Race Equality Week 2025

Race Equality Week is an important UK campaign that serves to address the barriers to race equality in the workplace. Throughout the week, organisations, businesses, and individuals are encouraged to take part in anti-racist practices to raise awareness, educate and promote the initiative.

When is it happening?

Race Equality Week will take place from Monday 3^rd to Sunday 9^th February 2025 and this year’s theme is #EveryActionCounts.

Why is this an important event?

Unfortunately, racism is still very much an issue in today’s society, with recent data showing that two in five Global Majority colleagues experience racism in some capacity in the workplace. This can take many forms, including racist jokes, ‘banter’, remarks, stereotyping, comments on appearance, and/or bullying and harassment. 

Whilst it is recognised that none of the above are acceptable, research shows that many individuals choose not to report incidents through fear that they won’t be taken seriously, or they will damage their career or working relationships. 

Institutional racism is a further issue which can put individuals at a disadvantage because of their ethnic or cultural background when it comes to performance reviews, disciplinary procedures and promotion opportunities. Raising awareness of this issue will, therefore, help organisations to call this out and eradicate it from their workplace. 

While the new Labour Government aim to tackle workplace harassment and race equality via the introduction of employer 3^rd party liability and ethnicity pay gap reporting, there is still much work to be done. This event, therefore, gives all businesses (regardless of their size) the opportunity address barriers to race equality in the UK.

What can your workplace do to celebrate?

• Spread word about the event; this can be as simple as sending out an email to raise awareness or displaying posters around the office.
• Take part in the 5-day Race Equality Week Challenge; this is a series of 5-minute bitesize activities throughout the week which aim to educate and raise awareness of race equality in the workplace. Ready to go, downloadable PDFs for each day can be accessed via: 2025 – Project Manager Guide | 5-Day Challenge – Race Equality Matters
• Remind your staff of your Dignity at Work and Equality, Diversity and Inclusion policies, ensuring that these clearly set out your zero tolerance to racism or any other form of discrimination in the workplace. 
• Share educational resources such as newsletters and podcasts with your workforce. 
• Encourage conversations about anti-racism within the workplace. Perhaps, make a point to raise this in your daily/weekly huddles/meetings and share tips on how staff can contribute to an inclusive culture. This could be something as simple as stressing the importance of pronouncing names correctly.
• Organise anti-racism training and webinars for your team. Race Equality Matters (REM) will be hosting three Zoom events throughout the week.
• Consider rolling out the Inclusion Allies Training Programme across your business; this is a 4-week programme which combines self-paced activities, group learning and hands-on exercises to help organisations embed inclusive workplace cultures. 

Please do not hesitate to contact one of our trusted advisors for further information.