Anti-bias schemes ‘a waste’

FIRMS are wasting millions of pounds a year on programmes to tackle racial bias that will never help Black and minority ethnic staff break through the glass ceiling, campaigners have claimed.

Such schemes are doomed to failure because humans are hard-wired to be biased, according to the DiverseCity think tank.

And because this prejudice is unconscious, no amount of education can ever fully prevent it from reoccurring.

Think-tank founder Buki Mosaku said the lack of Black and ethnic minority staff on the boards of Britain’s biggest companies only underlines the failure of traditional approaches to tackling prejudice.

He said anti-bias training is “well intentioned but inherently flawed”.

Rather than trying to prevent bias occurring, the key is for white and ethnic minority staff to challenge it as and when it happens, he added.