How to speak up and get help: advice for leaders

Ensure your team is aware of the whistleblowing or speak up policy for your organisation, so they know all avenues available to them to speak up about any issues surrounding race that are impacting their ability to do their job. This could be your country's NHS, or helplines such as Speak Up Direct and Protect.

Read through the Acas website or helpline if you have questions about how to handle racial discrimination, employment rights and resolving workplace conflict - including what to do if a member of your team reports an incident to you.

Ensure you have read your region's anti-discrimination legislation, so you are aware of how you and your team are legally protected from unlawful discrimination, harassment and victimisation on the grounds of race. This will be the Equality Act 2010 for England, Wales, and Scotland, the Race Relations Order 1997 for Northern Ireland, the Prevention of Discrimination Ordinance 2022 for Guernsey, the Discrimination Law 2013 for Jersey, and the Equality Act 2017 for the Isle of Man.

Ensure all members of your team receive training on how to put the guidance on zero tolerance into practice - so everyone knows how to respond to an incident and protect their colleagues. This could also include how to contact security and the police, as well as taking legal action.

Create an action plan for advancing race equity in your team. Start by finding out who looks after EDI initiatives in your organisation and talk to them about what a good action plan could look like. Identify 3-5 key objectives to focus on (such as eliminating racist incidents and/or ensuring fair and unbiased promotion and progression processes are in place) and measure progress against them. Communicate the action plan clearly to your whole team and involve them in the interventions and actions.

Take time to talk - regularly! Keep having conversations with your team about race. The more you can talk openly about the challenges people face and the opportunities to go further, the closer we will all get to creating an equitable place to work. Keep the dialogue open, and find ways to build conversations and sessions into everyone's daily lives.