BT aims to make its workforce more diverse

BT has planned to increase the ratio of its non-white workforce two-fold from current levels by 2030 to reflect its diverse customer base.

About nine per cent of the telecom company’s employees are from non-white backgrounds.

However, it said improving diversity is a challenging task, according to The Times.

BT’s chief executive Philip Jansen said at a manifesto event in London that the company should reflect the society in which it is operating and the customer base it serves, although the diversity and inclusivity targets are “really hard”.

While the company is undergoing modernisation and restructuring, the size of its workforce shrank by 9000 to about 100,000 over the two years to March last year. Its number of sites too has come down by 90 per cent from 300 to 30.

It plans to achieve a 50 per cent gender split in its workforce by 2030.

In addition to making its workplace more diverse, the company also targets to achieve net-zero emission by the end of the decade.

According to Jansen, it is not just “a sustainability plan, it’s an agenda for growth and commercial success that recognises that we will only succeed if we help solve some of the problems faced by the societies and customers we serve”.