Diversity bonuses

Financial incentives should be provided for employers who increase the diversity of their workforce, according to a senior business figure.

Managing director of health and beauty retailer Boots, Alex Gourlay, said in an interview with Personnel Today that the recently drafted Equality Bill was not enough and monetary rewards must be offered to motivate business leaders.

One way such incentives could be offered was through tax breaks, Gourlay suggested.

He said that, rather than penalising companies that fail to recruit with an eye to diversity - giving them "a cross in the box" - the government should introduce positive forms of persuasion.

Sandra Kerr, director of Race for Opportunity, supported the proposal but said the financial incentives would have to be thought out carefully.

She warned of the danger of talking companies into hiring people they did not necessarily want or who they did not believe were good fits for their business.

The draft Equality Bill, presented last week, requires public sector employers and private firms going for state contracts to publish diversity figures.

The legislation also gives employment tribunals more power to act in discrimination cases and allows employers legally to choose minority job candidates over equally qualified majority candidates.

The Government Equalities Office did tell Personnel Today that financial incentives would not be part of the bill.

Source: Personnel Today