of the key pillars of our DEI plan, as we recognise the role that leaders must play in embedding positive change.

5. Take action that supports ethnic minority career progression.

Following a pilot with our faith, race and ethnicity network, IM Respect, in 2022, we have relaunched our reciprocal mentoring programme aimed at minority ethnic colleagues. The programme pairs senior leaders with more junior minority ethnic colleagues, with twin goals of increasing cultural competency and awareness amongst leaders, whilst simultaneously providing career support and development to minority ethnic colleagues. We will be comprehensively evaluating this programme following its conclusion in 2025, with a view to expanding it to other internal diversity network groups in its next iteration. We have seen excellent buy-in from leaders to this programme, with multiple members of our Board acting as mentors, as well as Partners and other business leaders.

Additionally, in March 2025, we began an inclusive recruitment review focusing on our selection process, including how candidates are supported through the process, guidance and criteria given to hiring managers, and process mapping. Delivered by an external D&I consultancy, this will result in a full report and set of recommendations on how we can mitigate or eliminate bias and provide additional objectivity to the process.

6. Support race inclusion allies in the workplace.

Our faith, race and ethnicity network, IM Respect, is open to colleagues from all ethnic backgrounds and actively encourages allies to join. Our reciprocal mentoring programme provides leaders with the opportunity to increase their awareness of barriers to minority ethnic colleagues and use their influence to advocate for change.

Additionally, we regularly host internal events aimed at supporting allyship, featuring both external speakers and colleague experiences. Our intranet and learning hub also host multiple resources to support colleagues to support one another such as guides on inclusive language, colleague stories, and links to external hubs from expert organisations we partner with.

Finally, in October 2024 we launched a comms series highlighting Black colleagues in our Life at Irwin Mitchell campaign, which features videos dedicated to exploring the reality of working at Irwin Mitchell and the experiences of diverse colleagues. To celebrate Black History Month, we recorded and published videos featuring Black colleagues discussing their heritage, thoughts on talking about race in the workplace, and the role that businesses and individuals have in creating positive change. As part of this campaign, we also highlighted the individual story of Partner and joint head of our Public Law and Human Rights department, Angela Jackman KC (Hon), as a way of celebrating role models.

7. Include Black, Asian, Mixed Race and other ethnically diverse-led enterprise owners in supply chain

We actively monitor our supplier base using diversity related questions so that we can track representation of ethnically diverse-led enterprises. This allows us to reflect on areas for improvements and identify opportunities to increase representation, including by exploring external networks and memberships. Additionally, our Supplier Code of Conduct also upholds the behaviours and values that we expect of our suppliers, which includes a commitment to fairness and inclusivity in their own supply chains.