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10 | NOVEMBER 2020 | UTILITY WEEK Diversity Analysis Who do you think we are? The utilities sector lags most others when it comes to BAME representation, and efforts to redress the situation are hampered by a lack of data on the diversity of staff, finds Adam John. T he utilities sector has repeatedly com- mitted to becoming more diverse and companies are keen to claim they are doing their bit to create a more inclusive workforce. However, concerns have been raised that most are not collecting the data on the ethnic make-up of their workforce. With no starting point, how can the industry ever know if it has reached its destination? Utility companies lag other sectors when it comes to diversity, according to the rep- resentative Office for National Statistics' Labour Force Survey, January-December 2018. It found that of the 572,000 people employed by the sector and its supply chain, just 5 per cent identify as BAME (black, Asian and minority ethnic) compared with a 12 per cent average for other sectors. It is also overwhelmingly male – just 17 per cent identify as female compared with the 47 per cent average of other sectors. Yet despite numerous recruitment initia- tives to drive better diversity, many compa- nies simply do not have the most complete information about the ethnic makeup of their workforce, with most relying on their employees to volunteer the data themselves. Stephen Heidari-Robinson, founder and managing director of consultancy Quartz Associates, is the former energy and water policy adviser to David Cameron. He believes diversity is not being taken seriously as a business issue. For Heidari-Robinson, the key to greater diversity is better data and tracking the ethnic background of people companies are recruiting. He says: "Ethnic diversity is an even worse situation than gender diversity because I haven't yet seen in any standard HR database people actually gathering and retaining the information of what ethnic group employees are. "You are not able to analyse who's doing well in promoting ethnic diversity in the same way you can on gender. When I raise that with people they say it's 'sensitive infor- mation'. Is gender not sensitive? Is pay not sensitive? They keep all that information in their HR database. Unless you are collect- ing these details, how are you going to know how you are doing? "What does not work is if you instantly try to go from zero to a workforce that matches the entire UK population. You could start