Creating fairer workplaces
Supporting employers to take practical steps towards fair and inclusive employment.
Building on that learning, EPAN brings together employers to share practical approaches to positive action and inclusive recruitment, supporting organisations to reflect, learn, and strengthen their workplace practices.
It provides a critical space for employers to learn from one another, hear from guest speakers, and explore what works in creating fairer workplaces across sectors such as construction, technology, utility and finance. Employers include those from:
Moving On Up was ARE’s flagship employment programme, running for ten years and working with employers and partners to address racial inequalities in access to good jobs for young Black men in London.
The programme concluded in 2024, leaving a legacy of learning, employer engagement and practical insight that continues through the Employer Positive Action Network.
The EPAN is open to employers across England who want to strengthen workplace practice through shared learning and guest speakers.
Online meetings run every six weeks (Friday mornings, one hour).
Championing Positive Action
A Positive Action Champion is a named representative within an organisation who takes part in the Employer Positive Action Network (EPAN) and helps drive learning and action on inclusive recruitment and progression.
Champions act as a point of connection between their organisation and the network, supporting the application of positive action principles and sharing learning from the network back into their workplace.
Being a member of the Moving on Up Employer Champions Group is a demonstration of HS2’s commitment to creating tangible pathways into employment on the programme for people from local communities and diverse groups. To build the best railway in the best way while creating a sustainable legacy, we need the best talent and that includes young Black men who we want to see better represented across our workforce.
Ambrose Quarshie
Employer Positive Action Network member,
Skills Manager at HS2
What does a Positive Action Champion do?
- Actively promotes inclusive recruitment practices within their organisation, helping to embed positive action principles into recruitment and progression processes.
- Uses and shares practical tools and guidance, including ARE and the Mayor of London’s Inclusive Employers Toolkit, to support more inclusive recruitment practice.
- Raises awareness of workforce inclusion initiatives and learning across their organisation and, where relevant, their supply chain, drawing on insight and resources developed through ARE and partners such as the Workforce Integration Network (WIN).
- Supports internal engagement and representation, encouraging discussion about race equity and the progression of young Black men within the organisation, informed by learning from EPAN and wider employer practice.
- Ensures your organisation shows public support to diversify and inclusion by sharing ethnicity workforce data.
To find out more about Employer Positive Action Network, contact Chief Executive, Jeremy Crook OBE
The Mayor’s Inclusive Employers Toolkit
ARE through Moving on Up was commissioned by the Greater London Authority to produce the Inclusive Employers Toolkit. This is a step-by-step guide to help companies increase the recruitment, retention and progression of young Black men within their workforces.
The toolkit is for use by senior leaders and recruitment staff within companies in the construction and digital technology industries, and their suppliers. It will equip you with practical tools and examples of good practice from these sectors.
This guide, that supports people through interviews, is a great first step in a journey to more inclusive recruitment, and we are confident it will have a lasting impact when it forms part of a wider inclusive recruitment strategy.”
Zen Mumtaz, Socio-Economic Development Manager, Lendlease
