Collecting data beyond visible characteristics of race or gender fosters feelings of acceptance among diverse communities, according to the Financial Conduct Authority’s Sheldon Mills, who spoke candidly about his own experiences of being Black, Queer and Welsh at work.
Mills, the FCA’s executive director of consumers and competition, (pictured) revealed that early in his career an attempt to improve awareness of diverse employees was rejected out of hand.
Speaking at the Association of British Insurers (ABI) Diversity Equity and Inclusion Summit, he highlighted that more than a decade on the regulator found less than a fifth of large financial services firms collect data on the socioeconomic background of their staff.
Mills explained that some firms exemplified best practice by holding sessions with staff to explain to them what data they were collecting data on diversity, why they were collecting it, how they were going to use it and how they were going measure the data collected.
“There are invisible characteristics,” Mills said.
“We know that diversity extends far beyond what is visible. And it’s important that firms consider how much more they can learn, how much more progress they can make if they broaden the data they collect.”
Mills who revealed he is Black, Queer and from Cardiff, also spoke about an experience as a young lawyer where he approached a senior partner about collecting data across the firm on the sexual orientation of staff.
“I remember going into his office and saying to him, we need to collect data around sexual orientation and he said to me ‘why do I want I want to know what you do in the bedroom?’
“I said, well, that’s not what it is. I said, that’s my identity and that’s my life and I’m not represented if you won’t collect that data.
“It’s important. That was over 10 years ago. It took a long time for that firm to collect that data.
“Once they collected that data, I promise you that when people didn’t give their data that they still felt safer because they knew that data was being collected because their identity was present and accepted in the firm.”