Following the killing of George Floyd in the US last May, many firms rushed to issue statements saying they are against racism.
According to Marisa Hall, co-head of the Thinking Ahead Institute, race has been considered a taboo subject in the industry.
“Many organisations have said, ‘We don’t look at colour when we recruit people.’ Because nobody really wanted to talk about race, the issue didn’t get addressed,” she told Funds Europe in our Global Industry report.
“We at the Thinking Ahead Institute believe organisations should become more colour-brave and spend more time recognising this aspect of individual identity as opposed to trying to erase it.”
She explained that many people said the statements on diversity issued by firms following the death of George Floyd were not enough. They wanted to know what companies were doing.
“Organisations were surprised because they thought they had great D&I [diversity and inclusion] policies. Since then, there has been a rise in more consciousness about different types of diversity.”
Since the summer, some asset managers have come up with targeted development programmes focused on ethnic minorities to look for talent.
Read the full report on diversity in asset management here: Diversity: Time to walk the talk on ethnic and socioeconomic diversity
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