Sky unveils 20% BAME target by 2025 as part of diversity push

Comcast-owned Sky in the UK and Ireland has set a target to ensure that 20% of roles in its workforce should be filled by those from a Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic background by 2025.

Sky added that 5% of the roles in Sky’s UK & Ireland workforce should be filled by Black employees, while the same target has been set for the top 300 senior execs across the company’s leadership team.

That means that by 2025, Sky’s leadership team will be 5% Black, and 20% Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic overall. The leadership team is currently 1% Black and 9% Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic. Among Sky’s UK & Ireland employees who disclose their ethnicity, Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic representation is currently 14.7% and Black representation is 2.7%.

Teams within Sky will also be set specific targets based on the demographics of where they are based, their colleague attrition and professional pipeline. Progress against the targets will be measured annually and reported in Sky’s Bigger Picture Impact Report. Executives will be expected to build targets into ‘leadership objectives’.

The developments follow the pay TV operator’s announcement last year that it was committing to improve its approach to diversity and inclusion. This included a promise to spend £10m ($15m) a year across its markets for each of the next three years to improve representation and progression of minority groups.

As part of that initiative, the company said it would set targets to improve ethnic diversity and representation throughout the organisation, resulting in the action above.

Stephen van Rooyen, EVP & CEO UK & Europe for Sky, said: “Last year we said Sky could, and should, do more to improve diversity and inclusion in our own business, and to support the fight against racial injustice. Over the last few months, we’ve been listening to all our colleagues and today we’re making some ambitious commitments around representation at Sky.

“There is clear evidence that businesses with greater cultural and ethnic diversity perform better. Getting this right will enable us to make better business decisions; develop better content on screen, see more innovation off screen and improve diversity and inclusion across the industry.”

Deborah Williams, executive director at the Creative Diversity Network, added: “Data from CDN’s Race and Ethnicity Report: A Deep Dive into Diamond Data, which was published in October last year, shone a light on the inequality off-screen in the UK television industry, particularly at senior, decision-making levels. We therefore very much welcome and support Sky’s new innovative Black, Asian and ethnic minority targets, especially for its leadership team.”