PRH updates on leadership target as diversity and inclusion report published

Penguin Random House UK has set a target to make its senior leadership team more representative of society with its inaugural diversity and inclusion report showing 95.8% of that team are white and more than a third went to independent or fee-paying schools.

The company now aims for its senior leadership to represent the diversity of UK society by 2026, as defined by the 2021 census, defining senior leadership as the “Top 160”, a group of around 160 people who are key decision makers, budget holders and people managers representing around 10% of its UK workforce.

In addition to its senior leadership target, the publisher has revealed its first dedicated diversity and inclusion report entitled "Books for Everyone", setting out an overview of its strategy, actions to date and priority areas of focus, together with 2020 data on new hires and author acquisitions. It also includes data for all employees and senior leadership for the first time across its 1,600 employees.

The company has worked with diversity consultant Brook Graham since September to review its progress and make recommendations. This includes establishing a new governance structure to ensure clear accountability for progress towards its inclusion goals.

A new inclusion action group will be created to lead the evolution of its strategy, chaired by c.e.o. Tom Weldon and including representatives from the company’s employee-led networks including the LGBTQIA network, Colour[full], PRH’s network for colleagues of colour, and AccessAbility for those with a disability.

This new ambition around senior leadership is in addition to existing goals for new hires and authors acquired to reflect UK society by 2023 as outlined in last year's accelerated inclusivity action plan. All goals will use the 2021 UK census data as a benchmark across ethnicity, sexual orientation, gender, socio-economic background and disability.

The 36-page diversity and inclusion report reflects on progress made so far, benchmarking data across the 2021 census, as well as highlighting the most critical areas where improvement is needed.

In terms of progress, PRH is hiring more people of colour and people from state schools than before. Around 12.3% of new hires in 2020 identified as Asian (versus 7.3% in 2019 and 7.5% in the UK census) and 6.4% of new hires in 2019 identified as Black (compared to 3.3% in the census, data for 2020 cannot be reported due to a small sample size). Around 81.5% of new hires in 2020 identified as white (versus 79.4% in 2019 and 86% in the census). The number of new hires who attended non-selective state schools also increased.

It is also publishing more Black writers, writers with a disability, and from state schools. The data shows 5.3% of authors acquired in 2020 identified as Black, a marked increase from 0.8% in 2019 and 3.3% in the UK census. Around 13.6% of authors acquired in 2020 said they had a disability, almost double that in 2019 (7%). The number of authors who attended non-selective state schools also increased.

PRH is also hoping to promote diversity and inclusion by introducing progressive policies around gender transition at work and menopause in the workplace, while equal parental leave has been in place for around two years. For gender transition this will include paid time off for medical procedures and other appointments as well as guidance for managers and other employees in a policy created in conjunction with Stonewall.

The most striking gap in diversity is at senior level, with this top tier lagging behind the rest of the organisation. Here, 5.6% of employees are Asian or Asian British compared to 7.5% in British society. Around 2.7% of PRH employees are Black or Black British, however there is no data available for the senior leadership level, meaning that five or fewer of the 160-strong tier are from this background. Looking at social mobility, more than a third (35%) of senior leadership went to an independent or fee-paying school compared to 13% of new hires last year. Only around 9% of the top level identified as disabled compared to 15% of new hires in 2020.

The report reads: “Our data shows a stark lack of representation at manager level and above for ethnicity, lower socio-economic background and disability. This is difficult to address quickly as we have low turnover rates in more senior positions in our company. We have defined a new senior leadership goal and are overhauling our recruitment and career development practices to help achieve this goal.”

“In support of the new 2026 senior leadership goal, a new mandatory recruitment and progression policy will be introduced, aiming to embed inclusive practices into day-to-day behaviour,” PRH said. “A dedicated role within the recruitment team to focus on senior hires has also been created. A senior editorial traineeship, open to candidates from under-represented backgrounds, will launch later this summer.”

PRH first identified the need to prioritise change in senior leadership in last year’s accelerated inclusivity action plan, saying: “We also need to focus urgently on representation at senior level. At entry level, 16% of employees identified as Black, Asian or minority ethnic. This decreases to 8% at manager level, 5% at senior manager level and 0% at leadership team level.”

Other areas identified as needing particular improvement include “company culture, which impacts retention of talent", PRH said. The report showed the idea of “belonging” resonated more with white employees than their non-white colleagues.

PRH’s recent work in this area includes training on “allyship in the workplace" and inclusive language which has been rolled out to the entire organisation from inclusion agency The Other Box. The publisher has also partnered with arts inclusion charity Creative Access to mentor 130 underrepresented individuals inside and outside the organisation.

The report also highlights a particular underrepresentation in both employees and authors for lower socio-economic background and disability. There is a lack of representation in more commercial genres in particular, although more diversity and inclusion across genres such as literary fiction and non-fiction. Representation of Asian authors also declined in 2020. There has also been some criticism of The Scheme, which offers traineeships for people from underrepresented backgrounds in publishing, as it does not focus on disability.

Weldon said: “For too many people and for too many years the publishing industry has been out of reach. While we have made some progress over the past few years, we have not addressed the core and systemic issues that exist within our company and across the wider industry, and indeed society, so change has not been fast enough or sufficiently wide-reaching.

“Alongside driving change within our workplace, we also need to do what we can in the wider world to address inequalities that might be preventing some communities engaging with books and reading in the first place.

“Change will take time, but we can and must make sure that the legacy we create for the next generation of publishers is an industry that feels, looks and sounds very different, because it represents and reflects the rich diversity of the UK.”